Repotting aloe

So, we’re giving away our aloe pupps and repotting the mother. But mama’s got a long, bare stem and she’s all twisted around. I’m wondering, should I bury her up to the leaves in a deep pot, or should I cut her off and reroot her? I’m not sure if this is the result of a couple years of cutting the bottom leaves or a lack of light. Could be both I suppose!

I would not bury the stem up to the green leaves,
the stem was where originaly it had green leaves too, so it' s a stem not a root.

personally, i would not cut off the stem and let it create new roots,
but plant it in a bigger pot, and maybe support it so it stands up a bit more straight.
i think it would set the plant back, and make it grow slower.

it seems to me the pot was too shallow,  but i am myself still in the proces of figuring that out with an aloe i care for.
the oposite leaves remind me of too little light and the laying down of the plant too.
i am experimenting now with having a plant outside with more light
that's only since i have that oportunity now, before i had to work with the little light i had in my house.

Good luck!

A lot of succulents are happy to root from any bit of stem or leaf that's buried in soil.  They do it slow, but they do it.  Reasoning from that, I have repotted several aloes with too-long stems by putting them in a deeper pot and burying all the extra stem.  I haven't dug them up to see if they throw out roots from the stem, but I've never had one fail when I did that.  Life is too short for me to coddle tall, floppy aloes.

Cool Dan,

i learn something now.
I thought the stem would start rotting when you water them.

thanks

How I water my aloes may factor in.  Basically, if they are outside, I never do.  The rains we get don't seem to be enough to cause rot, although the leaves do sometimes get quite plump and fat with surplus water.

When they are inside for the winter, I water only a few times, and generally then quite sparsely (a cup or two poured into the drip tray under the pot).  

I thought this was an interesting question so I marked it and then did some online search and waited for those with experience to answer. From the examples I found I think it could be temporarily repotted  with the long stem half buried on the surface. It would probably produce pups again at the roots and new roots at the base of the leaves. Then you could severe the long stem and remove it.

Thank you all for the input! I ended up cutting the plant into 3 sections: top, bare stem and roots. I repotted them all separately in hopes of turning 1 leggy, twisted aloe into 3 healthy aloes.

Hi @Brody Ekberg I'm kinda in the same boat with an aloe I was given. So wondering how this worked out for you and if you have any suggestions?

June Ioerger wrote:Hi @Brody Ekberg I'm kinda in the same boat with an aloe I was given. So wondering how this worked out for you and if you have any suggestions?

It worked flawlessly for me! All of the sections are alive and well. The roots sprouted 2 new tops, the top has grown so much that I cant distinguish it from the other aloes we have, and even the stem section that had no roots or leaves has sprouted 2 new pups. I was amazed at how well it worked.