It will generate and be healthier. One thing for future reference (and you didn't do anything wrong) but it is OK to remove part of the fine haired root system when repotting. Sometimes, you may even have to cut/chop/slice the stem or root right off of the plant in order to repot and when done correctly - can be very beneficial for the plant. If you have a lot of soil in the root system next time, it is ok to pull that apart, shake the dirt from the system or even cut the system down. There are some fabulous video trainings of repotting and cutting violets down to size online. This is just the beginning for you and great things/plants/experiences are sure to come....lots of learning and growing too :) Dora PS..keep track and we'd love to see pics in about 2 weeks.

There are actually several leaf primordial in the spike, one over another like those nested Russian dolls. It is extremely unlikely that you managed to break off all of the apical meristem in the plant. The effect of that would be the same as coring: branching would stimulated. Your plant should recover in time with no evidence of the damage. However did you manage to injure the plant? Brad

Thanks for the replies. Javelina - a peccary? I live in Leisure World in Mesa and I've seen lots of rabbits, feral cats and even coyotes but never anything that looked like a pig. The rabbits around here are generally pretty small but a few weeks ago I saw a rather large one with very long ears - I was surprised as it was about the size of a large cat. It looked a lot different from the normal rabbits I have seen over the past 3 years. My Agaves are pretty small (the ones that got eaten) - about 6 inches in diameter - planted about two years ago. One that was uprooted and eaten was the same size and species as the one in the upper right of the picture below. You can see the remaining leaves that were left after the meal. I actually have a variety of Agaves and whoever the culprit was only seems to like this one particular species. The other Agaves were not touched. I was thinking something smaller than a peccary as my neighbor, who has much larger plants of the same species, lost a number of the same species earlier this year. Originally I thought it might have been the heat that killed them but I noticed that something had dug around the plants that died. See picture below: The large one in the middle is almost two feet across. The gravel immediately around the base of the plants had been pushed aside, almost as if someone was planning on digging them up. Originally I thought maybe my neighbor had asked his landscaper to remove them but when I contacted him he said he did not ask his landscaper to do any work this summer. Almost all of his Agaves of this species look like the one above with gravel around the base pushed out. Based on this I thought it might have been small rabbits or rodents digging to get to the roots. Mine, being smaller than his, was completely uprooted as you can see in the first picture. Last year I made the mistake of planting a spineless Opuntia but soon something was munching on the pads (rabbits I think). Over that winter it was eaten to the ground but the roots had still survived, so I dug it up and put it in a planter where it revived and started regrowth, but if I now have something that eats the roots, then there is nothing to revive. I have a variety of cacti with spines that I could plant to replace the eaten plants but I have had bad luck in that area with cacti. I lost several barrel cacti in that location - instead of growing they just seemed to get smaller and dry up - dunno why. I planted Agave as replacement and they seemed to do better but now I have something eating them - although I hope its just that one species and leaves the other Agave alone.

If the main stem is damaged beyond redemption maybe try cutting it off with a sterile knife till good healthy tissue is reached, often attenuatas will regenerate from the base and throw out new pups. My regular green one developed a unhealthy top after cold damage last year, I’ve cut it off and now have several pups growing happily from the severed base. It lives in an unheated greenhouse here in the U.K. with temps as low as -8C so far and the only extra protection is from a thin horticultural fleece thrown over it and all my other plants in there. Gill