Question
I have a huge 3 year old aloe vera plant. Recently it was falling over and I anchored it from the bottom of the plant. After a week or so this cut off circulation to the plant. I moved the anchoring higher, however I am worried about how the base leaves have been affected, whether I have permanently damaged my plant, and whether I should just cut off the trunk and start it rooting all over (which I've never done before).

The leaves on the bottom are bloated, which I thought was an inducation that they have stopped growing. Five or so from the bottom are so bloated that where they are connected to the stalk they're overflowing from ring of the leaf under it. A couple are getting one or two black spots. The rest of the 12 leaves at the top are healthy. I removed some of the boated leaves to give the leaves under them room to grow.  The trunk under the bottom most leaves, after I removed them, had some black, obviously rotted layers, but once removed is white and appears normal.  This seems to say to me that there are no more rotting layers, and the rest could still heal.

What is going on?     Is this rot?
Have I permanently compromised the circulation of my plant?
Can my plant recover?  Regain its circulation?
Does it just require patience and will heal on its own, or is there something I should do to prevent further damage to the majority healthy parts of the plant?

Thank you for your help!

Answer
Dear Sara,

See answers below:


What is going on? It is hard to tell without pictures, but Aloes lower leaves can get that way, especially when grown at home.

Is this rot? The black spotes, maybe. More commonly, an Aloe suffers from "crown rot" which affects the newest leaves. Once that happens, the plant is gone.

Have I permanently compromised the circulation of my plant? I don't think you affected the circulation of the plant. Plants don't have veins or arteries like we do, but they do need to bring moisture up from the roots.

Can my plant recover? As long as there is no crown rot, it should be fine.

Regain its circulation? Unless you physically crushed the trunk of the plant, it will be fine. If it was crushed, watch for signs that it has stopped growing. A succulent plant will die from the bottom up if its roots are damaged, same would happen from a damaged trunk.

Does it just require patience and will heal on its own, or is there something I should do to prevent further damage to the majority healthy parts of the plant? Aloes are very resiliant and it should be OK. Patience is the key with succulent plants. Good luck!

Sincerely,

Greg