Can I save my dying Agave?

[Hamant]

Hi all,

New (read in-experiences) member here with an Agave which i’m sure is dying and I need some advice on how to rescue it.

So...the plant was healthy throughout the summer, apart from a small incident involving overwatering. I brought the plant indoors during December in order to avoid the frost. It’s been fine since then until this week when I noticed the leaves starting to yellow / blacken and what appeared to be tiny bugs on the leaves. The garden centre recommended a spray which i’ve used, however i’m not sure whether that was the right thing to do.

The Agave definitely hasn’t been overwatered in the last few months, however, as it’s been indoors it hasn’t gotten the most amount of light.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong and what I could do to rescue it?

Many thanks,

Ham.

[agavemad]

I would advise cutting out any squishy material or the rot will just keep spreading ….. If its just the outer leaves it should recover. Keep it dry for a while after.

[Terry S.]

The web and the frass make me think that there could be tortrix moth caterpillars in your plant.

[Ali Baba]

I'd agree with Terry that looks exactly like tortrix moth. The spray you have used will likely be ineffective as their webbing shields them from spraying very effectively. Your best bet is to use a fine pair of tweezers to fish out the caterpillar

[Hamant]

Thanks for the advice guys.
I went caterpillar hunting, but unfortunately wasn’t able to find the little bugger. But the marks on the leaves and webbing all seem to point to one being present at some point. Maybe it wandered off somewhere, who knows.
I also cut off 4-5 of the leaves and ot’s Now looking a bit lopsided. One of the leaves contained a nasty brown liquid which oozed out when I cut it off...it smelt rancid.
Needless to say my hands suffered numerous scratches.
I’ll keep an eye on it to see whether it continues to degrade of whether it bounces back.
Do you think I should take it back outside? The weather is quite mild at the moment. I’m just concerned it’s not getting enough light.

This is where the leaf which leaked all the horrible brown liquid was.

Do you think I should cut out this leaf with the yellow tip?

[Tina]

Keep it inside, it's more important to keep it dry than sorry about light , it won't be doing much growing atm. You can put hormone rooting powder, cinnamon n other powders are used to put over cut wounds.