Sunday, July 28, 2013

Century Plant Triplets--3rd Week Higher Up

The pixstrip shows the agave triplets pic from March 11 and March 18. Do a visual comparison of heights of the plants between the picture on the left and the one on the right. The increased height looks to be about the height of the sign on the right. For that matter, the increased height between March 4 and March 11 (pixstrip at July 21 article) looked to be about the height of the sign also.

What kind of street sign and what size is it, you might ask? It's a Bike Route sign with a route number at the bottom, which some future articles will include images of. I found a dimensional specification at the Manual of Traffic Signs site. The height of the bike route sign could be either 24 or 36 inches wide, but I'm guessing more likely 24. The height is 18, but excludes numbers below the bicycle image.

As the sign near the century plants is square, I've inferred the sign's height is 24 inches. So, if my hunch for the sign's height is correct, it means that the plants have grown about 24 inches each week, average of over three inches each day. Woohoo!

My thoughts of the plants for that day:
The closest stalk reached the lowest wires! Will be interesting to see that the other two clear them next week, and see where they reach.
Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Century Plant Triplets--2nd Week

The pixstrip shows the agave triplets pic from March 4 and two from March 11. Do a visual comparison of heights of the two pictures on the left. Although the stalks initially don't look much taller, they might have picked up half of the street sign height. Maybe some day I'll return to the area and measure the sign so I can guestimate how much the stalks grew from March 4 to March 11.

The picture on the right shows the March 11 image with additional skyward background for height reference. As my series continues, pictures will show sprouting progress, more than looking like giant asparagus shoots.

The following is an excerpt of thoughts I'd sent email out that day:
Took a couple of other pix today. (I took last week's about 8 AM 3/4.) I cropped one of them to just under the wires for a relative size the one I sent last week. I then thought that it might be interesting to crop the same pic but include the wires for height relative view. I'm hoping to take weekly pix until the conclusion of the plants, or until they get cut down, whichever occurs first.
Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Century Plant Triplets--Stalk Starts

Agave, noted for use in making tequila and agave syrup (aka nectar), can also have a spectacular end-of-life stage—
that of a century plant. When an agave starts growing a stalk, the stalk can grow several inches per day, reaching up to thirty feet or more. During the upward growth, the stalk also sprouts limbs outward so that it resembles a Christmas tree.

My picture shows a trio of agaves that started sprouting. I hadn't noticed growth until early March while leaving the grocery store shopping area that I frequent. Because I'd taken series of weekly pictures of other agaves in the past, I figured this trio would be amazing to chronicle. Have never seen THREE in such close proximity.

I returned the next day (Monday, March 4) to take pictures. I hadn't been sure where a vantage point might be. I initially parked at the bank parking lot directly across from the plants. The view didn't seem good from there, so I walked to the corner of the gas station that is diagonal from the plants. That locale turned out to be reasonable spot to try to avoid taking pix w/stuff nearby. Tried timing for avoiding having cars getting into the pix.

The following is an excerpt of thoughts I'd sent email out that day:
I'm guessing we'll be in for treat of stalks and blooms from those three plants for a month. Enjoy while they last! About a year ago, a century plant sprouted up there also. Someone cut it down when it had just started blooming, I think.
My next blog post will include a few thoughts and pictures of the agaves a week later. For upcoming articles, I might or might not combine some of the weeks' pictures and thoughts. Time will tell.

View a couple of Youtube explanations of century plants:
Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16