Raising Agave Pups

This beautiful old mother agave has produced a bevy of pups around herself to take over after she flowers and dies.

Agave are the most widely adaptable succulents, but what sets them apart is that they flower only once at the end of life and then they are gone.  It literally takes an entire lifetime for each plant to save up enough fuel to reproduce.  They do this by bolting, sending up flower stalks much like a head of lettuce does in early summer.  Some agaves can produce enormous bloom stalks up to twenty feet tall, with nectar-rich flowers raised high for accessibility to bats and hummingbirds.  Some gardeners allow the bloom stalks to remain standing until the flowers fade and the stalks dry out, while others prefer to remove them more promptly to maintain a more controlled appearance.

Agave Pups

Agaves reproduce another way to maintain their numbers when the climate is too dry for seeds to germinate.  They form “pups” around the aging mother plant.  An agave pup, or offset, is simply a new vegetative shoot that rises from the parent’s root system.  When the parent plant dies, the pups remain alive to take the parent’s place, though it takes years to fill in the ugly gap where the parent plant formerly existed.

Nature grants us the option of filling in that hole ourselves by transplanting offsets into this gap.  But for those who want to move their agave or do away with it altogether, a second option is to remove more pups and pot them up to accent yard, patio, porch or garden.  Rehabilitating a flowering agave is also the perfect way to obtain lots of new agaves for the landscape without spending a dime.  If the pups are relatively uniform in size, they can be planted in a series of identical pots for a bold visual repeat in the garden.  For this, and all other agave plantings, use Black Gold Cactus Mix that ensures free drainage so roots won’t rot.

pups
After this dead agave was removed the roots sent up a patch of new pups to be transplanted elsewhere

Transplanting Pups

Excavate pups carefully to avoid any unnecessary damage to the leaves and roots.  Wounds are the fast track for diseases to enter these succulent tissues and cause ugly brown rot.  Wash away the soil and cleanly cut the root tips that are frayed or torn from newly dug plants.  Set the prepared pups in the dry, warm shade for a week or two to callus off root tips, as well as scratches and nicks anywhere else.

Repurpose nylon window screen to cover the pot drain hole, so potting material won’t sift through the bottom.  Fill the pot 2/3 of the way full with dry potting soil and nestle the agave into the soil, then fill in along the edges being sure not to cover the base of the rosette.  (Set soil level low enough to fill the top of the pot with a lot of water when watering is needed.) Gently pat the soil down to reduce any large air pockets.

flower stalk
A single Agave desmettiana produces a tall bloom stalk to flower and set seed at the end of life.

This dry planting method is unique to cactus and succulents.  With moisture held within their succulent tissues, you need not water the transplants immediately, if outside conditions are moist and cold. Add some pieces of broken tile beneath the pot to create a gap that facilitates more rapid drainage.  If the surface soil is visible, use decorative washed gravel for a nicer appearance and to keep white perlite from floating to the surface.

With so many Agave cultivated all over the Southwest, there are always plants flowering each spring and summer for lots of free pup opportunities.  Although Agave species vary in climate preferences, when you harvest pups from local plants, you know that they are bound to do well because that’s where mom raised them.

About Maureen Gilmer


Maureen Gilmer is celebrating her 40th year in California horticulture and photojournalism as the most widely published professional in the state. She is the author of 21 books on gardening, design and the environment, is a widely published photographer, and syndicated with Tribune Content Agency. She is the weekly horticultural columnist for the Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs and contributes to Desert Magazine, specializing on arid zone plants and practices for a changing climate. She works and lives in the remote high desert for firsthand observations of native species. Her latest book is The Colorful Dry Garden published by Sasquatch Books. When not writing or photographing she is out exploring the desert on her Arabian horse. She lives in Morongo Valley with her husband Jim and two rescue pit bulls. When not writing or photographing she is usually out riding her quarter horse.

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