I recently had a chance to "help" a friend whose kitchen-windowsill Aloe Vera plant had vastly outgrown its tiny pot and sent up three daughter plants to
boot. I took some pots to their house, raked up some wonderful soil from under their ten-year accumulation of leaves by the side of their house, and repotted the the mother plant while setting the three daughter plants in their own pots. In the end my friend only wanted one of the daughter plants because the mother was "too big for my kitchen now". So I came away with one ancient plant, two young plants ... and at least a dozen huge leaves that we trimmed from the mother plant so that it would fit sensibly in the larger-but-not-ridiculously-large pot we put it in.
In my climate Aloe Vera must necessarily be a house plant, which I want for its first-aid pain-relief properties on minor burns. I don't have much room for houseplants, and one small Aloe Vera will do. But my sister wants the big one, so it has a home. And I am wondering whether it's possible to
root all these extra leaves now that I've let them dry and become calloused on the cut ends. I'm sure I could find a good home for extra plants if I had them.
I've consulted the internet. Ten zillion sites say you can't root cut aloe vera leaves at all. Another fifteen zillion sites says you can just bury the calloused leaves about 1/3 of their length in dry, only-faintly-damp soil and they will root. Maybe two zillion sites suggest that rooting hormone will help. And NOBODY that I found was showing any pictures of the process or of successful Aloe Vera plants started that way.
I need first-hand reports. Have you done it? Did you see your friend do it? Do you know a site on the internet that says it can be done in a voice persuasively suggesting that the person talking actually did it, as opposed to reading that it could be done somewhere else on the internet?
Let me know what you know, please. Thanks!