Planting & harvesting

Blue agave is rarely grown from seed. Instead, each mature plant produces offshoots around its base, called hijuelos or pups, from about its fifth year. Farmers dig these up when they are around a year old and replant them in rows, usually just before the rainy season, which runs from June to September.

Because every pup is a clone of its mother, a field of blue agave is genetically almost identical. That keeps the crop consistent, but it also leaves it vulnerable: a disease or pest that suits one plant suits them all. Researchers have warned for years that this monoculture puts the wider genetic diversity of agave at risk.

Years in the field

A blue agave needs 8 to 12 years to mature, depending on soil, climate and how it is cultivated. Through all that time it has to be weeded, the soil worked and pests controlled, and almost all of that work is still done by hand. Since each plant is harvested only once, a grower is effectively planting for a decade ahead.

The jimador

Harvesting is the job of the jimador, a skilled field worker who judges when each plant is ready. Using a coa, a long-handled tool with a flat, rounded blade, the jimador cuts the plant from its roots and slices away its 200 or so leaves, leaving only the heart, the piña, named for its resemblance to a pineapple.

Piñas vary a lot in size. Most weigh between 35 and 60 kg, though highland agave can produce hearts well over 100 kg. As a rough guide, it takes about 7 kg of agave to make one litre of tequila.