How to Get Your Cactus to Flower

I'm going to share five tips on how to make an aloe vera flower. Now, I'm talking about the desert cactus species. As for random rainforest cacti, that's another article entirely. This article is about the desert cactus.

It should be noted up front that some desert cacti must be very mature before they will flower. If you have a dangerous type of aloe vera plant, it may never thrive in your home, or at least not until it gets too big.

5 tips for growing indoor aloe vera flowers

Provide plenty of sunlight.

Be sure to spend the winter.

Avoid over potting.

Use a high potassium fertilizer.

Wait for full maturity.

1. Provide plenty of sunlight.

The first clue is sunlight! Getting enough sunlight is crucial because aloe vera will not thrive in a dark corner or in the middle of a room.

This is ideal if you have a sunny window. Ideally a south facing window. Desert cacti love to get as much sun as possible, so this is your top priority. If you don't have a sunny spot and only have a north-facing window—one that doesn't get a lot of sun—I recommend installing LED grow lights to encourage flowering. Give LED grow lights can replace natural sunlight to provide the full photosynthesis these plants need to produce flowers.

2. Be sure to Overwinter

Another tip is to have more winters. Desert cacti need cool, dry winter rest to produce their flowers. If they are kept in a warm house during the winter and still watered regularly, they will continue to grow, which will prevent them from blooming the following spring. So a cool, dry period of rest is essential. Don't water them in the winter. This way, these plants can rest completely throughout the season to encourage blooming.

3. Avoid Over-Potting

The third tip is not to overdo it. Growing aloe vera in a large container is exciting. All of this will encourage the plant to produce more roots and growth instead of flowers. If your aloe vera is rooted a little—just a little bit—it will encourage more blooms. So, use a suitable pot for aloe vera and don't over water it.

4. Use a high potassium fertilizer.

The fourth tip is to add fertilizer. You may laugh when I tell you what I like to use - tomato feed is great for encouraging more blooms on your cacti. If you have a higher nitrogen feed, it will only encourage more growth and not necessarily more flowers. So a fertilizer high in potassium is a great tip to encourage more blooms.

I like to dilute the fertilizer to half the strength recommended for tomatoes. This is a great way to get more blooms on your aloe vera plant from spring through summer. Apply fertilizer only with every third watering.

5. Wait for Full Maturity

Finally, we have tip number five. As I mentioned at the beginning, there are some thistles that never flower in cultivation. If you have it indoors, tall aloe vera will not produce as many flowers.

For example, if you have a saguaro cactus in your living room, it can get plenty of sun and grow well. But it will never flower indoors until it reaches perhaps twenty feet in height. The same is true of some other tall cacti, and even some golden aloe vera that have to be very large and very mature before they flower.

So if you have a cactus and you're doing everything right - it's in a sunny window, you fertilize it, you don't water it too often - and it still isn't flowering, probably because it's still a little too small. . Perhaps it will eventually bloom, over many years.