Friday 6 September 2013

Update on propagation experiment

One of the more drastic methods to propagate agaves is called coring.  This involves damaging the growth tip forcing it to produce multiple heads.  There are several methods, the most common being to cut the growth point out, or to cut the plant in half. I have always wanted to try it, but never had a suitable plant until this summer.  Then along came this agave filifera, with very lopsided variegation.


It was starting to distort and didn't look great, so seemed a suitable subject.  The top was cut out and the variegated leaves removed.  A first attempt was never going to go 100% smoothly, but the actual coring could have gone better Too much was taken out leaving only a few leaves.


The photo above was take after a few weeks. Already new plants are forming.  A month or so later and it is starting to become clear that one has good variegation and the other less so.


A few weeks after that and they are really starting to take form.  The variegated one looks really good, with the other looking almost pure green.  There are also a couple of small ones starting to form in the middle.


More of a long term project this one, by the end of next summer the full results should be in. If nothing else at least there is one good variegated plant. I would be willing to try it again, taking a little more care with the cutting this time.

6 comments:

  1. Nice series of photos showing the results of coring. I've done this on haworthias before but often I only get one new growing point instead of the three or four I'm hoping for. Still, you have to give these techniques a try, because every now and then they work beautifully. The new agave offset does look very nice at this stage.

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    1. Thanks. I agree, sometimes is is more about trying things out, than expecting results. Fingers crossed the new variegated pup continues to look good.

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  2. That variegated one looks fantastic. Coring just the right amount appears to be the trick. A drunken teenager appeared to figure this trick out easily by running his car into my neighbor's A. attenuata, which is now sprouting a dozen new rosettes from the Toyota-cored center.

    My experiment with the A. desmetianas is still a question--they've been slow to grow because of the heat we've gotten.

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    1. Not going to let my OH see this, she'll be driving the car over plants saying it is to help with the propagation.

      Looking forward to seeing an update on yours once there is more growth.

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  3. Very cool coring. Do you have any updates? Also I was wondering how many pups usually form when you core an agave? Does it depend on the species too?

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    1. Thanks, There hasn't been much change over winter, but will do an update once they get going in spring. This is my first time trying it, but I the pictures I have seen range in number. Think it is more technique than species that would make the difference.

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