a)   Planting Material & Nurseries

The sisal plant flowers only once during its life.  In Tanzania, if left uncut, the plant will flower after about 5 years, but plants whose leaves have been harvested regularly may flower only after as many as 9-10 years.  After the plant has flowered, it dies.

When the plant flowers, a pole emerges from the top of the bole.  The poles which grow at a rate of 10-12 cm per day reach a height of 5-6 m and are 10-15 cm in diameter.  Just before reaching full height, the poles send out flowering branches.  In Tanzania, seeds rarely develop on the flowering stem.  After blooming, the flowers shrivel and, together with their ovaries, drop off the poles before seed formation.  However, in addition to reproduction by seed, Agave sisalana also can reproduce itself vegetatively by means of both rhizomes and bulbils.

The rhizomes grow underground radially from the bole and then surface to form a new plant known as a "sucker".  Left undisturbed, the sisal plant may produce up to 20 suckers.  Suckers are removed as they tend to reduce the  growth rate of the parent plant and would result in a field of sisal plants varying in age and fibre quality

Bulbils are formed on the flowering stem immediately below the point where the flowers and ovaries have dropped off.  Bulbils are plantlets with reduced leaves and a rudimentary root system.  A large flowering pole may bear 2,000-3,000 bulbils.  When the formation of the bulbils is complete, they fall off the poles.

Both suckers and bulbils are collected from the fields and planted in nurseries.  Immature plants are kept in the nurseries for about 6 months and then planted in the fields.

In Tanzania, the fact that sisal propagates itself only vegetatively is an advantage.  The lack of seeding prevents the development of seedlings in the fields and allows controlled cultivation and harvesting by nursery and field hand planting.  As propagation is by means of bulbils or suckers, each generation is the same as the parent plant.

b)   Estate Development & Harvesting

For line fibre production, the sisal fields are planted with about 3,000 plants per hectare.  The sisal plants are planted in double offset rows with alleys between the rows.  The planting arrangement has been designed to allow cutters access to individual plants.

First cutting of the plants can occur when the plants are 40-48 months old depending on climate and soil conditions.  Leaf harvesting may be done once or twice per year, and a total of 50-60 leaves are removed per year.  The leaf harvesting continues until the plants are 9-12 years old.

Leaf cutting is done entirely by hand.  The cutters remove the mature bottom leaves, cut off the spines and tie the leaves in bundles of 30 leaves.  The cutters deposit the bundles at the end of the rows for pick-up and transport to the decorticating plant.

c)   Line Fibre Processing

At the decorticating plant, the bundles are untied and the leaves are fed to the decorticators which crush the leaves and scrape off the epidermis and pithy material from the line fibre.  The line fibre is draped over ?fences? and  dried.  Dried fibre is classified and baled for shipment.