i know i can re pot the pups but what can I do about the 2 larger plants with the woody looking stems at the base?

@cindisc

You can cut to your heart's content. All those long, gangly ones can be cut back to the soil-line if you wish, trim the brown stems off, leaving only a couple of inches, and root those ready-made, large aloe. You'll then have a bunch of plants and a neater "mother" plant as well.

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Want to make sure, cut most of the woody stem roots and all, leave about two inches and replant that? Should I leave them out so it forms a callus? Thanks for previous reply.

I never bother with callusing, Cindi. They root readily. If you have a root or two along that woody stem, just leave it be and bury the stem so that the root(s) are covered. Keep the potting media moist to speed up rooting. Whether there are any roots already present is really immaterial though. It will root a bit quicker when there is already root(s) present.

Hello Cindi, if you can wait a bit for mid Spring, you can cut off the upper part to the point there is the brown portion, allow just to callus a bit, and then plant in a well draining media. You may also want to look at the condition of mommy plant at the base, if there are offsets, you can easily separate them, or leave them be for awhile. I would put the plant in part sun, to allow it to recover for a few days.

I always allow my succulents to callus before I repot, except if it is really warm already and the plant is in very active growth and roots are showing. But right now, your plant will just be about to return to its active growing phase, and will still want to generate roots, so allow callus time, so the injured part heals.

drdawg, My aloe is very old. Last year it started having brown spots on all the little branches. Is that bugs, or just old like me or is it a disease? If you know let me know. I love the plant without all the brown spots. cillay

@cillay, I am certainly no expert here, but I see those spots too on older leaves. I have never seen a single insect bother my aloe and don't think there is any disease going on either. My plants are all healthy. It could be an age situation, but don't know. You might want to just start new plants from pups. Aloe grows so vigorously, you'll have large plants in no time.