Many flower gardeners would like to have a spectacular plant that would green an apartment in the cold season, and in the summer it would feel great in a container outside. These room colors include yucca. Caring for a decorative tree at home will be an exciting experience, subject to all the necessary recommendations. This will be discussed in this article.
Brief information
In the southern regions, an evergreen plant lives in the open air, found in North and Central America. In cold regions, with proper home care, yucca is grown as an interior culture. In appearance, it resembles a palm tree, although it has nothing to do with it. Due to her interesting appearance, she found a place with many gardeners.
In the wild, the false palm is a large shrub with long leaves diverging in different directions. When the lower leaf layers die off, only the green top remains and an elegant plant trunk opens. Thus, the culture from the agave family is transformed into the shape of a palm tree. By this time, its trunk becomes lignified, and the pointed, lanceolate leaves are quite stiff. The resulting crown is dark green or gray. Sheet plates are sometimes covered with hard fibers. Once these hairs served as a suitable raw material for the production of denim. More rigid fibers from certain types of plants are used to make wickerwork and ropes.
In total, there are about 45 species of plants from the genus agave. Most of the evergreen shrubs feel good in the wild and absolutely do not need care and home conditions. Photos of yucca wild for comparison are also posted in the article. Only 4-6 copies are adapted for indoor cultivation. There are several options for garden palms that enjoy the warm climate.
Homemade yucca
Depending on the variety, a yucca may look different. There are plants in which the stem has up to 3 growth points. Such trees branch well and look very luxurious. The leaf plates of some indoor flowers are drooping. Their color can vary from green to yellow, sometimes with white streaks. Fruits come in the form of seed boxes, and some varieties produce berries.
Few owners have seen how unusually beautiful the yucca blooms. Home care, no matter how good it is, will not replace the plant's natural environment. If it happens that indoor culture blooms, then only for 6-7 years of life, and even then it is extremely rare. At one point, the plant can release a powerful peduncle with many white bells collected in a lush panicle. As practice shows, such a miracle occurs with fairly mature plants after a period of winter dormancy, and when the temperature is not more than +13 o C.
With home care, the yucca palm tree is extremely slow. However, having patience, you can wait until your tree reaches a fairly impressive size (for example, 3 meters). And if you give it a peculiar shape, using a special trimming technique, it will be wonderfully in harmony with other indoor colors. Evergreen palm can become an accent in the overall plant composition.
Below is a photo of a yucca at home and home care for this wonderful tree. First we learn about the varieties of this plant.
Kinds
Tree-like plants greening not only residential premises and offices, but also adjoining plots, terraces and open loggias. Consider the most popular varieties of decorative palm trees:
- Aloeelistic. It is characterized by slow growth, as the crown develops, it acquires a spherical shape. Rigid, sheet plates are dark green in color. The tree-like stalk is exposed over time, it is clearly branched, on the edges of the branches there are dense leaf sockets.
- Elephant The tree-like plant belongs to the asparagus family and is found in Mexico and Guatemala. A characteristic feature of this variety is the original thick trunk, in which many find similarities with the foot of an elephant. In the wild, this tree reaches enormous size (more than 8 m). A bunch with glossy leaves is at the top of the trunk. Peduncle with beautiful bells appears only in the summer. For yucca, elephant care at home is not too complicated. The only thing is that you need to timely correct the height of the tree. Before the onset of the growing season, the upper part of the plant is trimmed. Subsequently, new shoots will appear and the palm will continue its development.
- Filamentous. Frost-resistant flower, perfectly preserved at -20 Β° C frost. It does not have a trunk, therefore it grows in width due to root processes. Leaves of a bluish tint with pointed and somewhat lowered edges. Their surface is covered with many white fibers.
- Whipple. It grows very slowly, characterized by a short trunk. Sheet plates are stiff with fibers. They are quite long (80 cm), have a gray-green color. The edges of the leaves are some spikes, and along the entire edge they are visible cloves. The flowers are creamy white with barely noticeable purple notes, have a delicate aroma. After flowering, the old bush dies, but instead produces several young shoots.
- Sizaya. A plant with a shortened trunk and elongated thin leaves. The sheet plates are fibrous, leathery, light at the edges, tightly assembled into a socket. Cream flowers with a greenish or brown tint. Check out this interesting culture in the photo. Yucca needs home care only in the fresh air; she is not grown indoors.
False palm care tips
Of the above species in the room contain only elephant and aloe palm trees. For a southern plant, it will be preferable to be in the familiar atmosphere, corresponding to its botanical features inherent in the wild. Therefore, you need to try to make the yucca flower feel at home in the conditions of home care. By the way, due to the fact that in the natural environment the palm tree is accustomed to an arid and hot climate, it tolerates dry air indoors. For this reason, the plant does not need spraying.
Since his favorite places are semi-deserts, he needs comprehensive coverage. For a decorative palm tree to develop normally, it needs a long daylight hours - at least 16 hours. This will require artificial lighting at least for the winter. If you intend to place the flower on the windowsill, the light should be oblique. Direct sunlight will not harm him if he is in the fresh air. In the summer, a flowerpot with a palm tree can be brought out onto the terrace or balcony. Some owners plant their plant in the garden. When making such a decision, it must be borne in mind that in open ground it will grow greatly.
The yucca will signal its mistakes when leaving at home. She may suspend growth or stretch the trunk excessively. Leaves acquire a pale and unnatural color. All these manifestations make themselves felt in poor lighting, so it is better not to bring your flower to such a state and, if necessary, change its location.
For a plant such as yucca, home care involves wiping the leaves. You need to regularly remove dust with a damp cloth. It is advisable to do this in the evening - if you carry out such a procedure in the sun, the plant may get burned.
The south side is the most suitable place for an evergreen palm tree. However, experienced gardeners managed to grow a good tree on the western side. The main thing is to choose a secluded place, protected from the cold and drafts, their heat-loving culture does not tolerate.
Watering and feeding
Species such as aloe-shaped yucca and elephant, which are usually grown indoors, do not need frequent watering. Nothing will happen to them if for some time they are left without moisture, but with increased humidity, false palms can die. The soil between watering should dry well (7 cm). In winter, spraying is allowed, but watering should be reduced.
Yucca is responsive to fertilizers and needs to be fed every three months. For this purpose, buy special fertilizers in garden stores.
Transfer
For an interesting plant, you need to choose a beautiful flowerpot. The volume of capacity will depend on your future plans. For example, many flower growers practice joint planting. With undemanding in the conditions of home care, the yucca palm tree well adjoins other indoor flowers in a common container. These can be plants such as pelargonium, geranium or flowering Kalanchoe. How best to create a floral design in your apartment is a matter of personal preference.
Mandatory is a transplant of a plant purchased at a flower shop. The soil in which it was originally planted, by its composition, is not suitable for the long-term maintenance of a palm tree. This is a substrate of peat and coconut fiber, which serves as a temporary mechanism for fixing the root system. Kokogrunt widely used for the transport of ornamental plants brought from abroad. However, the transplant process does not need to be carried out immediately, because the culture needs time to get used to the new conditions.
The old plant is transplanted by transshipment. The next change of capacity is carried out once every two years, in other cases, if necessary, for example, if rot has appeared on the root system.
Next, we will talk about how to properly transplant a yucca flower at home. Caring for the plant that you might want to purchase will not do without this process. It consists of several sequential actions:
- A container or a large flowerpot is taken, preferably a plastic one (ceramic containers are used for transshipment of adult bushes).
- Since yucca is not a moisture-loving crop, drainage is mandatory for it. It will protect the root system from stagnation of moisture. A sufficient layer of drainage is laid on the bottom of the pot.
- Then they pour a little earth on top. For planting, you can take universal soil and add a little perlite to it.
- The plant is then removed from the old pot. Since its roots are fixed with a special substrate, this can be done in a single motion: with one hand you need to hold the trunk, and with the other hit the edge of the container and knock it down.
- The next stage is a decisive moment on which the further development of the false palm will depend. Kokogrunt needs to be slightly a bit shredded only from the upper part of the coma, in no case should it be removed from the roots and disturb their already existing system.
- With an emergency transplant (if the roots are rotten), you will have to slightly injure the plant. In such a situation, coco soil should be removed in order to carefully examine the root system and cut off the diseased processes on it.
- The earthen lump is transshipped into a wide flowerpot and covered with soil on all sides from the earlobes, i.e., the place of contact with coco soil.
- At the end of planting, you do not need to water the tree. Moisture, which is contained in universal soil, lasts for 7 days. If you used a substrate prepared by yourself, then it needs to be slightly moistened.
- The earth needs to be leveled and compacted. A week after the first watering, you will need to pour a little more soil.
You should not think that the biggest concerns of a good grower come down only to a Yucca transplant. Home care for the tree plant is yet to come. Most likely, you want your plant to have an aesthetic appearance. In this case, you need to monitor its shape. This task is not too complicated and consists of several simple manipulations.
Pruning
Correction of the trunk is an important component of home care (photos of the yucca palm trees perfectly illustrate how the plant looks after pruning) for a decorative plant, only then you can see all the exterior sides of your tree. Thanks to this technique, the crown becomes more voluminous; additional bundles of leaves grow from young shoots. Manipulation is performed before the start of active growth, after watering the plant. You need to step back from the leaves below 5 cm and quickly cut the trunk. The cut place is treated with activated carbon.
If softening of tissues is found on the trunk, it means that it rotted inside. It is urgent to cut off the top and root in the enriched soil, placing in a warm place.
Breeding
Sometimes referred to as home care and reproduction of yucca. A finished tree is not cheap, so itβs better to learn how to grow young bushes yourself. Consider the main methods of reproduction:
- Cuttings. It has already been mentioned that a new plant is grown from the top, but cuttings are also cut from the trunk. It is divided into lengths of about 25 cm. Slices on cuttings and the mother tree can be dried or treated with garden varieties. For rooting, take a mixture of turf soil with sand. In this case, the cuttings are not watered. Transplanted to a permanent place immediately after root formation.
- Side shoots. The bush is neatly divided into several small parts together with the roots. They are planted in small pots and watered abundantly. When the measles system grows and gets stronger, it is watered in the usual way for this species.
- Seminal. A mixture is prepared from sand, sheet and turf soil, taken in equal proportions. Seeds are sown in one container and covered with a transparent material. The room with future seedlings should be regularly ventilated, and the earth moistened.
Pests and diseases
The root system and stem of the yucca may rot. Such damage is the result of waterlogging. Leaves turn yellow and turn brown. Similar signs are observed with high humidity. Dry leaves need to be torn off and measures taken to save the plant. If in such circumstances the roots did not have time to get sick, then there are chances of his survival.
Dry leaves indicate the presence of a spider mite or false scutellum. Pest control is carried out both mechanically and with the help of special drugs.
Conclusion
We hope that after reading our article, you have received comprehensive information about the amazing Yucca plant (home care). Photos you had the opportunity to consider in the review. Obviously, this does not require professional knowledge or complex requirements. Everyone can grow a plant that can cause delight.