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How to Save a Aloe Plant with Yellow Leaves

Published By:anonymous Posted On:04/10/2023

Yellow aloe leaves can indicate the aloe’s roots are suffering from root rot because of overwatering and poor drainage. Aloe plants are drought resistant and need the potting soil to dry out between bouts of watering. Aloe leaves can also turn yellow due to too much direct sunlight.

To save an aloe with yellow leaves mimic the conditions of its native environment by reducing the watering frequency, repotting the aloe in gritty well draining soil and cut any yellow leaves back to the base with a sharp pair of pruners.

Keep reading to learn why the aloe is turning yellow and how to properly implement the solutions to save your plant…

Why Aloe Plants Turning Yellow, Soft and Mushy

  • Symptoms. Leaves turning yellow, with a translucent hue and a soft and mushy texture. Leaves also turn yellow and brown.
  • Causes. Root rot and leaf rot due to overwatering and poor drainage.

Aloe plants are native Africa and the Arabian Peninsula where they thrive in hot and dry climates, growing in gritty well draining soils that do not retain much moisture with low humidity.

To cope with these conditions, aloe plants have may adaptations to cope with drought, most notably by storing moisture in their thick fleshy leaves.

Due to the fact that aloe plants have specifically adapted to resistant drought, they do not tolerate damp conditions and are very susceptible to developing leaf or root rot which turns the leaves a translucent yellow with a soft mushy texture.

Ordinary potting soil retains too much moisture for aloe plant to tolerate and lacks the porous structure that allows excess water to drain away from the roots efficiently.

In addition to this watering aloe plants are adapted to a -deluge of rainfall followed by drought- cycle of watering and soil moisture.

If you water too frequently then the soil does not dry out between bouts of watering, promoting the conditions for root rot which turns the leaves yellow with a soft mushy texture and perhaps a drooping appearance.

How to Save Aloe Plants with Yellow Soft Leaves

To save a an aloe plant with yellow leaves it is important to replicate some of the conditions of its natural habitat by only watering when the potting soil has dried out completely and plant aloe’s in gritty well draining soil that allows water to drain away from the roots quickly.

  • Scale back the watering until the soil has dried out completely. There are several factors that affect exactly how often you should water an aloe plant such as the maturity of the plant, the size of the pot and the climate so it is difficult to give precise advice on how often to water aloe as can vary. However…

To establish the correct watering schedule for your potted aloe plant according to your conditions, feel the soil at the base of the pot through the drainage hole in the base. If feels damp then delay watering for a few days. If the soil feels dry then this is the perfect time for watering.

  • After you have let the aloe soil dry out for a few days, take the aloe out of the pot and inspect the roots. Healthy roots should feel firm and appear white (or somewhat brown due to discoloration form the soil), whereas diseased roots look brown, feel mushy and have an unpleasant smell.
  • Cut any diseased roots back with a sharp pair of pruners back to healthy growth to prevent the rot from spreading. Wipe the blades of the pruners after each cut with a cloth soaked in disinfectant to prevent spreading fungal pathogens from diseased roots to otherwise healthy tissue.
  • Once you have cut away the roots, remove any leaves that have turned yellow and brown/translucent by cutting them back to the base of the aloe with a sharp pruning tool to prevent the rotting areas spreading. The wounds should callous over in the next day or so.

If aloe leaves has turned yellow and soft it can sometime revive without cutting the leaves back if you address the environmental problems of overwatering and poor drainage, but I would always recommend cutting these rotting areas back as the have a propensity to spread.

  • Wash any excess soil away from around the roots (as the soil can harbor fungal pathogens that could reinfect your aloe) and repot your aloe. Wash the pot out with disinfectant as the pot can also carry the fungal pathogens.
  • Repot your aloe plant in special succulent and cacti soil. Specially formulated soil mimics the soil conditions of the aloe’s natural environment with a much more gritty, porous structure which promotes good drainage.

I must emphasize the importance of repotting your aloe in gritty soil in addition to a good watering schedule because even if you water your aloe plant less often, the soil can still retain moisture for longer then the drought adapted aloe plant can tolerate causing the leaves to turn yellow because of root rot.

Well draining, gritty potting mix for aloe plants to mitigate the risk of root rot.

(Read my article, best potting soil for aloe vera).

Always plant aloe plants in pots with drainage holes in the base and empty any saucers, trays or decorative outer pots of excess water regularly to prevent water pooling around the base and causing root rot.

(To learn how to water aloe plants at different times of year, read my article, how to water aloe vera).

Once you have repotting the aloe in new potting soil and scaled back the watering the aloe plant can grow new roots and recover.

Two more tips that help mitigate the risk of root rot pertaining to repotting are:

  • Repot the aloe into a terracotta or unglazed clay pot as they are porous which allows the potting soil to dry evenly. If you reduce the amount of time it takes fro the soil to dry evenly slightly then this can keep the aloe healthy and prevent the leaves from turning yellow. Plastic and ceramic pots are impermeable and therefore have the potential to retain moisture for longer.
  • Plant the aloe in a pot that is proportional to the size of the plant. A larger pot has greater capacity for soil and therefore a greater capacity to retain moisture. Repotting aloe plants in a pot that is similar in size or only and inch or 2 in diameter larger then the previous pot ensures that the potting soil dries out at a similar rate.

Aloe Plants Turning Yellow at the Tips of the Leaves

If you aloe is turning yellow at the tips then this indicates the aloe is in too much direct sunlight. Aloe plants prefer a few hours of sun but adapt to their lighting conditions.

If you have recently moved the aloe from indoors to outdoors then the contrast in the intensity of sunlight can cause a yellow/brown coloration to the tips as a sign of stress.

Aloe plants can tolerate several hours of direct sunlight (as they are adapted to desert environments) but they need time to acclimate to the increased light intensity.

If the light is suddenly significantly more intense (because you have just moved the pot to a sunny window sill or outdoors) the aloe does not have the time to acclimatize.

Whether the aloe plant’s tips recover and return to their green color depends on the severity of the stress from the sunlight, but they do often recover.

Move the aloe plant to an area of bright indirect light and sequentially expose the aloe to more sunlight over the course of two week (for example, move the pot to a sunnier location for 20 minutes longer each day before moving it back to the indirect light).

This allows the aloe to react to its surroundings and protect itself from harsh direct sunlight so it can stay green and healthy.

Key Takeaways:

  • Aloe leaves turn yellow and soft with a translucent hue because of too much water around the roots due to overwatering and poor drainage. Aloe plants are drought resistant plants that need gritty well draining soil and infrequent watering to prevent root rot turning the leaves yellow.
  • Cut back any leaves that are yellow and soft back to the base of the plant with a sharp pair or pruners to prevent the rot from spreading to healthy green leaves.
  • Aloe leaf tips turn yellow due to, too much direct sunlight. It is important to expose aloe to more light gradually so it has time to acclimatize rather then moving the pot into intense direct sunlight which can scorch the leaves.
  • To save an aloe with yellow leaves recreate the conditions of the aloe’s native environment by planting the aloe in gritty, well draining soil and only watering when the potting soil is dry. Cut back any yellow, soft, mushy leaves back to the base with pruners to prevent the rot from spreading to healthy green leaves.

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