Aloe marlothii

Discuss hardy cacti grown outside all year.
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cactuscoolcats
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Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2018 12:56 am
Location: Surf City, CA (Zone 10b)

Aloe marlothii

Post by cactuscoolcats »

The other day I went to my local nursery to ask some questions about a echeveria that was struggling in my yard. While browsing around afterwards, we came across this aloe that caught my girlfriend's eye since it totally looked like a Demogorgon. We bought this aloe and I did some quick goolging and found out that it grows pretty big. I didn't really realize exactly how big they can potentially get though. My plan was to let this thing grow in this big ole motherloving pot that I have used for smaller citrus trees. I've been trying to research their root structure, but I haven't really found anything about them. I'm just not sure if this pot will be okay for this thing or if the roots need to spread out wide and the pot is going to constrict them. I really don't have any available space to transplant it into the ground though. Does anyone have any experience with this aloe? Think it will be fine in this pot? Will it be tough as fugg to transplant later when it's all big? The house I'm living in right now I'm trying to structure into a rental property and I really don't want to leave any of my babies behind when I rent it out, so ideally I would like to keep this sucker potted until I get a place to truly call home and totally overgrow it with cool stuffs. For reference here's a photo of it in the photo next to my very average sized 9 moccasin.

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ElieEstephane
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Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2016 12:10 am
Location: Lebanon (zone 11a)

Re: Aloe marlothii

Post by ElieEstephane »

It will be quite happy in this pot if you get the watering right. However it will grow much faster in the ground since aloes have pretty big roots. Im not a big fan of very deep pots though. They take too long to dry out. But if the trichocereus in the other pot is happy, it should be fine.
Another plan would be to place it in the ground and pull it out when you move. Ideally you can make a raised bed of free draining soil for it and it will be so much easier to transplant this way
There are more cacti in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
One of the few cactus lovers in Lebanon (zone 11a) :mrgreen:
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greenknight
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Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:18 am
Location: SW Washington State zone 8b

Re: Aloe marlothii

Post by greenknight »

It should be fine for several years. Eventually it will outgrow the pot, but hopefully you'll be somewhere you can plant it in the ground by then. Looks like that's a glazed pot, it should slide out of it easily when it's time to plant it out. If it's too heavy, just lay it on its side by your planting hole, slip it out of the pot, and roll it into the hole. Or you could stand it on the soil surface (after stripping the area bare) and build a raised bed around it.
Spence :mrgreen:
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