New obsession with agaves in Escondido, California

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BillionAgaves
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Location: Escondido, California
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New obsession with agaves in Escondido, California

#1

Post by BillionAgaves »

Hello everyone. Thank you for creating this great forum. I live in Escondido, CA and just started a veggie farm near by. I recently found out about the Billion Agave Project from Regeneration International https://regenerationinternational.org/b ... ve-project, and I want to plant a half acre of this agave based agroforestry system.

I’m trying to figure out where I can get 2 of the 3 giant species needed for this agroforestry system: Agave mapisaga and Agave salmiana. We have tons of Agave americana here, but I can’t find these other 2. Any help is much appreciated.

Chris
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mickthecactus
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Re: New obsession with agaves in Escondido, California

#2

Post by mickthecactus »

What sort of vegetables Chris?
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mcvansoest
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Re: New obsession with agaves in Escondido, California

#3

Post by mcvansoest »

Welcome Chris!

That is a great initiative. Does the project have sources for these agaves? If they want to actually plant a billion agaves they must have thought about a supply chain.

I think there are definitely Agave salmiana to be found out there at nurseries, mapisaga is probably not quite as easy (you could reach out to the Huntington's ISI program they have Agave mapisaga as part of one of their previous succulent releases - maybe others on here have ideas/knowledge - I assume you want to get these plants at a decent size otherwise I'd say you could get some of these plants and talk to a tissue culture company to produce a large amount of plugs.

Plenty of members here grow salmiana and some grow mapisaga and may at times have offsets available, but while this might provide some starter plants or a plant source for tissue culture, it is not going to get your half acre filled up any time soon.
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BillionAgaves
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Re: New obsession with agaves in Escondido, California

#4

Post by BillionAgaves »

mickthecactus wrote: Wed Apr 26, 2023 11:37 pm What sort of vegetables Chris?
So far carrots, radishes, green onions, and about to plant some cherry tomatoes.
BillionAgaves
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Location: Escondido, California
USDA Zone: 9b

Re: New obsession with agaves in Escondido, California

#5

Post by BillionAgaves »

mcvansoest wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 10:54 am Welcome Chris!

That is a great initiative. Does the project have sources for these agaves? If they want to actually plant a billion agaves they must have thought about a supply chain.

I think there are definitely Agave salmiana to be found out there at nurseries, mapisaga is probably not quite as easy (you could reach out to the Huntington's ISI program they have Agave mapisaga as part of one of their previous succulent releases - maybe others on here have ideas/knowledge - I assume you want to get these plants at a decent size otherwise I'd say you could get some of these plants and talk to a tissue culture company to produce a large amount of plugs.

Plenty of members here grow salmiana and some grow mapisaga and may at times have offsets available, but while this might provide some starter plants or a plant source for tissue culture, it is not going to get your half acre filled up any time soon.
Thank you.

Apparently it’s much easier and cheaper to get these agaves in parts of Mexico where this project was started and many of the farmers there are experts at growing, pruning, and harvesting them.

They seem to be slowly building up a supply chain of the agaves and they already have the numbers. The mature plants produce an average of 36 hijuelos (shoots or clones) over a period of 10 years. With 800 agaves per acre (2,000 per hectare) that’s 28,800 hijuelos that can be sold for income or used to plant a new field.

Thanks so much for all the great info and helping me get started finding these agaves. It’s exciting to find out I live so close to the Huntington Botanical Gardens, definitely have to make a trip to see that place and find out more about them!
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Samhain
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Re: New obsession with agaves in Escondido, California

#6

Post by Samhain »

Being local I would reach out to hidden agave
15F-110F. 14” annual rainfall. 8b. 3000’
Pascual
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Re: New obsession with agaves in Escondido, California

#7

Post by Pascual »

Chris,

I am a wholesale nurseryman in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. I grow a lot of Agave mapisaga var. mapisaga. I have it available in one gallon, five gallon, and 15 gallon containers. Planting one half acre is not a problem.

Please call me at 805-845-3858 if you are interested.. Thanks, Doug

Ron,
This is my first post so I hope I'm doing it right.
Doug
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