Rooting aloe plicatilis cutting ??

[Terry S.]

Do not forget that Kumara (Aloe) plicatilis grows on the slopes of mountains near to Cape Town. As such, in the wild, it only receives rainfall during the winter months. As Topsy points out above, this results in both kumaras being winter-growers. I do not grow this species, but I grow a lot of other plants from that part of the World and my observation on them is that one is unlikely to see new roots until the weather (particularly night temperatures) gets cooler in the autumn. On this basis I would have thought that a heat pad would be detrimental to rooting, better to keep it as cool as possible.

[dalesmatt]

Thanks for that info Terry, good to know for me as I acquired a small plant of this earlier in the year but haven't researched it as yet.

[Aiko]

I treat my five year old plants grown from seed just as a I would with any other non-winter active specific African succulent. I water between March and October / November, and they grow quite fine, they are about to start developing the trunk at an height of about 15 centimeters. They also receive water during the warm winter months about once a week to once every two weeks. What they will not absorb, just evaporates in the heath.

[esp]

I've had A. plicatilis for 15 years in my front room SE facing bay window. I didn't realise for several years that it was a "winter" grower, and primarily watered it in summer. It used to have a generally cool winter rest (pre-double glazing). It stays rather warmer now.
I still give it plenty of water in the summer (less in winter) and it grows mostly in Summer (although it typically flowers in January). So i don't think it's unduly fussy. Maybe if I gave it a load of summer water in 30deg+ temperatures (which it's rarely, if ever, exposed to), then it may protest, but with moderate temperatures it seems to function well as an opportunistic grower.
The roots are growing quite actively at the moment. I treat A. dichotoma, A. ferox and A. tomentosa (my current "front room Aloes", after I sold Paul my A. broomii earlier in the year) the same as well, in spite of A. dichotoma also being a "winter" grower.
The term "winter grower" doesn't always give very useful guidance for UK cultivation - does it refer to an opportunistic grower that happens to come from a winter rainfall habitat, or does it mean "if it's very hot in summer and I've gone dormant, watering may kill me", or is it perhaps a lazy term for spring/autumn growers that are dormant in winter and summer in the UK, although possibly genuine winter growers in a mediterranean climate?

[Liz M]

I have two Aloe plicatilis and I have been told and have found that they are fairly tough. Both are kept inside in winter, at just above freezing and are given a little water from time to time. About April they come outside, in the sun and stay there all summer until late September, being watered quite generously. My only problem was going away in mid April and leaving one in the greenhouse, the other is in a shady, enclosed porch, where it got scorched the day before I came home. It had flowered in January, much to my surprise but not now, having read all the comments, both flowered the year before in early summer.