I live in Phoenix and have a Hercules Agave that was planted in late June and suffered damage after planting from the sun but after installing a 70% shade cloth to protect it from afternoon sun everything seemed to stabilize.

I just discovered that midway up the tree i have some serious rot that seems to only have affected a certain area. I have dug out the rot and was going to apply Neet oil and remove the shade cloth. The bulb of the plant looks fine as does the rest of the plant other than the sun damage. I assumed this was the fungus mentioned in this thread but shouldn't that affect the whole plant?

I have been working around to make it through the summer so would appreciate any help identifying what is going on here.

thanks

Mike

Is there any chance you can share a photo or two? It would be good to see what's going on.

Planted in June... that will give this plant a really rough summer. Could you tell me where you got the plant? Given that I live in the Phoenix area that may give me some context as to how the plant was grown in the nursery.

For landscape plants that you expect to expose to full summer sun, you should try and plant in the Fall, so they have a winter and spring to establish themselves and acclimatize to the sun.

So the sun scorching is no surprise. You probably would have had that even if you planted it in the fall - the older leaves are likely just not accustomed to the full sun.

The rot is not uncommon, but slightly strange in terms of location. It is sort of a damned if you do damned if you don't situation - if we get a strong monsoon like this year many aloes including Hercules are prone to developing crown rot (hence my comment about it being in a strange location). It is usually due to water pooling in the crown and not evaporating enough because it has been shaded so heavily, combined with high night time lows. However if you do not shade the plant in the first summer after planting it - especially since it was planted so late - it would just burn to a crisp.

A large Aloe like 'Hercules' tends to be OK more often than not the plant I had to leave at my old place branched after it had the crown rot. When my plant got it it was so tall I could do nothing about it, but one thing it had in common with yours was that it was in pretty heavy shade of a tree and it was during a relatively good monsoon year.

I worry that what I am seeing in the pictures does not look very well cleaned yet. You hate to cut off a healthy looking leave, but I would cut that leave right below the spot off and then clean any of the goo off as best as you can. Hose the area down with a strong spray and then with sterile knife cut as much of any remaining rot looking spots from the trunk.
Let dry out a bit and sprinkle with anti-fungal powder you can get at any decent nursery. Then inspect very carefully if the rot has gone any where else.

I agree with uncovering, but I would do it carefully as that looks like pretty serious shade so the plant would not be happy to go back to full sun suddenly.

At my new place I am growing one that gets morning to just after midday full sun (well it will get more and more sun as it grows) and it takes that reasonably well, with older leaves getting sun scorched every June-July so far until the monsoon hit. The first summer after I just planted it (planted in November) it started to develop crown rot. I got lucky and saw it early and removed the area and it recovered just fine, no branching this time.

Here is mine at the end of the day some time this last June, it has a weird lean that I will soon have to correct (that will be fun), but you can see the remnants of the lower leaves from the first two summers it was in the ground.

Thanks for the input. I bought it at Plant Stand in South Phoenix and they said they were going to check with the grower for recommendations but have heard nothing from them after a couple of emails. A little disappointed with their lack of interest as it was not the cheapest plant. It was outside under a high sun tarp.

I have removed the leaf and the portion of the trunk that had rotted. It made a significant "dent" in the tree but does not seem to be impacting the new leaf growth. I have been applying a mixture or neem oil for the past week but will see if i can find a powdered antifungal as that seems like a better solution. It has been uncovered for a week and while the area does not look good, the rot has not been advancing once it started to be in the sun. I just reinstalled the top sun net today because of the upcoming weather.

I had not been spraying/cleaning the leaves as i was trying to minimize the water during monsoon but will spray off the leaves in the morning and make sure they are dried off.

thanks

OK, plant stand! It is were I got my previous, but not current 'Hercules'. They are probably too busy keeping up with all the houseplants they are selling. I got my current Hercules from a guy out on the edge of AJ. He usually advertises on Craig's List and had many plants at very competitive prices, but I have not checked in a while if he still has his ad out.

I think you are doing the right things, and I am optimistic that it will recover, it may give you a branch or just a scar on the trunk.

I am not sure where in Phoenix you are but a good nursery is Summer Winds on Tatum just south of the loop 101 in North Phoenix (I think it is Phoenix and not Scottsdale, but I may have that wrong). You should be able get some antifungal powder there if you cannot find it at a Home Depot or Lowe's (there is of course always Amazon). They have some nice Aloes at Summer Winds as well - also some large ones, but they are unfortunately not cheap.

Thanks! I just took the shade cover back off because i found a couple of places where it looked like the rot was surviving. I removed most of the lower leaves that were sun damaged to try to avoid it spreading. The trunk has a very large divot in it now but so far it hasn't seemed to impact the new leaves growth although it is developing a small tilt. We will see.

Plant Stand said originally said it would be fine in full sun which is how the problem started.

thanks for your recommendations, i will check them out.

Mike

I just realized this was a new question added to a 2021 thread so I split it off to it's own thread to avoid confusion with the original one.

Because the rot had passed from the leaves to the trunk i had to cut the trunk down to the point where there wasnt any other rot. The root system seems fine and the inside of the trunk seem healthy but i no longer have any leave growth. I just put antifungal on the top of the trunk and am hoping it will eventually resprout leave growth. Has anyone cut a hercules agave through the trunk before? Will it eventually respawn leaves? Anything that should be added to it?

Completely in the dark here so would appreciate any tips.

thanks

I believe @Baja_Costero has done this at some point where he cut the complete head of a tree aloe (maybe even a Hercules) off and it resprouted just fine.

This is what happened when I beheaded the plant here




and after it grew out with several new branches


As you can see I made the cut within the rosette, so there were still leaves on the mother plant, but I would assume that is not strictly speaking necessary. I would imagine that if the cut is reasonably close to the growth point, there may be branches and a full recovery. I don't think there's necessarily anything to do beyond making sure the original plant has water on a semi-regular basis (whatever it enjoyed before) and lots of light (as it would have had to have to do well in the first place). Hard to say what the odds of success are, you'll have to wait and see what happens.

@Baja_Costero
Nice result. Do you find that Hercules tends to grow during the summer or in the winter?

Pretty much year round in our mild coastal climate, given regular water. When I wasn't watering it (it went a few years with zero irrigation) the growth seemed to be related mostly to rainfall, which is very seasonal here (70% from Dec-Mar and 0% during the summer). I guess that would be expected but I think the plant is opportunistic (like the barberae parent) and not tending toward winter growth (like the dichotomum parent). I was withholding water specifically because I wanted a stockier habit (something I would recommend in a mild coastal climate, as it tends to favor the dichotomum parent).

i agree that it is very much a grow when water is available plant. When it is hot you it is almost impossible to overwater this plant. I tend to withhold water when it is super hot at night here in the Phoenix area, leading to a mid summer slow down, but if I water it consistently the rest of the year it grows and grows and grows.