To heavy for it's own good?

Hi
My M. geometrizans seems to be struggling somewhat at the moment due to the way it's growing, to the point that it's starting to form a kink in the main stem, so I'm wondering if it's worth taking a knife to some of the arms in an attempt to lessen the burden.
Both it and it's neighbour seem to be liking the spot they are planted in and with this wet and warm weather we are having they are growing like wildfire.


1/12/2010


Today.

Can see just how much the stem has started keeling over from the weight of the fat ofshot on the left side of the picture. The kink in the stem is forming right underneath that ofshot. So, any harm and what should I be cautious over, when it comes to lopping off probably that new ofshot to lessen the burden?

Hey Snowfella

If you wish to prune the branch off, there's nothing to it, I would just slice it off cleanly at the narrowest part of the joint. Other than being maybe a little cold-sensitive, M. geometrizans is a tough customer.

They also can get pretty woody at the join so you may need sheers or a small saw.

You'r not wrong about that! Not even the wife's serrated kitchen knife would go through it so I had to resort to the secateurs.
It's cut now though and the branch is tucked away dark and cool in the garage for later rooting. Lets hope the main stem straightens itself out and doesn't take any harm from having a branch cut off.

How quickly did the plant grow? I have heard A. Subulata can have similar problems if it puts on too much growth in a year.

Well, was planted in as a 15cm seedling with no branches around October 2009 and right now it's near 60cm tall and had 3 30 something cm branches and 2 10cm secondary branches.
If you look at the above photos it's put on about around 5 cm of growth in alittle over a month, just counting overall height now and not how much the branches themselves has grown.

Here's the earliest photo I have of it, taken June last year...so 7 months or so ago.

So 7 months ago the branch I just cut was just a 5cm nub, now it was 30 odd cm and with a diameter of a beer bottle at it's thickest.
The aloe is nowdays transplanted out into a big pot as it grew like wildfire and the 2 "flapjacks" will likely go next as they are branching like crazy and threathening to take over the whole space.

Wonder if it could be something about the spot and soil in that corner as everything we plant there just takes off like crazy, gets direct sunlight from just about sunrise to around 3pm and the flowerbed sits right ontop of a sewer pipe. Acctually have an access hatch to the sewer in that very flowerbed, just hidden underneath the pebbles.