Re: Re: "propagated via decapitation"

Dear All,
I have used a version of this so-called decapitation technique with
Agave geminiflora with great success. In that case I cut the plant in
half through the crown, then halved each portion, then repeated that
until I had 8 pieces. They looked like wedges with a few leaves. I
dusted each with sulfur and placed them in a pumice/sand bed and kept
them modestly moist. Root began to form in about 2 weeks, and at the end
of 3 months they looked like plants again. After 6 months they were back
to the regular rosette formation one would want and in a year you could
never have known how they were propagated. I have long wanted to try
this method with plants with different shaped leaves, and in different
subgroups but haven't gotten around to it yet. An attempt with small A.
colorata's ran into technical difficulties and was inconclusive.
I had a few attempts at merely wounding, or slicing into the crown, in
order to stimulate the plant to increase vegetatively. Although it
worked, it didn't make many new plants at a time and it seemed useful
only for plants that had great value and where a few propagules would be
adequate.
Mary

Ken K wrote:

>  Bobby Crabb wrote:
> >
> > Ken mentioned "propagated via decapitation". Could
> > someone tell me about this procedure?
>
> I've never done this myself, but from what I understand, plants that
> are reluctant to increase vegetatively can sometimes be stimulated to
> do so by removing the growing point. If done correctly, (and with a
> bit of good luck) the crown can be rooted, preserving one half of the
> specimen, and the base will grow via one or more dormant growth buds.
> This method is also used for some of the very elaborately 'blistered'
> and frilled hybrid Echeveria. The downside is that if something goes
> wrong, you lose everything.
>
> Ken
> East S.F. Bay Area, Ca.
> USDA Zone 9
> -2°C to 38°C
>
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