School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-15-2025
Abstract
The Aloe vera industry discards large amounts of outer leaf tissue (“shavings”), creating an opportunity to repurpose this byproduct as a sustainable fertilizer. This study evaluated whether aloe shavings can serve as a plant-based alternative to compost in organic Aloe vera production. A field trial in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas tested three treatments: aloe shavings (applied to supply 39 kg N ha−1), organic compost (39 kg N ha−1), and a non-fertilized control. Laboratory incubations further assessed nitrogen mineralization and microbial respiration. Aloe shavings significantly enhanced vegetative growth: leaf number increased from 5.7 to 12.3 leaves per plant (+115% over the season), and leaf length rose from 20 to 32 cm, with the greatest gains in September and March (p < 0.05). At harvest, plants receiving aloe shavings produced 456 g total leaf weight and 151 g gel weight per plant, compared to 375 g and 108 g in the control. Incubations showed initial nitrogen immobilization (negative mineralization) but subsequent slow release, while microbial respiration was higher in compost (2.3 mg CO2-C kg−1 day−1) than aloe shavings (1.4 mg CO2-C kg−1 day−1). These results highlight aloe shavings as a low-cost, slow-release organic amendment that reduces waste, supports circular economy practices, and enhances Aloe vera growth without mineral nitrogen addition.
Recommended Citation
Jaramillo, Isaiah E., Carine Cocco, James Jihoon Kang, Chu-Lin Cheng, and Engil Pereira. 2025. "Turning Waste into Fertilizer: Aloe vera Leaf Shavings Improve Plant Growth and Support Soil Fertility in Organic Systems" Soil Systems 9, no. 4: 113. https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems9040113
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Soil Systems
DOI
10.3390/soilsystems9040113
Comments
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).