Aloe variegata (Pheasant breast) has 4 pups too (one is very tiny, hiding behind the stone).
Rina

This post was edited by rina_ on Sun, Mar 24, 13 at 2:15

Congrats! :)

Rina,

Wait until April at least before you do the separation. It would be a better time for them to grow on their own when ambient temps and light levels are higher.

Great job - they're happy plants.

Nice lucky you

Aloe grandidentata pup like crazy , especially when in a small pot. They pup non stop. I can not get my A variegata to pup EVER.

Thank you all; I think separation of grandidentata is necessary,they are squeezed there like sardines (will wait 'till end of April or May, Jeff).
Will see how fast variegata grows....Mara, these pups appeared after it flowered this January; I got it last June).

Rina

Very nice! I wish I could give good advice on Aloe variegata but I've killed about 4 of them, pups too:( I'm on my 5th, a big one that had a few pups when I bought it. Trying something new this time... more light! I would let those pups get to a good size before separating them but that's probably because I've had such poor luck.

Now, that A. grandidenta, if that's the same plant that grows on the hills around here, grows like a weed! There's a hillside by city hall that's completely covered with it. I grabbed a few pups from there and they've blown up and gone crazy! I would take Jeff's advice on waiting for it to warm up first, though... sounds logical. I wouldn't know.

My variegatas are much larger than yours and one even has 7 bloom stalks and the other has 5 inflorescens right now. They bloom every year but never pup.

I find A . variegatas most sensitive to moistures just after they bloom. I have killed one totally then and the next one lost all its roots to rot at that time but I was alerted to it and dragged it out of the soil to dry it out and cut off the rot and then was able to successfully rescue it. It has 7 bloom stalks on it now. If I get a rain event at this time of year, I pull it under the roof. It is also in a much grittier soil.

Ryan

I'll leave variegatas in the same pot, I would like to see more of them together & it seems to grow slower.
It must be so different when you can grow succulents outside (in ground).
Sometimes I think I am overreacting when my 'puny' (comparing to plants you can grow outside year round) sux in pot flowers or have pups...and they are so etoliated, and pale too.
Have just few months to keep them outside in proper sun/light.
I would love to see more than one bloom stalk at the time, Mara.

Rina

Thanks Mara, that's a good tip about it wanting to be dry after it flowers, especially since mine is blooming like crazy too. Also, that sounds likely since I never move anything when it rains... it either lives in the greenhouse or it doesn't.

Our spring rains can be mammoth and I just move it so it is under the eave for awhile. I also cut back on the watering schedule a bit during that time.

they do pup like crazy don`t they? I pull out the pups when they start crowding. Though I do have a couple of different aloes that I wait until they are climbing out of the pot to seperate, simply because there are so many of them that I have no idea what to do with them.

Mara, I know what you mean about the monsoon rains! I wish we had some right about now.

Aloes, kalanchoes and agaves are all starting to bloom.
Yeah!
Tally HO!

Well, we do not have the rain that you have on the coast, but man when we get it , watch out. I miss the good gully washers. It has been a long time. My A. grandidentatas are blooming nicely. I wonder if the confining the A. grandidentata make them pup more or if the reduced light of indoors growing triggers some aloes to pup more.

Mara

I have them under lights over winter (still not same as natural light I think), and it is in smallish pot - so maybe?
Rina

I have to keep most of my aloes on pots. A. grandidentata and a four other types are in the ground.