Getting To Know The Agave

Agave americana or Agave is a succulent, rosette-shaped plant with sharp tipped leaves a meter or more in length and a flowery stem that can grow to 7 meters or more in height.

 The Agave plant is a multipurpose plant, which provides food, medicine and many commodities for people who live in arid environments.  And it can also be used to produce syrup, which is traded internationally.  This plant is often grown as an ornamental plant.  This plant Spread from North America southwestern Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.

 Agave americana is native to semi-arid regions in temperate and subtropical climates, although it is frequently cultivated in the Tropics.  This plant is not very cold tolerant, but can tolerate temperatures down to approx. -3 ° c or lower when conditions are not wet.  Its original habitat is unknown but grows wild in Mexico on farmland and in pine forests, a sandy, scrubland area of ​​about 200 meters in Texas and eastern Mexico.

 Agave plants like dry (or even in poor soil) soil in a sunny position.  It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant, and has escaped cultivation in some areas and is reported as an invasive species in New Zealand and some Pacific Islands.

 This plant has a very sharp and sturdy backbone at the end of each leaf.  They should be placed carefully if planted in the garden.

 USES OF AGAVE

 The heart of the Agave plant is very rich in saccharin and can be eaten when roasted, sweet and nutritious, but slightly fibrous.  Some are underground.

 The seeds are rather than Agave, ground into flour and used as a thickener in soups or used with cereal flour when making bread

 The flower stalks of this plant are roasted and used like asparagus.

 The sap from the flowering stems of Agave can be cut and used as a syrup or fermented into pulqueic or mescal.  Sap can also be tapped by making a hole in the center of the plant at the base of the flowering stem.

 Agave sap has long been used in Central America as a binding agent for various powders used as poultices in wounds.  The sap can also be taken internally for the treatment of diarrhea, dysentery etc.

 The sap is antiseptic, sweating, diuretic, emmenagogue and laxative.  The sap also has disinfectant properties and can be taken internally to check for the growth of putrefactive bacteria in the stomach and intestines

 Water that has been soaked from agave fiber for a day can be used as a disinfectant and scalp tonic in case of hair loss.

 Agave root is soaked in water, and the water is drunk to treat various ailments such as stomach pain, painful and difficult urination, scurvy, swollen and bleeding pulp, swollen bones, constipation, and poor appetite or loss of appetite.

 Agave plants are used in land reclamation schemes in arid regions of the world.  This plant is traditionally grown as a living hedge in the northwest of the Himalayas, where it helps to get rid of livestock and other animals, as well as to mark land boundaries while also providing a variety of medicinal and other uses.

 HOW TO CULTIVATE AGAVE

 Agave plants can be cultivated through seeds. Sow the seeds on the surface of the seedling container in a bright position.  The seeds usually germinate in 1 - 2 months at 25 ° c.