Agave: features of growing indoor plants

Agave - unpretentious and convenient to grow a plant. Care for him is easy, but a number of basic rules you need to know.

Agave Description

In nature, there are up to 300 species of agave, and in the culture they use American varieties of this plant. This flower has a gray-green or bluish-green fleshy leaves. In some varieties, they are decorated with yellowish or white stripes. Like most succulents, the stem of an agave is short, undeveloped, therefore it is practically not visible.The leaves of the plant are large, gathered in a rosette and covered with a waxy bloom, and at the edges are decorated with sharp spines, the longest of which is located on the tips. The plant agave in natural conditions grows to huge sizes - 4-5 m in diameter. At home, its size is much smaller - dwarf species can grow up to 3-4 cm. This type of plant belongs to long-livers and can live 50-100 years.

In the natural habitat of the agave during the flowering period (as a rule, it occurs at the age of 15-20 years), the peduncle with a height of 3-10 m appears. Multiple (up to 15,000 pieces) flowers of a yellowish shade are collected from him with small tassels in inflorescence. After the agave ceases to bloom, its fruits form, and the plant itself dies, leaving young shoots budding from the rhizomes. At home, agave blooms extremely rarely.

Conditions for successful growth, where to place the agave

This succulent, like the rest of the plants in this group, is a rather unpretentious culture and it is pleasant to deal with it - it is undemanding to the soil and tolerates drought perfectly. However, if you decide to grow an agave, you should learn about the intricacies of caring for it at home.

Lighting for agave

The agave prefers bright places and feels great on the sunny window, on the south side - the plant does not tolerate dark areas. However, on hot days you need to make sure that water does not fall on the leaves - this can cause burns. In the penumbra and on the windowsills on the north side, the agave may slowly languish, but this is not immediately noticeable. Due to the lack of light in winter, the agave is drawn out, and its leaves shrink (if properly illuminated, the leaves sit on the stem tightly hugging each other).

Air temperature and humidity

Agave, both wild and as a houseplant, perfectly adapts to any temperature regime. Therefore, in the summer it can be taken out onto the street or balcony. If it is impossible to “walk” the agave, then it is often necessary to air the room in which the plant is located. Thanks to this procedure, any temperature drops will not cause any harm to the plant. Due to its nature, agave feels good at +18 ° C, and the optimum temperature is + 22- + 28 ° C.

Agave does not make any special claims to the humidity of the air - it feels excellent when the humidity is low (40%) and does not need to be increased.

How to plant an agave plant reproduction

If you remember where agave grows in the wild (on poor sandy and stony soils), then before planting you need to take care of the appropriate soil mixture. The best option - a mixture of humus, coarse sand, leaf and sod land (ratio - 1: 0.5: 1: 2).

You can use ready-made soils:

• for yucca;
• for palm;
• for dracaena.

Experienced florists and avid flower growers believe that the top layer of soil where a flower such as agave grows should consist of large brick chips, which will increase the drainage function of the substrate. As a container, for agave choose wide and low ceramic pots with holes in the bottom. The bottom layer (2-3 cm) should consist of small pebbles or gravel.

Breed agave room can be seeds or shoots.

Seed planting

This method of reproduction can not be called the best, since the plants obtained from seeds develop slowly. For growing it is necessary at the end of winter to place the seeds in wet sand to a depth of 1 cm. The container is then covered with a film or glass. The temperature should be maintained between 20-25 ° C. In 5-7 days, shoots will appear. 15-20 days after the first leaf appears, the second leaf begins to grow, another 20 days later the third, and after 2 weeks the agave will be 8 cm high and 15 cm in diameter. Then the third root of the plant grows, and after another 20 days a fourth leaf will appear and a rosette will be formed.

Reproduction cuttings rhizomes

Room agave flower can be grown from cuttings, for which they are cut at the base during transplantation.

After cutting, the cuttings are dried for 2-3 hours. To accelerate growth, you can sprinkle the cut with crushed charcoal. Plant prepared cuttings need to be prepared in the prepared soil (sand), then pour (water should be at room temperature). In the first year of life, a young plant throws up to six leaves, in the second - up to nine, and in the third - up to twelve.

How to grow agave from root and stem offspring

The houseplant agave can multiply by lateral and root suckers, transplantation and further care of which is also not difficult. When the children appear, they are carefully separated with a sharp blade, dried during the day and placed in a separate container with the mixture prepared in advance. Cover and spray the sapling is not necessary. The first watering should be no earlier than 3 days. And before the rooting of the flower to water it must be extremely rare.

Caring for agave at home

As with any plant, home care for an agave consists of proper lighting, watering and feeding. In addition, agave needs regular cleansing of leaves from dust - its layer disrupts the process of photosynthesis and interferes with the normal functioning of the life processes of the plant. Many prefer to grow at home unpretentious plants. And those who love succulents will be happy to grow agave, although this plant is not a cactus (in the traditional sense), it does not matter at all,whether there is regular watering or not.

The easiest way to care for these types of agave:

• whitish;
• nitrous
• victoria royal

Proper watering agave

Watering agave should be moderate:

• 1-2 times in ten days during the growing season (before watering, the top layer should be dry, but not dry);
• in the cold season, the plant is watered once a month.

It is impossible to spray agave, since water entering the outlet center may cause rot.

Feeding agave

Knowledge of how to properly care for an agave will be incomplete without taking into account the rules of plant nutrition. In feeding, agave needs a period of its active growth in the summer. Recommend to feed 2 times a month. To do this, choose fertilizers with a low nitrogen content. Ideal special mixes for succulents.

When you need a transplant and how to transplant an agave

Young plants should be transplanted annually, and adults - once in 2-3 years or when the capacity becomes small for them. After the sprouts of the agave, which were cultivated by the seed method, grow up a little, they are transplanted into separate containers 6 cm in diameter (8 cm in a year), and the next care should follow the above scheme. When transplanting the root collar can not be buried, it is better to leave above the surface. The earth around the transplanted flower is not compacted, but fixed on the rosette with stones - this way oxygen will flow more freely to the roots.

Major Agave Diseases and Pests

Agave is rarely affected by diseases, therefore we will not pay much attention to their description. The most important thing - the plant is sick only with the wrong care or conditions. Agave is most often affected by thrips and scutes. If you find these pests, wash the leaves of the plant with a solution of alcohol, soap, beer or boric acid. This procedure is repeated every 4-5 days, until complete disposal of pests.In case of severe infection, insecticides should be used. If the lower leaves of a cactus or agave turned yellow (like foliage on autumn trees), then you need to take care of it especially: reduce the volume and frequency of watering. Here, in principle, all the simple rules that will help grow such an exotic flower as agave at home.