Agave and Palm Trees!

[Greg]

I have an Agave tree in my garden,

I was just wondering if anyone has ever used this tree for anything interesting or if anyone has any ideas of how I could use it.

I also have a couple of palm trees, Any ideas guys?

 

[BOD]

I have an Agave tree in my garden,

I was just wondering if anyone has ever used this tree for anything interesting or if anyone has any ideas of how I could use it.

I also have a couple of palm trees, Any ideas guys?

I believe it can be used for cordage. Try pounding, scraping, rinsing and then drying the leaf. But I have not done it myself

Don't ask me about palms else the reply will run over the word limit

I'm sure you will get lots of good suggestions

 

[Greg]

I believe it can be used for cordage. Try pounding, scraping, rinsing and then drying the leaf. But I have not done it myself

Don't ask me about palms else the reply will run over the word limit

I'm sure you will get lots of good suggestions

Thanks BOD, I was also wondering if the very hard and sharp pointy bits would be strong enough for needle work of sorts!

 

[bent-stick]

I made some agave cordage in Spain last october from a leaf at least 5 ft long. Pics are at home. It was naturally retted by being left at the side of the path and breaking out the fibres was not difficult.

Incredibly strong but you need to work it damp otherwise it cuts delicate hands to bits.

I keep wanting to offer to clean up the dead leaves from the Phormium and agave plants in peoples gardens...I suspect they might find it a bit odd though...

 

[spamel]

I think the indians used the point with the fibres still on for sewing. Ray used them in one of his programmes, at least I think it was Agave, I could be wrong though!

 

[dommyracer]

Tequila is made from the Blue Agave!
Not sure if you can make booze from other Agaves though. I assume if they produce a sugary sap then the answer is yes....

Wikipedia has some good suggestions:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave

 

[madrussian]

Looks more like Yucca. Can't make Tequila from Yucca.

 

[leon-b]

im sure i saw on one of rays programmes that the midrib from palm leaves is a strons sort of string/wire
leon

 

[Butchd]

That is indeed yucca. Can't see why it can't be used in much the same way, though not for tequilla!

 

[rich59]

Definitely yucca.

Excellent plant for cordage. You can extract excellent fibres from the leaves. http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/archive/index.php/t-9258.html


The flower stem is an excellent material for friction fire.

 

[Greg]

Thanks for correcting me guys:You_Rock_ , after looking up Yucca tree on wikipedia I can say without a doubt that I don't have an Agave its definately a Yucca tree!
So can I still use it for useful stuff?