Growing Yucca At Home

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-16 15:57

How to grow the original Yucca plant indoors

Plants of the genus Yucca belong to the Agavaceae family. As a rule, these are perennial tree-like evergreens.

Fibers of some types of yucca are used in light industry - to increase durability, they are added in the production of jeans, rope ropes and other plaited products, and they are also used in the paper industry. The natives of America used yucca fibers in the manufacture of clothes, ropes, shoes. The Indians washed their hair with yucca root to combat dandruff and hair loss. Yucca has also been used to treat headaches, stop bleeding, arthritis and rheumatism, and as a natural deodorant.

The Indians called Shidiger's yucca "the tree of life" for its unique healing properties - anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory. Currently, Shidigera yucca extract is used as an additive in animal feed (for example, cats) to reduce toilet odor.

Yucca are useful perennials in the garden, attracting nocturnal pollinating insects with their sweet aroma. Due to its attractive appearance and unpretentiousness, yucca are used to decorate home and office interiors.

Spread

Under natural conditions, plants of the genus Yucca grow in areas with subtropical and tropical climates (North, Central and South America, Jamaica and Bermuda, southern Europe). Yucca is also grown outside its natural range as an ornamental pot plant.

Features of culture

In nature, yucca reaches 4-20 m in height, but yucca growing at home usually does not exceed 2 m.

Plants of the Yucca genus, depending on the species, have leaves collected in an apical or basal rosette, dense, rigid, leathery, xiphoid (or spear-shaped), narrow-linear, shiny or rough, pointed, with an apical thorn, with smooth or serrated edges, 15- 120 cm and 1-10 cm wide. Depending on the variety, the leaves can be bluish-green with a whitish border, grayish-green, dark green with a bluish bloom and whitish edges, pale green, brownish, bluish-green, with threads along edges. As a rule, the stem of the yucca is slightly branched.

Its flowers are of various shapes, more often bell-shaped or cup-shaped, 5-8 cm in diameter. They are white, yellowish-white, greenish-white, yellowish, pale yellow, cream. Numerous flowers are collected in erect or drooping inflorescences 100-300 cm long. Adult plants bloom. As a rule, in a pot culture, yucca rarely blooms and bears fruit.

The fruit of this plant is a dry or juicy fleshy box 5-10 cm in diameter with black seeds.

Yucca types

According to various estimates, the number of yucca species ranges from 30-50.

The most common types of yucca in decorative floriculture:

• elephant yucca (Y. elephantipes or Y. Guatemalensis),
• glorious yucca (Y. gloriosa),
• aloe leaf yucca (Y. aloifolia),
• filamentous yucca (Y. Filamentosa),
• yucca gray (Y. glauca),
• southern yucca (Y. australis),
• Yucca Treculeana (Y. treculeana),
• short-leaved yucca (Y. brevifolia or Y. arborescens),
• folded yucca (Y. recurvifolia),
• radiant yucca (Y. radiosa),
• Yucca Whipplei,
• yucca beak (Y. rostrata),
• yucca Schotta (Y. schottii or Y. macrocarpa) and others.

Some yucca species have an interesting pollination system that occurs through the symbiosis of the yucca and the small moth, Tegeticula yuccasella. In areas where these butterflies are not found, yucca does not set fruit. It should be noted that the species Y. aloifolia, which is widespread in indoor floriculture, has self-pollinating flowers, so it can bear fruit at home.

Between 1897 and 1907, the German botanist Karl Ludwig Sprenger named 122 yucca hybrids.

Yucca conditions

Illumination and temperature conditions. Yucca is a hardy light-loving and heat-loving plant. Grows well on a warm windowsill, brightly lit by the sun's rays. The room in which the yucca grows must be regularly ventilated during the warm season (or, if possible, place the plant on the balcony or in the garden). In this case, you need to protect the plant from drafts and hypothermia. Even during the resting period, yucca needs high illumination. The optimum air temperature in the warm season is + 18 … 25 ^o С, in the cold - +10 ^o С.

Soil, irrigation regime and air humidity. The soil for planting yucca should be loose, permeable, not heavy. I usually use a ready-made soil substrate (universal soil), to which I sometimes add a little coarse sand and charcoal. You can make your own potting mix. Its composition should include the following components: sod land, humus, peat, sand (approximately in equal proportion). The pot for planting yucca should be deep and have good drainage - you can put a layer of expanded clay or small pebbles on the bottom. The acidity of the soil should be close to neutral (pH 6.0-7.0).

Usually indoor yuccas are undemanding to air humidity, but some species like high humidity. In my opinion, if you spray the plant once a day, it will benefit any yucca (both sensitive to air humidity and insensitive). The main thing is that after spraying, the plant should not be exposed to direct sunlight.

For spraying, a fine spray nozzle is suitable. Water for spraying and irrigation should be separated, at room temperature. The frequency of watering depends on the conditions of the plant and the season. Yucca should be watered sparingly as the soil dries up. In the warm season, watering should be more abundant (about twice a week). In the cold season, it is necessary to reduce the watering of the plant. In general, yucca tolerates drying out more easily than waterlogging.

As with many houseplants, yucca leaves should be periodically wiped with a damp cloth or soft sponge to remove dust and dirt.

Top dressing with fertilizers. In the spring-summer period, it is necessary to feed the yucca once every 15-20 days with water-soluble complex fertilizers for indoor plants (I alternate organic and mineral fertilizers). In the autumn-winter period and immediately after transplanting yucca, fertilization should be stopped. In addition to root dressing, yucca likes foliar dressing (leaf-wise).

Transplant. It is best to transplant (or reload) yucca in the spring, as needed, usually no more than once every 1-2 years.

Quite often, flower growers are faced with the problem of decay of the roots and trunk of the yucca caused by waterlogging of the soil. Dark spots and softened areas on the trunk are characteristic. In this case, you can try to save the plant by preserving and rooting the healthy part of the trunk (this area remains light and elastic) using the air cut or apical cuttings.

Reproduction. Yucca can be propagated by shoots(stem suckers), apical cuttings or parts of the trunk with axillary buds, less often seeds. It should be noted that if the top with leaves grows well in a yucca, in this case the plant rarely gives full-fledged lateral stem suckers. If the dormant bud is stimulated and a lateral shoot appears, then, as a rule, this shoot withers, reaching a length of 1-2 cm. If you cut off the crown of the yucca, then full-fledged lateral shoots will develop. For cut stem shoots or apical cuttings, it is necessary to treat the cut site with crushed coal or garden pitch. You also need to process the cut off the mother plant. About 1-2 hours after processing, plant shoots and cuttings in moistened coarse sand, under which nutritious soil is poured. The seedlings can be covered with a transparent film, they must be regularly ventilated. After 1-2 months, young plants will have roots, then they can be transplanted.

Yucca seeds should be planted in the soil mixture, covered with foil (until germination), and regularly ventilated. Seedlings will appear in 1-1.5 months.

When yucca is propagated by parts of a bare trunk with dormant axillary buds, it is necessary to place them horizontally on wet sand, spud a little. When shoots with roots are formed from the axillary buds, it is necessary to cut the trunk into parts according to the number of young shoots and plant in separate flower pots.

Bush formation. In the spring, to form a branching bush, you can cut off the apical stalk of a yucca about 10-20 cm long. For this purpose, it is best to choose a young tall plant. The cut must be treated with garden pitch or sprinkled with crushed coal. As a result, stem shoots will grow from the awakened buds. The cut apical stalk can be rooted (before planting, the cut must also be processed).

Possible problems that gardeners may have when growing yucca are shown in the table.

Table. Possible problems with yucca cultivation

P / p #	Problem	Causes	Decision
one.	Dark spots and softened areas on the trunk	Waterlogging of the soil	See above
2.	Light dry spots on the leaves	Excessive illumination	Compliance with temperature and light conditions
3.	Brown-brown spots on soft, curled leaves (tips and edges)	Insufficient humidity and air temperature, insufficient watering	Regular watering and periodic spraying of the leaves, maintaining the optimum temperature.
4.	Elongated shoots, pale thin leaves	High air temperature and low light in winter	Compliance with light and temperature conditions during the rest period
five.	Pests: spider mite, mealybug (attack weakened plants)	Insufficient humidity in a warm room, lack of nutrients	If pests are found, carry out chemical treatment with insecticides. Regular fertilization. The use of immunomodulators

Some yucca species can be successfully grown in the garden. I will talk about the cultivation of yucca in the open field in the next article.

Anna Vasilina