Why aloe vera turn brown

The best way to treat over-fertilized aloe plants is to wash the soil in order to drain out any excess fertilizer. Pests will cause your aloe plant to develop little brown spots. These can be caused by common garden pests like mites, flies, mealybugs and fungus gnats.

How you treat the pests may depend on what kind of infestation you have. Definitely, keep infected plants away from your other household plants to avoid spread.

Aloe plants can be susceptible to disease if the soil conditions are sub-optimal. These diseases include anthracnose disease , leaf spot and leaf blight. Damaged aloe vera leaves will also begin to wilt or brown. Damaged leaves can come from pet bites, bends, scratches or squishes. Damaged and browning leaves can either be removed or left to be callous. Looking for some other succulents to grow at home? Take a look at our succulent guide.

So, there you have it. Everything you need to know to identify why your aloe is turning brown and how to solve the issue. Quick response is always the best way to revive your aloe, so take action immediately when you see your aloe vera turning brown.

Mabel has enjoyed a long career as a horticulturist, working in nurseries and greenhouses for many years. Although she loves all plants, Mabel has developed a particular passion over the years for herb gardens and indoor plants. Mabel has since retired from her horticulture career and loves sharing her many years of experience with our audience here at Sumo Gardener.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Do you have aloe vera turning brown in your home? These stunning succulents are thick, cherubic leaves and, in the right conditions, grow big and beautiful. Avoid Overwatering Your Aloe Vera. How to Fix Overwatered Aloe Vera. How to Fix Underwatered Aloe Plants. How to Fix Drooping Aloe Plants. Aloe Vera Suffering from Sunburn.

How to Treat Aloe with Sunburn. So, you should water your aloe when the potting soil is almost completely dry during the summer months. Put them into a sterile potting soil that is barely moist because this will help dry out the plant to prevent further attacks on the roots. You can also use hydrogen peroxide to kill the root rot. Too much water is never good for this plant, and you should practice solid watering habits to keep it healthy.

Doing so will ensure that you keep the moisture levels correct in the soil to avoid bigger problems. Brown stalks could also be natural. New growth on the aloe plant with the older leaves starting to turn yellow is nothing to worry about.

You can cut the brown tips off your plant using a sterilized pruning shear or knife to help keep the plant healthy and green. The most common reason is improper watering. When you overwater your plant, the potting medium will start to stay damp all of the time to create excellent conditions for diseases and bacteria to thrive.

The disease will eventually progress to damage the roots, and this prevents it from absorbing enough nutrients. In turn, your plant will have a deficiency and yellowing of the leaves. Not watering your plant enough is also a problem. You have to figure out which is the main cause of the yellow leaves before you can treat it. Check the temperatures, lighting conditions, and nutritional supplements and see if any of these problems solve it. Aloe likes to have at least six hours of sunlight that is natural and bright every day to encourage healthy growth.

A lack of light will lead to a weak plant with creased or bent leaves that will continue to get weaker as time goes on. There are several solutions to this problem, including moving your potted plant to a brighter spot.

This is especially important during the cold, dark winter months to ensure they get enough light to thrive. Put your aloe near a sunny window and rotate the plant every two weeks to make sure that you get enough light for your plant on all sides. Suspend the bright lights between 6 and 12 inches above the plants for the best results.

When you expose your plant to chemical residues or grow it under a sappy plant, it would be sticky. Scales, mealybugs, and aphids can all make a home in your aloe plant and leave honeydew secretions on the leaves to create a film. Once you find out what is causing the stickiness, you can take the correct treatment measures. For example, if it comes from a chemical residual, you want to rinse it off using clean water. If the problem is pests or insects, treat it with neem oil or horticultural soap.

These are non-toxic, effective treatments. If the leaves get curly and thin, this tells you that the moisture levels are too low and the plants are dry. This will force your plants to use their liquids to stay nourished.

If the problem is not enough sunlight, move it to a space that gets at least six hours of indirect light a day. If the problem is not enough moisture, get your plant on a more consistent watering level to help ensure the soil keeps the moisture levels consistent. A floppy aloe vera plant can be due to several different reasons, including cold temperatures, fungal infections, poor watering practices, inadequate sunlight, or a shallow pot or container.

One of the chief causes of these fungal diseases are overwatering, which creates an excessively moist soil environment that favors the growth of fungi. The watering recommendations for aloe vera plants as well as potting and soil recommendations I discussed above will help prevent these diseases, which are often fatal to your plant. If all the requirements of your aloe vera plant are being met — enough light, quality soil, optimal watering, etc.

I recommend against fertilizing your aloe plants. If you do think it needs a little pick-me-up, you can add a half-strength succulent fertilizer once a year in the spring. But be sure to check whether your potting mix has any fertilizer already in its mix. Is the situation salvageable? You can try to flush the soil for several minutes with water to wash away as much as the fertilizer as possible and allow all the water to drain.

If you have pets, they too might damage your aloe plant by biting on the leaves or scratching the leaves. Usually, a callus forms over at the site of the injury, so the browning you see on the aloe leaves may be because of that. As you can see, there are several causes to why your aloe plant is turning brown.

The number one reason why an aloe plant is turning brown is watering. A wilting brown aloe is a symptom of overwatering. Furthermore, a plant with discoloring pucking leaves is too dry. The leaves indicate the moisture of aloe vera and they must always brandish a glossy green color. The solution is to repot the plant in a well-drained substrate and check for rot roots before replanting.

The brown color in the aloe plant turning brown is produced by the phenolic compounds that the plant synthesizes to protect itself from ultraviolet radiation 2. These compounds have their maximum absorption precisely in the ultraviolet region nm. That is, they are compounds that absorb this harmful type of radiation. After this, we can easily observe the aloe plant turning brown. All these issues can be easily solved as I explain below through a repotting process, change of substrate, installing the plant indoors and preventive measures to avoid in the future overwatering cases, as I explained also for the succulents in general in this article about overwatering succulents.

Nevertheless, despite other causes, we can consider that the number one issue for an aloe plant turning brown is overwatering. There can be other causes like a fungal disease, too much exposure to direct sunlight, and excess of salt in the soil. However, empirical evidence almost always shows normal salt content in the soil, no fungal diseases, but the excess of water and the exposure to direct sunlight.

The color of aloe vera should be mostly a glossy green color. Therefore, when you notice that your aloe plant is turning brown through observation, you can proceed to solve it as I explain to you step by step below now. The leaves of the aloe vera often turn brown in the blazing sun.

It is harmless and serves to protect against sunburn. Brown spots or brown tips on the leaves, on the other hand, indicate a lack of nutrients, a fungal disease, or care errors. This is a step by step solution for an aloe plant turning brown, It applies when the cause is overwatering, and when the cause is a specific composition in the substrate, as for example, an excess in salt.

It is possible to appreciate when a plant is healthy just by looking at it: the leaves should look green and the stems firm, unless it is in a phase of transformation, as a consequence of the arrival of a new season. If you notice your aloe plant turning brown simply follow our step by step indications explained above.

The best soil for Aloe Vera to avoid the plant to turn brown is one that is rich in nutrients and porous so it is advisable to add a little sand or perlite to achieve this purpose. The gritty mix I usually recommend for succulents is also feasible to use in these cases. It is also important that the plant lives in a soil with good drainage.

The reason is that aloe vera is not a plant resistant to moisture but needs a substrate that can evacuate the water so that it does not accumulate within the container and within the root ball.

In this sense, it helps to have a wide and shallow pot with a drainage hole. If you are looking for a pot for aloe vera , choose a wide and shallow container instead of small and deep vessels.