When it comes to succulents, "cuttings" are a unique way they're often sold, not just for Agave. If you learn how to handle them, you can score popular varieties cheaply and easily on places like Mercari—so it's a skill worth mastering! This time, I ran some experiments focusing specifically on rooting the always-popular Agave titanota (a.k.a. 'Oteroi'), to see exactly what kind of conditions work best. No complicated theories—just results. Let's dive in!
If you'd like a general guide to growing "cuttings"—including Echeveria—please check out the article below.
To follow good scientific practice, I kept everything the same except the variables I wanted to compare. For this experiment, I used ten unrooted 'Black and Blue' Agave cuttings I bought on Mercari. They're probably imported mericlone plants (genetically identical), and about the same size. Still, since there can be individual variation, I grouped them in sets of 2–3 for each condition and averaged the results. I started in early March, which is considered ideal for handling cuttings.
The first condition I wanted to test: "Water." Is it better to keep things moist, or dry? There's also a rumor online that using sparkling water helps, so I checked that too.
The second condition: "Light." I compared steady "bright shade" using LED (20,000–30,000 lux), shadier pink LED (6,000–10,000 lux), and direct natural sunlight.
Crossing "plenty of water" with three light levels gave me a total of five test patterns.
It's said that Echeveria cuttings root best without water, but what about Agave?
"Plenty of water" means exactly that—a deep saucer under the pot was kept filled with water at all times (the "bottom watering" method). There's some risk of rot (mushy leaves), especially if the cuttings aren’t in great shape, and in this experiment, a few lower leaves did get mushy.
Still, these were by far the best results. So, it seems water really is essential for rooting.
What happens if you don't water at all? Since the usual advice for Echeveria and similar succulents is to keep them dry and unpotted until roots appear, I figured Agave should manage too... or so I hoped.
Turns out, this was tough—absolutely no visible progress for two months. Finally, when I got impatient and started giving just a tiny bit of water every week to slightly moisten the soil, things began to happen.
You may have heard the online tip that using "strong sparkling water" promotes rooting. The theory aside, I tested it out.
The result: "No significant difference." If anything, it was a bit slower, but it's hard to say if that's really because of the sparkling water, especially with such a small sample. If it actually takes longer (not faster) and costs extra money, there's really no point, in my opinion.
For curiosity’s sake: Physically, if there's no harm from the carbonation, you could argue that increased CO₂ in the air after watering might boost photosynthesis and speed up rooting. So maybe if you increased how often you watered with sparkling water, applied it at night (when plant respiration is higher), or even used CO₂ gas/emitters—it could be interesting. But that’s an experiment for another time!
Water is absolutely necessary. The more, the better—it looks like a fair conclusion. Of course, while you need water for rooting, staying too wet increases the risk of mushiness, so it helps to dry cuttings thoroughly first (especially with pups), sterilize the soil and plants, and promote air circulation using a fan.
Do you need a humidity dome like you would for seedlings? Since that may reduce airflow and increase risks, I'd skip it for now (though I haven’t tested it either).
Should you keep Agave cuttings in the shade, or out in the sun?
Cuttings are usually recommended to be kept in bright shade. I followed this with diffuse, reddish LED lighting (about 4000–5000K), at a brightness of 20,000–30,000 lux. Imagine an area gently lit by the morning sun.
This produced the best results—everything just looked so healthy and happy here.
What about even dimmer conditions? I tried diffuse pink LED (6,000–10,000 lux), more like what you'd find in a plant factory, to see if it would help with rooting specifically.
Interestingly, the single fastest-cutting actually rooted here—when I checked at 10 days, roots had already appeared (possibly sooner!), but the other two were slower, making the average about 1.5 times slower than bright shade. Maybe the light was just too weak. Definitely something to examine in future experiments!
What about putting them outdoors in full sun, no LEDs? Not a common rooting method…but just in case!
In short: Nothing happened. After three months, there were still no roots, and the plant just shriveled up. Since this proved the point, I stopped the experiment, moved the cuttings into the “bright shade” LED environment, and, wow—roots popped out in just a week! Of course, lots of factors changed, like temperature and humidity, so you can’t blame only the sunlight. Still, it's safe to say: "Do NOT try to root them in direct sun."
For good measure, I even used my largest cutting here hoping it’d stand up to the tough environment…but nope! Also, looking at all the results, it really seems like size doesn't matter much for rooting speed.
Too much sun or too little is no good. A mild, bright shade is best.
Here's what things looked like after one month.
This chart shows the averages for each condition (the black lines mark the means):
Cuttings with no water took about three times longer than those with plenty.
Those in shade were 1.5 times slower than bright shade.
Those in sun…basically, a disaster.
So—lots of water and bright shade is the ideal combo.
That's how I'll be doing it from now on! Thanks for reading!
For this experiment, I only tested "water" and "light," but there are lots of other factors. What about soil? (Fantasy vibes: "wind" and—not "fire," but—temperature!) Should I use seedling mix, akadama soil, sphagnum moss? Add fertilizer or not? More airflow—good or bad? Does the season (summer or winter) matter? Should I test outdoors: sun vs. shade? Does the size of the cutting, or removing lower leaves, make a difference?
I'll try out all these ideas another time—stay tuned!
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