A few days ago I moved some of the agaves taking almost permanent residence in the sun room out into the patio. I thought I better give them a break from being cooped up inside all the time and let it have a taste of fresh air and unfiltered sun.
Agave pedunculifera (?)
They've all done well actually from being taken indoors and staying in for months on end. Despite that I felt that they could do with a few days stint outdoors in the summer as I've also noticed that they were developing some 'permanently under glass' stress. Before things get worse I moved them out and this should do the trick and revitalise them.
Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor'
Under glass they were starting to dry out faster than I could give them water. Usually they are fine with the little dribbles but frequent watering I give them but they do suck up more during the growing season. Drenching was needed but as you can imagine that's a tricky thing to do in an indoor situation.Plus they were gathering dust, dirt, debris and they could do with a shower which will be possible and convenient to do if they are outside.
Agave weberi 'Arizona Star'
The most important reason though was that some of them were showing signs of scale infestation. I find succulents permanently under cover tend to be more prone to this pest. Outside I can treat and descale them before it even gets to full on infestation territory, and prime them back to a better condition, ready to be shifted back indoors later on.
Agave 'Cornelius'
Even the Agave weberi 'Arizona Star' in our kitchen is having time outside, but only for a couple of days
Since going outside I've been giving them lots of showers (by nature and me) and they are looking better for it. Not only do they look cleaner but their rootball will get thoroughly rehydrated too as I suspect they may have dried out a bit prior to their move outside.
Looking much more butch but even more bendy - Agave attenuata
Another thing that I needed to do was to sort out the two Agave attenuata by the doors. They've done reasonably well too but instead of growing upright they continued to grow on an acute lean. I like the fact that they are growing and gaining trunk length But I would have preferred if they grew upright, or at least a bit more upright.
They looked silly billy leaning like this
So what do now...
It rained really hard today which gave them a good shower!
Be brave and do what needed to be done. I chopped them both and repotted them by burying some of the existing trunk. They should re root and hopefully this will set them off to grow upright.
I had to cut off some of the lower leaves in the process and they look a lot smaller now (for obvious reasons). I'm still not sure whether I like the way they look now, more likely because I miss them looking stockier with a long trunk but I'll get used to it.They'll look for the better eventually by giving them this treatment now.
Convention says that you have to let the cut part callus first before repotting it but I just slashed and shoved it in fresh potting mix straight away. In Madeira they root Agave attenuata cuttings in buckets of water, not something you can do with other agaves. It's one of the agaves that are easy to re root and I've done this a few times, cut and shove into soil and they do just fine.
Touch wood, I hope these re root and re establish. If they don't and they rot and I'll let you all know and you can tell me off...
Mark :-)
