Agave cantala

Agave: Agave cantala.
Commonly grown in Southeast Asia from the Philippines to India, Agave is, a succulent, evergreen, perennial plant that forms a rosette of leaves that grows up to 2 m long. It forms a flowering stem of up to 8 m in height towards the end of its life. The shoot buds are cooked and eaten as a vegetable. It is often used in landscaping as hedgerows and along rivers and brooks for reducing soil erosion. The leaves are great source of fibre used for making baskets, mats, ropes, hammocks, sandals, fishing nets, bags, and harvest binding strings. The roots, on the other hand, can be of great source of saponins that can be used as substitute for soap.

Agave cantala is an evergreen Perennial growing to 2 m by 2 m at a fast rate.
It is hardy to zone 10 and is frost tender.
Suitable for: light , medium and heavy soils, prefers well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought.

A plant of the drier tropics. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 17 - 30c, but can tolerate 10 - 38c. It is able to withstand occasional temperatures down to at least -4?c, so long as the weather and soil are fairly dry. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,000 - 2,000mm, but tolerates 400 - 2,700mm. Requires a sunny position in a well-drained soil. Prefers a pH in the range 6.5 - 7.5, tolerating 6 - 8. The leaves contain about 4% fibre and yields of clean fibre vary between 1.1 - 3 tonnes per hectare. A monocarpic species - the plant lives for a number of years without flowering but dies once it does flower. However, it normally produces plenty of suckers during its life and these continue growing, taking about 10 - 15 years in a warm climate, considerably longer in colder ones, before flowering. The plant has a lifespan of more than 15 - 30 years.