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It got up to 10c today more snow was melted enough I could get in and check my Agave Americana. It was the only plant I was unsure was going to make it through the winter but I was surprised. I pull off the rose cone and I find something has been eating my Agave all winter!!! I checked 2 out of the 6 I have and both have had 3/4 of its vegetation eaten... You and see teeth marks right on the remaining plants. However the one Agave Parryi 2-3 feet away from the one Americana completely untouched. It looks like it got a bit cold but other than totally fine. I also checked my Yucca Rostrata it looks fine too..

I really didn't expect this to happen. I was prepared to loose them to cold but this took me off guard. So I'm not sure if these will even pull through and even if they do they won't even look nearly as good as they did last year (for for a couple more years) so I'm not sure If I just put them back in a community pot and see if they survive and come back and perhaps have them back out in the Garden in a couple years or do I just toss them buy new ones and move on and not keep them outside in the winter...

(Whatever got to them finds them delicious)

Anyone else have this issue? Any idea what might have ate them? And for the record the Agaves were quite green still So if they didn't get ate looks like they would have made it...

Just read up it seems like mice were the culprit. I think I would have been a bit less sad if my protection failed and they were just a mess of black death I can fix that easy mice is a complete different issue and I don't know if just putting in some poison inside the rose cone is enough to stop the buffet line from coming through...

Rabbits?

More likely mice/rodents of some sort.

Americanas do tend to grow quickly and can out grow the damage in a year.

chadec wrote:Americanas do tend to grow quickly and can out grow the damage in a year.

Pretty hard to grow out of being nearly ate to the ground some of the plant are just barely existing I'll dig them out of the main part of the garden. I have replacements on order with Coconut Mike. I'll try a different method for cover next year with some treats for the buffet line. I'm not sure my rose cone provided quite enough protection I'll make a mini box with a skirt that I can put bricks around to keep the surface sealed they'll have to tunnel in next year.

I have issues with pocket gophers they like to eat my yuccas roots, they also have killed many other plants. I set mouse traps to kill them. They tend to do more damage over the winter and prefer newly planted plants but will eat most anything.