The good and bad of agave offshoots

Agaves are wonderful plants for the desert. They aren't quite as tough as a cactus would be, but they're close. They need additional water, and don't mind a little bit of shade, and with some care they can be some of the most spectacular specimen plants in your garden. They are, of course, like most plants that do well in extreme climates, kinda weird, but it's OK if you understand them. And one thing they do is send offshoots, called pups.

If you see a miniature version of your agave growing close to it, it's a pup. That is, it's grown out below the soil and popped up creating a whole new plant. You know, like a clone. And that can be a bad thing, or it can be a good thing, depending on what you do.

Pups are bad if you have neglected your agaves for years and lots of them have grown in clumps around it, creating a dangerous thicket. If that's happened to you, you need some heavy equipment to dig the mess out. But the good news is that agaves grow slowly, so if you're looking at your garden a few times a month, that won't happen. That's because all you gotta do is dig them out when they're small, which is easy. I always keep an eye out around my agaves, and if I see anything even starting to pop up, I snip it off.

On the other hand, pups can be good if you keep an eye on them, let them grow a bit, then dig them out and replant them. Agaves grow very well bare root, and when you dig up a pup, and get some roots, you have a free plant. I like to give mine away, and I have friend who has different types of agaves, who does the same. The one in the pic up there I've been keeping an eye on, and I'll let it grow a little bit more then I'll dig it up and move it to a place where it will have room to grow. Right there it would just mash in with the other plant, which would be bad for both plants.

Sometimes pups pop out far enough away so that I can just leave them there to grow. In the pic up there you can see a different type of agave pup that found a good place to grow. It will have enough room, so it can stay there. Most pups, however, grow too close to the mother plant, so that's rare.

So that's the good and bad of agave pups!