Yucca indoor: home care, plant propagation, how to transplant step by step

Yucca noble indoor is considered an expensive plant that flower growers are not ashamed to present as a gift. It is ideal for decorating the interior of a home, unpretentious, has an exotic appearance. Yucca is often called a palm tree, which is an erroneous statement: it is a representative of the Liliaceae family and has nothing in common with palm trees, except for a slight external resemblance.

Description and characteristics of culture

Description of room yucca allows you to highlight its characteristic features and not to be confused with other similar plants. A correctly compiled characteristic makes it possible to recognize a noble flower and allocate an honorable place for it in your home.

External Description

The height of room yucca reaches 2 meters. The plant has a lignified stem, outwardly similar to an elephant's leg, at the top covered with leaves of green or gray color. Yucca foliage sticks out in different directions, droops a little. Its shape is sword-shaped. Each leaf can grow up to 0.5 meters in length. There are varieties in which the trunk is completely absent, and the crown consists of 1 or more rosettes.

Root system

Vulnerable point of room yucca is its root system. Although the flower itself is large, its roots are small. In too dense soil, they suffocate, and with an excess of moisture, they rot, and the plant dies.

All about flowering

Not all owners of the plant can admire the flowering of home yucca. Some species in captivity categorically refuse to throw out the peduncle even with proper care and maintenance.

First bloom

Yucca blooms for the first time only in the 7-10th year of life. In room conditions, this process may be delayed, or the plant does not form a flower bud at all.

How often yucca blooms

The frequency of flowering in yucca depends on the variety grown. In most cases, it forms a kidney once a year.

Suitable varieties for home growing

Not all varieties found in the wild are suitable for indoor growing. This should be remembered when choosing a green pet for your premises. Most often on the windowsills there are such varieties of yucca:

Elephant (Giant);
Aloe leaf;
Glorious;
Filament;
Sizaya.

Growing conditions

To grow yucca indoors and wait for it to bloom, you need to create suitable conditions for this and follow the recommendations of experienced professionals.

Optimal location: lighting and location

Yucca belongs to light-loving crops, therefore it is preferable to place it on a stand near the eastern or western windows. The room should have a sufficient level of illumination, uniform throughout the day. This factor has a significant impact not only on growth and development, but also on the decorative qualities of the flower.

It is not recommended to put the yucca on the floor, because in this case it will not receive additional light. The stand should be flush with the window sill. If the plant is placed near the south window, then at noon it will be necessary to create additional protection from the scorching sun (blinds or curtains) to prevent sunburn

A small young flower can be kept right on the windowsill. In summer, they will have to be protected from sunburn, and in winter, make sure that they do not touch the cold window. In winter, anywhere in the yucca, there is a shortage of lighting, so it is imperative to organize the backlight with a fitolamp or fluorescent lamp. Daylight hours for a plant should last up to 12 hours.

Temperature conditions

Yucca has been successfully grown at standard room temperature. An indicator of 22-26 ° C is considered optimal. In winter, it is preferable to reduce the temperature to 16-20 ° C. The plant does not like sudden changes, and also needs protection from hot air flows from the heating battery.

Humidity

Yukka does not need high humidity. The standard indicator of a city apartment (40-50%) is sufficient for her. If the humidity falls below this limit, then the leaves of the plant are sprayed, and artificial air humidifiers are installed.

Substrate requirements

For planting yucca, you can buy ready-made soil in the store. A substrate suitable for growing palm trees, dracaena and yucca is suitable. It is also prepared independently, necessarily including the following components:

turf land;
overripe needles;
coarse river sand;
humus.

It is allowed to replace humus with purchased biohumus, and add peat to the leaf part. An adult yucca needs denser soil, because it contains half of the soddy soil. A drainage layer must be laid at the bottom of the pot, and only then the nutrient soil for the plant is filled up.

Volume and dimensions of the pot

For planting yucca requires a deep pot, spacious in width. The root system should be placed freely in the container, and a distance of 1.5 cm is left to the walls.

Scheme and planting technology

It is not so difficult to plant a yucca on your own, it is important to get high-quality planting material. There are several ways to propagate a decorative flower, in which each action is described step by step. It is worth noting that until full rooting, the soil should be kept moderately moist. When overdrying, the seedling will dry out, and when waterlogged, there is a high risk of rotting.

Pots with unrooted yuccas are placed in a warm room. It would be advisable to organize the heating of the lower part of the tank. A plastic bag or a piece of a plastic bottle is put on top of the plant to achieve the effect of a greenhouse. A month after planting, the root system begins to form, and after a couple of months new shoots break through, signaling the need for a flower transplant.

Caring for a plant at home

Yukka is an unpretentious flower, but it requires a little attention and care. In gratitude, the plant will delight with decorative qualities, and perhaps even flowering.

Irrigation system

It is permissible to water the yucca only with settled water at room temperature to avoid acidification of the soil. The frequency of irrigation directly depends on the size and age of the plant. The larger it is, the less often it will need to be watered. Not the last role is played by the volume of the pot. In a 5 liter container, the soil dries out faster than in a 20 liter container.

Yukka grows actively in summer, therefore it needs more liquid than in winter. The need for watering is determined by the state of the topsoil. It is impossible to allow a strong drying of the earthy coma, but excess moisture also adversely affects the he alth of the flower.

Feeding and fertilizer

You can feed the yucca with one of the preparations offered in the store. The modern assortment allows you to choose both complex mineral and organic fertilizers, suitable specifically for this type of plant. The recommendations and dosages specified by the manufacturer should be strictly adhered to. Otherwise, instead of the expected positive result, you can cause significant harm to the flower. They also take into account the fact that in autumn the amount of top dressing is reduced, as the yucca prepares for a dormant period and consumes less nutrients from the soil.

Shaping cut

Pruning the yucca is required for it to have a beautiful shape. Otherwise, the plant will have one elongated trunk with a bunch of leaves at the end. Also, using this procedure, you can rejuvenate an obsolete tree. The first pruning is carried out at a time when the height of the trunk reaches 65 cm and its diameter is 5 cm.It is preferable to work in the spring, after watering the flower.

When pruning, remove the top of the yucca and leave a trunk 45 cm high. When the cut dries out a little, it is treated with garden pitch or sprinkled with activated charcoal. After this, several axillary buds are activated. Only those of them that form the necessary branches are left, the rest are used for reproduction.

Transfer

Immediately after purchase, the yucca will need to be transplanted. Also, this procedure is carried out at:

suspected root system disease;
every 2-3 years, increasing the size of the pot.

Transplantation is carried out in the spring, having previously prepared a larger vessel, soil mixture and drainage. A few days before the planned work, they stop watering the yucca. If the soil in the pot is still good, then only the top layer is removed.

Before a direct transplant, a thorough examination of the state of the root system is carried out. If there are soft and darkened areas, they are immediately cut off, and the wounds are treated with activated carbon powder.

How to take care of the leaves, cleaning from dust

Leaves are the main decorative element of yucca, so their condition is very important. Over time, dust accumulates on them, which not only spoils the appearance, but also negatively affects the he alth of the flower. Some prefer to send a green pet under the shower, washing off everything superfluous from it, but it will be correct to regularly wipe the leaves with a damp cloth. After a shower, let the plant dry in a place protected from light, but it is better to carry out the procedure in the evening.

Diseases and their treatment

Like any indoor flower, yucca is susceptible to pests and various diseases that greatly impair the decorative properties and can even lead to the death of the flower.

Twisting foliage

Twisted leaves often signal a low temperature and lack of lighting during the dormant period. It is necessary to take care of the normalization of these indicators by installing phytolamps.

Leaf spot

This sign indicates the presence of fungal diseases provoked by excessive moisture. It is necessary to reduce the number of waterings, reduce the level of humidity in the room, and remove and destroy the affected parts of the yucca.

Dry spots on leaves

Alarm indicates too much light and too little humidity. It is recommended to move the pot to partial shade and increase the humidity level.

Rot

Root decay is most often caused by excess moisture and standing water in the pan. It is urgent to transplant the plant, removing all the affected parts and treating it with activated charcoal, a weak solution of potassium permanganate.

Pest control

Pests of indoor plants are no less dangerous than pathogens. It is necessary to fight them decisively and in a timely manner.

Spider mite

The pest acts on the underside of the leaf plate, as a result of which it becomes dull, and eventually dies off completely. Spraying the green mass with soapy water and insecticidal agents is an effective prevention.

False Shield

False shield acts not only on the leaves, but also on the stalks of yucca. If the pest is not destroyed in a timely manner, the flower may die. To combat it, a solution of the Aktellik preparation is used, which is used to wipe the leaf plates.

Crop propagation

There are several effective and easy ways to propagate room yucca that growers use.

Plant cuttings

False palm cuttings are propagated mainly in spring, but this method is practiced until August. To obtain planting material, it is recommended to divide the stem of the plant into parts 10 cm long each. The stalk from the top is planted in a nutrient soil mixture and a greenhouse is formed on top of it. The remaining cuttings are placed in a horizontal position in the soil and slightly buried. After a while, dormant buds will wake up and form new shoots. When they grow a little, young yuccas can be planted in separate pots.

Sowing seeds

Seeds are sown in nutrient soil, a sheet of glass is placed on top or covered with a transparent film to organize a mini-greenhouse. The humidity in it is maintained at the level of 75%, daily ventilation is organized, and if necessary, the soil is sprayed with a spray bottle.A month later, the first shoots of yucca are shown. As soon as they grow up, each seedling is planted in a separate container.

Tops

You can propagate yucca using any broken twig or cut top with a rosette of leaves. If it is long, then the trunk is slightly shortened and allowed to dry for a couple of hours, and then the lower leaves are removed. The resulting stalk is planted in nutrient soil and covered with cellophane or a glass jar. The soil should be kept slightly moist.

Stem cuttings can be placed in water to root. To prevent decay, activated carbon and ash are added there. As soon as the roots form, the yucca is planted in a separate prepared pot. The method of propagation by segments makes it possible to save a flower that, for various reasons, has lost its root system.

We propagate by lateral processes

This method is very similar to the propagation of yucca cuttings. From the main trunk of an adult tree, a sufficient number of lateral branches are formed. If they are carefully separated and sent to water or wet sand for further rooting, then after a while you can get a young independent plant. The fact that the flower has successfully taken root and began to develop is evidenced by the appearance of new shoots.