Growing Agave Bulbils

One of the best qualities of Agave is their many forms of reproduction: seed, offsets and even ready made plant-lets (bulbils). Several of the Agave in our yard are putting up flower stalks as I write this - one of them started last Spring and was only just removed a week ago. Now I'm knee deep in bulbils.

By July a variegated Agave celsii in the backyard was in spectacular, full bloom and attracting all sorts of pollinators.

By early September of 2022 the flowers had been replaced by hundreds (thousands?) of bulbils

Not every Agave produces bulbils so I was pleasantly surprised to see them developing.

Over the next few months the stalk slowly fell sideways onto the shade cloth and rested there as if on a hammock. Yours truly was too lazy to do anything about it until November when the flower stalk of an Agave bovicornuta had grown enough to begin pushing the shade cloth skyward. That's right - one planting pushing the shade cloth down - the other pushing up.

Bulbils grew on the lower portion of the stalk but never developed the branching seen toward the top.

 

By early November I'd removed some of the bulbils and was growing them in a makeshift greenhouse.

In December I started a tray of bulbils in the grow tent which generally has a friendlier environment. After a few months they looked better than the ones I'd been growing in the (unheated) green house.

 

As of a few months ago several of the original batch had been transplanted into their own containers.

These have been doing ok but the unheated greenhouse has gotten as cold as 37F at night so their growth has been slower than those in the grow tent which seems to stay around 75F and humidity of ~ 65%.

 Here are some of the original batch which still have not been transplanted to individual containers.

Planting the "Grow Tent" bulbils turned out to be a chore since their roots had grown extensively and become entangled.

Unfortunately I don't have enough room to transplant all these at the moment (anyone out there leasing greenhouse space?!). I limited my self to transplanting a single tray of 4in pots.

My favorite! Another bulbil is completely cream colored.

This tray of unplanted bulbils all showed signs of roots forming - although it can be hard to tell what's a root vs just a bump. Not sure when (or if) I'll get around to planting these.

Happy Propagating

 

Update 6/2023

Agave bulbil grown in a plug container

Some of these bulbils have been living in a plug tray for months and months. They have also been periodically under-watered and over-watered. They survived but have not thrived compared to their siblings grown in open trays.

Agave celsii for sale in 4inch pots

Agave recently transplanted from rooting trays

Update 11/2023

One of the trays of Agave that are ready for up sizing.

One of the bigger Agave celsii

Up-potted and moving to a new spot

Update January 2024