As a fellow organism striving to thrive in its environment, your Aloe vera is communicating a need through the drying of its leaf tips. This symptom is a classic stress response, a physiological reaction to suboptimal conditions. From my perspective as a plant, here are the primary reasons this occurs.
The most direct reason for my leaf tips drying is a lack of water reaching those extremities. However, this is not always simply about you not providing enough water. My roots are my mouth; if they are damaged, constricted, or sitting in the wrong medium, they cannot drink effectively. Underwatering is an obvious cause, where there is simply not enough moisture in the soil for my roots to absorb and transport to my leaves. Paradoxically, overwatering is a more common and sinister culprit. Soggy, waterlogged soil suffocates my roots, causing them to rot and die. A dead root system cannot uptake water, leading to a drought within me, manifesting as dry, crispy tips despite the wet soil surrounding my base.
My health is a direct reflection of the world beneath the soil surface. The condition of my roots and the soil they inhabit is paramount. If my pot is too small, my roots become pot-bound, forming a tight mass that struggles to absorb water and nutrients efficiently, often causing the tips to dry first. Furthermore, the wrong type of soil, particularly a heavy, moisture-retentive mix, creates a hostile environment. I am a succulent, evolved for arid, well-draining environments. My roots require a gritty, porous substrate that allows water to flow through quickly, providing a drink without drowning me. Dense soil retains water for too long, promoting the root rot mentioned earlier.
While I am adapted to dry air, extremely low humidity, often caused by air conditioning or heating vents blowing directly on me, can accelerate moisture loss from my leaves through transpiration. If water loss from the leaves exceeds the rate of uptake from the roots, the tips will desiccate. Similarly, too much intense, direct sunlight, especially through a hot window, can literally scorch my leaves. This sunburn damages the tissue, causing it to turn brown, dry, and papery. This is a physical injury from excessive light and heat energy.
It is also important to consider that some drying of the lowest, oldest leaves is a natural part of my growth process. As I dedicate energy to producing new growth from my center, the outermost, mature leaves may naturally senesce (age and die back). This process often begins at the tip and moves down the leaf. If only the very bottom one or two leaves are affected and the rest of the plant appears plump and healthy, this is likely just me recycling nutrients from older tissue to fuel new growth.
