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Mike and Hev
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:49 pm Posts: 80 Location: PLYMOUTH
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Droopy agave leaves
We've recently noticed one or two of our medium sized americana leaves
starting to droop.Is this down to heat stress?The garden is south facing and
with the recent weather can get very hot.In the Agave book by the Irishes'
they say that this can be quite a bad problem.I know what you're thinking
Paul,get a decent agave in there instead!The plant has been in the ground for
about four years and is approx. three foot tall.
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Fri Jul 25, 2008 6:26 pm |
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Paul Spracklin
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It is just a temporary thing to do with the heat plus being dry. My americana do it all the time, but it is nothing to worry about as far as I can see. If you think about it, Agave americana grows throughout the Mediterranean countries - even in places like Sicily and Greece where day time temps can reach the upper 40s - so the small amount of heat that we can generate in this country isn't really going to trouble it.
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Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:08 pm |
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Nick Macer
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:42 pm Posts: 1284 Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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Mmmmm...don't know I'd agree with you there Paul. My giant specimen used to have rigid leaves when it was stuck in a pot and semi-starved for years, but when I unleashed the roots it started to grow very vigorously and became floppy leaved. I associate floppy leaves with vigorous, soft growth in an easy climate like ours. For example, most of last years growth was floppy, right through the wet, cool summer.
_________________ Purveyor of good things
www.panglobalplants.com
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Sat Jul 26, 2008 10:51 pm |
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Matt-Eureka Calif. z10a
Joined: Mon May 26, 2008 3:24 pm Posts: 72 Location: Eureka Calif. 40N-z10a
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drooping is normal
Here in California it's very common to see large agaves w/some drooping leaves. Here's a smallish agave Americana growing in my front yard that shows some flopping of the leaves. But really it's fairly common, from my nonscientific observations of Calif.
_________________ NorCal coast
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Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:41 am |
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Paul Spracklin
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So there you have the definitive answer, Mike - it droops because it is either a/ too dry and hot or b/ too wet and cool.
Nick - mine behave very differently from yours, I guess, as I never get vigorous soft growth here!
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Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:48 am |
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David Matzdorf
Site Admin
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:06 pm Posts: 5321 Location: Islington, London UK
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The leaves on my quite large potted A. americana are rigid when young and progressively recurve as they age, such that
they eventually look like the ones in Matt's picture from Eureka. So it doesn't seem to be related to the growing conditions
when they emerge - they stay rigid for a year or more. Before they die off, they are so recurved that they hang down
below the level of the table that the pot is on.
There are three smaller offsets from this plant on the roof - utterly different growing conditions, except that they're all kept
quite dry in Summer - and, in their miniature way, they are doing a similar thing.
I think it's likely that genetic variation plays a part in this. A. americana is not a species that lends itself to generalisations.
_________________ 51º33'07"N x 0º07'21"W
43m (142 feet) ASL
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Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:18 am |
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Mike and Hev
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:49 pm Posts: 80 Location: PLYMOUTH
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Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:15 pm |
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