Aloe barbadensis Miller
Whole leaf aloe vera, freeze dried into a soluble powder
It goes in the water. Use it as a soak for seeds and clones, and as a drench or foliar through veg. One teaspoon per gallon, one ounce makes 10 to 25 gallons, and it dissolves in a minute of stirring.
Rind, inner skin, and gel all go in, which is why it is dark rather than clear. We were the first to put aloe in front of home growers as a finished product, and we have been selling and teaching it for over a decade.
One thing to be clear about. This is not a fertilizer. There is no guaranteed analysis on the bag and it does not replace your soil or your amendments. It runs alongside what you are already doing.
Rates
How much to use
We recommend aloe from seedlings and clones through veg. Some growers keep using it in flower, which is fine, but we have no evidence it helps at that stage so we do not tell you to.
| Use | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Clone soak | 1 tsp per 16 oz of water | Concentrated on purpose. Soak cuttings 4 to 12 hours before sticking them, 24 hours at the outside. If you are not ready to plug them, swap them into clean water until you are. This is how we run it. |
| Seed soak | 1 tsp per gallon | Soak 4 to 12 hours before planting. |
| Drench or foliar | 1 tsp per gallon | Seedling through veg. The standard working rate for hand watering and sprayers. |
| Batch mixing | 100 g per 33 gallons | For mixing by weight into a tank or tote. |
| Large batch | 1 kg per 330 gallons | Same ratio, scaled up. |
| Field, per acre | 100 g per 33 gallons | Covers one acre as a foliar application. |
The 1 ounce bag looks small when it lands on your porch. Aloe leaf is about 99 percent water, and freeze drying takes all of that out, so what is left in the bag is the solids from a lot of leaf. Spray foliar in the morning, before plants are in full sun, and stir before each use since the solids settle.
The proof
We test this ourselves, and we publish what comes back
Spectrum Analytic ran a heavy metal panel on our aloe, and everything came back low. Arsenic, cobalt, and selenium were below detection at under 0.01 mg/kg, cadmium at 0.01, lead at 4.5, and mercury under 0.2. Separate proton NMR work confirmed the whole leaf markers and found no maltodextrin, no added preservatives, and almost none of the compounds that show up when aloe degrades.
See the full lab panel
Alongside our own heavy metal testing, Process NMR Associates ran proton NMR on this material. NMR is useful here because it sees everything in the sample at once, which means it shows what is missing as clearly as what is present. Aloe powder is a category with real adulteration problems, so the empty column matters as much as the numbers.
Confirmed present
Weight percent of the powder
Looked for, not found
Adulterants, preservatives, and degradation
Proton NMR, Process NMR Associates. Report prepared by John C. Edwards, PhD, reviewed by Paul Giammatteo, PhD. Lactic acid was present at 0.62 percent and acetic acid at 0.18 percent.
Those breakdown compounds in the right column are what shows up when aloe sits after cutting. Finding almost none of them is the closest thing there is to a preservation record.
Why whole leaf, and why it is dark
An aloe leaf is three things. An outer rind, a yellow inner skin just beneath it, and the clear gel in the middle. Anthraquinones and anthrones concentrate in that yellow inner layer.
Aloe headed for food and beverage goes through decolorization, which strips those compounds out because of the laxative effect. What is left is the clear inner gel you see in a drink. This powder skips that step and keeps the whole leaf, which is why it is dark rather than clear.
The isocitrate and isocitrate lactone in the lab panel are the whole leaf markers. They are how a lab tells whole leaf material apart from filleted gel.
Why not just use the aloe plant on your windowsill
You can, and it is free, and that is not nothing. Plenty of growers have done it for years and gotten results. If you want to cut a leaf and blend it into your watering can, go ahead.
What you give up is repeatability. One leaf of unknown age from one plant in one set of conditions, used once, with no way to reproduce it next month. A grocery store fillet is further off, because it was cut some unknown number of weeks ago and has been degrading since, and it is inner fillet only with the rest already discarded.
This is the same plant at a known concentration, from mature field grown leaf, whole, with lab work behind it. One teaspoon per gallon, the same every time.
Where this came from
We learned this way of growing from Clackamas Coot. He was teaching people to put aloe in the watering can back when almost nobody was, and that is what sent us looking for the best aloe we could find rather than the most convenient one.
What we found traces back to a tomato farm next to an aloe farm. The aloe farm had waste material to get rid of, the tomato farm put it in the ground, and their tomatoes came in better than anything they had grown.
That observation is what led to work on aloe as an agricultural input rather than a human product, and to the finding that the useful material was in the whole leaf rather than the filleted gel. All of that early work was aimed at commercial agriculture, at field crops and orchards.
Bringing it to home growers is where we came in. We were the first to sell it as a finished product for the watering can rather than for a hundred acre spray program, and we have been selling and teaching it for over a decade. Everything on this page comes out of running it here, in our own garden, at the rates we publish.
Where it fits in a living soil garden
Aloe is not the engine of your garden. The soil is. This is something you add to the water on top of a soil that is already built and already being fed. If your plants are struggling and the soil has never been amended, start there and come back to this.
Feed the soil
Dry amendments top dressed into the soil, which is what actually feeds the plant.
Craft BlendFor how much of what and when, run your garden through the BuildASoil feed schedule calculator, or read The Complete System.
Lab documentation
If you need any of this for a compliance file, email support@buildasoil.com.
See how we publish lab work across the catalog on our batch testing page.
Common questions
The bag is tiny. Did I get the right amount?
Yes. Aloe leaf is about 99 percent water. Freeze drying removes all of it, so what you are holding is almost entirely solids, and the volume in your hand is not a useful measure of how far it goes. One ounce makes 10 to 25 gallons at one teaspoon per gallon.
Can I use more than a teaspoon per gallon?
For a drench or foliar, there is no advantage to it. The one place we go stronger is the clone soak at 1 tsp per 16 oz, and that solution is for soaking cuttings, not for watering.
Will it dissolve in cold water?
It will, though it takes a minute or two of stirring. Give it time before you assume it is not going into solution, and stir again before each use since solids settle.
Can I use it in flower?
Growers do, and there is no problem with it. We recommend it from seedlings and clones through veg because that is where we are confident in it. We are not going to claim a flower benefit we cannot back up.
What if I am not ready to plug my clones?
Twenty four hours in the soak is the outside limit, and it is not the end of the world if you hit it. If you need more time than that, move the cuttings into clean water and hold them there until you are ready.
Anything to know about handling the powder?
Try not to work with the raw powder bare handed more than you need to, and wash up afterward. Whole leaf aloe carries aloin, which has a laxative effect in concentrated form. Once it is mixed into your water it is a non issue. It is for plants, not for drinking.
Does this replace my nutrients?
No. It carries no guaranteed analysis and it is not a fertilizer. Keep feeding your soil and your plants the way you already are, and run aloe alongside that.
Start with one ounce
Rated 5.0 from 460 ratings, and 96 percent of reviewers say they would recommend it. One ounce runs a lot of clones and a lot of watering cans. Size up when you know how much you use.
Choose your sizeAloe barbadensis Miller
Whole leaf aloe vera, freeze dried into a soluble powder
It goes in the water. Use it as a soak for seeds and clones, and as a drench or foliar through veg. One teaspoon per gallon, one ounce makes 10 to 25 gallons, and it dissolves in a minute of stirring.
Rind, inner skin, and gel all go in, which is why it is dark rather than clear. We were the first to put aloe in front of home growers as a finished product, and we have been selling and teaching it for over a decade.
One thing to be clear about. This is not a fertilizer. There is no guaranteed analysis on the bag and it does not replace your soil or your amendments. It runs alongside what you are already doing.
Rates
How much to use
We recommend aloe from seedlings and clones through veg. Some growers keep using it in flower, which is fine, but we have no evidence it helps at that stage so we do not tell you to.
| Use | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Clone soak | 1 tsp per 16 oz of water | Concentrated on purpose. Soak cuttings 4 to 12 hours before sticking them, 24 hours at the outside. If you are not ready to plug them, swap them into clean water until you are. This is how we run it. |
| Seed soak | 1 tsp per gallon | Soak 4 to 12 hours before planting. |
| Drench or foliar | 1 tsp per gallon | Seedling through veg. The standard working rate for hand watering and sprayers. |
| Batch mixing | 100 g per 33 gallons | For mixing by weight into a tank or tote. |
| Large batch | 1 kg per 330 gallons | Same ratio, scaled up. |
| Field, per acre | 100 g per 33 gallons | Covers one acre as a foliar application. |
The 1 ounce bag looks small when it lands on your porch. Aloe leaf is about 99 percent water, and freeze drying takes all of that out, so what is left in the bag is the solids from a lot of leaf. Spray foliar in the morning, before plants are in full sun, and stir before each use since the solids settle.
The proof
We test this ourselves, and we publish what comes back
Spectrum Analytic ran a heavy metal panel on our aloe, and everything came back low. Arsenic, cobalt, and selenium were below detection at under 0.01 mg/kg, cadmium at 0.01, lead at 4.5, and mercury under 0.2. Separate proton NMR work confirmed the whole leaf markers and found no maltodextrin, no added preservatives, and almost none of the compounds that show up when aloe degrades.
See the full lab panel
Alongside our own heavy metal testing, Process NMR Associates ran proton NMR on this material. NMR is useful here because it sees everything in the sample at once, which means it shows what is missing as clearly as what is present. Aloe powder is a category with real adulteration problems, so the empty column matters as much as the numbers.
Confirmed present
Weight percent of the powder
Looked for, not found
Adulterants, preservatives, and degradation
Proton NMR, Process NMR Associates. Report prepared by John C. Edwards, PhD, reviewed by Paul Giammatteo, PhD. Lactic acid was present at 0.62 percent and acetic acid at 0.18 percent.
Those breakdown compounds in the right column are what shows up when aloe sits after cutting. Finding almost none of them is the closest thing there is to a preservation record.
Why whole leaf, and why it is dark
An aloe leaf is three things. An outer rind, a yellow inner skin just beneath it, and the clear gel in the middle. Anthraquinones and anthrones concentrate in that yellow inner layer.
Aloe headed for food and beverage goes through decolorization, which strips those compounds out because of the laxative effect. What is left is the clear inner gel you see in a drink. This powder skips that step and keeps the whole leaf, which is why it is dark rather than clear.
The isocitrate and isocitrate lactone in the lab panel are the whole leaf markers. They are how a lab tells whole leaf material apart from filleted gel.
Why not just use the aloe plant on your windowsill
You can, and it is free, and that is not nothing. Plenty of growers have done it for years and gotten results. If you want to cut a leaf and blend it into your watering can, go ahead.
What you give up is repeatability. One leaf of unknown age from one plant in one set of conditions, used once, with no way to reproduce it next month. A grocery store fillet is further off, because it was cut some unknown number of weeks ago and has been degrading since, and it is inner fillet only with the rest already discarded.
This is the same plant at a known concentration, from mature field grown leaf, whole, with lab work behind it. One teaspoon per gallon, the same every time.
Where this came from
We learned this way of growing from Clackamas Coot. He was teaching people to put aloe in the watering can back when almost nobody was, and that is what sent us looking for the best aloe we could find rather than the most convenient one.
What we found traces back to a tomato farm next to an aloe farm. The aloe farm had waste material to get rid of, the tomato farm put it in the ground, and their tomatoes came in better than anything they had grown.
That observation is what led to work on aloe as an agricultural input rather than a human product, and to the finding that the useful material was in the whole leaf rather than the filleted gel. All of that early work was aimed at commercial agriculture, at field crops and orchards.
Bringing it to home growers is where we came in. We were the first to sell it as a finished product for the watering can rather than for a hundred acre spray program, and we have been selling and teaching it for over a decade. Everything on this page comes out of running it here, in our own garden, at the rates we publish.
Where it fits in a living soil garden
Aloe is not the engine of your garden. The soil is. This is something you add to the water on top of a soil that is already built and already being fed. If your plants are struggling and the soil has never been amended, start there and come back to this.
Feed the soil
Dry amendments top dressed into the soil, which is what actually feeds the plant.
Craft BlendFor how much of what and when, run your garden through the BuildASoil feed schedule calculator, or read The Complete System.
Lab documentation
If you need any of this for a compliance file, email support@buildasoil.com.
See how we publish lab work across the catalog on our batch testing page.
Common questions
The bag is tiny. Did I get the right amount?
Yes. Aloe leaf is about 99 percent water. Freeze drying removes all of it, so what you are holding is almost entirely solids, and the volume in your hand is not a useful measure of how far it goes. One ounce makes 10 to 25 gallons at one teaspoon per gallon.
Can I use more than a teaspoon per gallon?
For a drench or foliar, there is no advantage to it. The one place we go stronger is the clone soak at 1 tsp per 16 oz, and that solution is for soaking cuttings, not for watering.
Will it dissolve in cold water?
It will, though it takes a minute or two of stirring. Give it time before you assume it is not going into solution, and stir again before each use since solids settle.
Can I use it in flower?
Growers do, and there is no problem with it. We recommend it from seedlings and clones through veg because that is where we are confident in it. We are not going to claim a flower benefit we cannot back up.
What if I am not ready to plug my clones?
Twenty four hours in the soak is the outside limit, and it is not the end of the world if you hit it. If you need more time than that, move the cuttings into clean water and hold them there until you are ready.
Anything to know about handling the powder?
Try not to work with the raw powder bare handed more than you need to, and wash up afterward. Whole leaf aloe carries aloin, which has a laxative effect in concentrated form. Once it is mixed into your water it is a non issue. It is for plants, not for drinking.
Does this replace my nutrients?
No. It carries no guaranteed analysis and it is not a fertilizer. Keep feeding your soil and your plants the way you already are, and run aloe alongside that.
Start with one ounce
Rated 5.0 from 460 ratings, and 96 percent of reviewers say they would recommend it. One ounce runs a lot of clones and a lot of watering cans. Size up when you know how much you use.
Choose your size