Beaucarnia stricta

[STEVE IN SOCAL]

My favorite Beaucarnia.
Any thoughts on amount of water vs severity of trunk fissures? In other words, will lack of water and slow growth cause more fissures, or pouring on the water....





Trunk close-up...

[palmbob]

Originally Posted by STEVE IN SOCAL

My favorite Beaucarnia.
Any thoughts on amount of water vs severity of trunk fissures? In other words, will lack of water and slow growth cause more fissures, or pouring on the water....





Trunk close-up...

I have a friend who is growing one of these in his lawn which gets watered regularly and it has a wonderful base, though the fissures are perhaps not as deep as others I have seen in water-deprived specimens.. hard to make any conclusions from this one case, but at least the plant has not had any rotting problems.

[STEVE IN SOCAL]

I wonder if alternating heavy watering (causing the trunk to swell) and no water (causing the trunk to shrink) would speed up the process? Seems desert plants live on the feast or famine diet...?

[Allen Repashy]

It is also possible that ambient humidity could have an effect on how the plant caudex develops..... though this would be quite a reach.... as it has shown to be a determining factor in the development of Tortoise shell scutes.... I mean tortoises are really close to plants on the evolutionary tree aren't they? LOL

[STEVE IN SOCAL]

Hmmm...do I smell a hybrid in the works?

[agavegreg]

I like the idea of alternating sufficient water with periods of drought. Probably the best thing is to grow it in the ground.

Are those Agave x 'Blue Glow' I see in the picture?

[STEVE IN SOCAL]

Originally Posted by agavegreg

I like the idea of alternating sufficient water with periods of drought. Probably the best thing is to grow it in the ground.

Are those Agave x 'Blue Glow' I see in the picture?

Yes it is, Greg....not sure why they didn't call it 'orange glow'...

[agavegreg]

The edges do glow don't they? How do you insert pictures? Do they have to be in an album on the forum?

[Allen Repashy]

Hey Greg,

I made a tutorial to help people with photos... you can view it here

[agavegreg]

Thanks Allen,

I'm in the process of resizing a bunch of pics for my website. I'll make a folder and get some pics up and running.

[Allen Repashy]

When you upload to your album, it should resize the photo and reduce the file size.... If you are uploading a large file, do them one at a time..... but give it a go and see if it works.....