My whale’s tongue agave, Moby, came down last week. This week I’ve been sorting and planting bulbils (baby agave clones) from the bloom stalk. I’ve never had an agave bloom before, much less harvested its bulbils, so I looked online for advice and found Len Geiger’s helpful post at Married to Plants and followed his instructions.

First I used hand pruners to remove clusters of bulbils from the bloom stalk. Mine looked different from Len’s in that short flower stalks were coming up from the bulbil mass. I don’t know why. I picked through each cluster, pulling away and discarding the flowers and trying to find easily removable bulbils, as Len advised.

Many of the bulbils came loose in clusters, which makes it hard to separate tightly connected bulbils without breaking them. I tried gently pulling them apart and discarded those that broke off too high, keeping those that had little nubs of roots.

Mid-sort, the green tub on the right contains unsorted bulbil clusters. The red tub contains the best of the harvested bulbils.

The final harvest. Most are very small, but a few bigger ones stand out. I’ll keep a half-dozen of these as insurance, in hopes that I get 2 or 3 well-rooted plants to carry on Moby’s legacy.

Next I set up my potting supplies: bagged cactus potting soil, bunches of old 4-inch nursery pots, rooting hormone and a dish to put it in, a cup of water, and a trowel. My potting station? A brand-new Gorilla Cart that I won in a raffle at the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling! It made a perfect set-up, as I can move it around for more or less sun very easily (and in and out of the garage when it freezes in a few months), and the mesh sides will help keep squirrels from digging in the pots while the agaves root.

Here’s what an ideal bulbil looks like: a clean break at the bottom with a little nub of root, already hardened off in a shady, dry place for a couple of days.

Per Len’s instructions, I dipped the bottom of each bulbil in a cup of water before dipping it in rooting hormone (the water helps it stick). He said rooting hormone may be unnecessary, but he uses it, and I thought it couldn’t hurt, especially since many of the bulbils are very small, with less root than this one.

Then I made a small hole in a soil-filled 4-inch pot and stuck the bulbil in, gently pressing the soil around it.

One Gorilla Cart filled! Len didn’t mention how often he waters his baby agaves while they root, but I’ve been misting mine once a day because it’s 100 degrees out. I’m keeping them in bright shade under a live oak, where they’re getting a bit pelted with acorns, but the Death Star is too much for them right now.

Here’s the final result. I ended up planting about 120 bulbils. (Sharp-eyed readers will notice a few squid agave pups in there.) Many are teeny tiny, and who knows if all of them will root. I’ll know in a couple of months. Meantime, I’ve wrapped rolled wire over the pots to discourage squirrels, who at this time of year are burying acorns like treasure-hoarding pirates. I can just picture them yanking out agaves and filling the pots with acorns.

You may be wondering what I will do if all 120 root. Well, I’m giving many of them away to agave-loving blogger friends in Austin and beyond, although I’ll probably wait to mail them until next spring, when they’ll be established and I won’t have to worry about them freezing in transit as they go through Denver or wherever. If I have leftover Moby Jr.’s at that time, I’ll have a giveaway of them here at Digging, so stay tuned!

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Digging Deeper: News and Upcoming Events

Austinites and native-plant shoppers, I’ll be at the member’s day Fall Plant Sale at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on October 14, and I hope to see you there! I’ll be signing books between 1 and 3 pm in the Wild Ideas gift shop. If you’re not a member, of course you can still come on out and see the gardens and stop in at Wild Ideas. Hope to see you there!

South Texans, come see me at the 2nd annual Planta Nativa festival in McAllen, Texas, on Saturday, October 22. I’ll be delivering the keynote talk, “Local Heroes: Designing with Native Plants for Water-Saving Gardens,” that evening. Tickets are on sale at Quinta Mazatlan. I hope to see you there!

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