agave

Need some assistance in dealing with a problem. Bought a large (2'6inches) during the winter and failed to water it resulting in the tips of the 'leaves' drying and yellowing.
Can anyone advise what I can do - I think that cutting back could cause the plant to look even more unsightly.

 

Chobart, I would suggest PM`ing Agaveman for advice.

 

If the tips are dry and shrivelled I dont think there is much chance of bringing them back to life.

They can be a difficult plant to grow well, and any damage that they sustain is long lived, so prevention is the best aproach.

 

David - who is Agaveman? New one on me...........
Doug

 

Hi, a few quesions.

What sort of Agave is it? Is it Agave Americana (which is the more typical one to see)

When you bought it did it go straight outside or was it kept in a greenhouse, i guess indoors from the comment about lack of water.

What sort of temperatures has it taken?

Americana can survive outside in much of the uk, but needs a very free draining position, idealy in a raised border with at least 50% gravel, Mine has a rain shelter for winter too to keep the wet and frosts off it and is looking good going into summer.

 

Hello Gaz and thanks for the response. The plant is Agave americana , it had to stay in the garage for some weeks hence ths dryness (moved house mid 2007 and have no greenhouse /conservatory where I could keep it).
Temperature has been relatively cool and I have now put it outside - not sure what compost it is in but there are one or two new shoots to the side of the main plant - would these be offsets or new leaves?
Thanks again..........Doug

 

I would keep it outside and pot grow, but to keep it looking good give it some srt of winter shelter - mine has a 'tent' built from canes and a sheet of plastic over it. To be honest thats probably overkill but it works.

It should be plenty hardy enough (Sunningdale is near Windsor isnt it?) where you are.

The shoots are probably pups which can be removed and will grow into new plants very easily. The new leaves form from the centre. Americana for me grows a reasonable number of new leaves and will soon look good.

One tip if you have children or clumsy visitors is to trim the end of each leaf off to remove the spike!.

 

Thanks a lot for the advice - should be OK now...........

 

Gaz, dont you find that by cutting off the tip spine on the leaves you tend to get die back.

I have a couple, more like a clump growing against the house wall where it gets a dry spot under the eves, I find pot culture difficult.
I also have a problem of leaf spot, which attacks yuccas as well.

 

Pete I only take off the last couple of mm, just enough to blunt the spike rather than cut into the fleshy part, i havent had any die back with them, just got fed up of being stabbed in the leg by one!!:p

The biggest problem i have is with snails which like to take a bit of the the surface of the leaf off. This can lead to brown blemishes/dieback within a leaf. The snails tend to know which is the more unusual of the agaves we have and ignore the americana, and just go for the rarer/more unusual ones - its like they know!!!:rolleyes:

I do like the looks of your clump, on our A. americana we tend to remove the pups and just keep the one main plant, always end up with loads of small plants to give away, as they will root very easily.

 

I did think of removing the offsets but I didn't want to disturb things too much, might even remove another paving slab and give it more space.
I like the natural look with most things.

Know what you mean about the snails, they tend to leave their mark on my aloes, just enough damage to ruin the look of the leaves.

I tend to look upon getting stabbed, spiked or hung up as a hazard that goes with the territory, although I can understand the problem where young kids are concerned.