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In the southern areas, Yucca, the indigenous person of Central America, can grow in the open field, but in the middle lane it lacks heat, so you can only meet it in the interior design. Care for yucca at home should be based on the habits and preferences of the plant, laid back at home.
In nature, yucca is a fully or partially leafy, large shrub. If the plant leaves and dries from the lower tiers, it dries and falls, the yucca is very similar to a palm tree with a bare woody trunk and a bunch of hard leaves at the top. However, the palm tree to consider this, belonging to the family of agave culture wrong.
Yucca is dense, sticking out in different directions or slightly drooping leaves, pointed lanceolate. The edges of the leaf plates are covered with long, stiff hairs. In nature, the length of such a leaf can reach up to a meter, for indoor species, the leaves are more modest and more often do not grow more than 50 cm. But in the room yucca, as in the photo, the leaves can be not only green, but variegated, decorated with bright yellow or white stripes.
With such a harsh appearance, characteristic of plants of desert and semi-desert, Yucca blooms surprisingly beautiful, throwing out powerful vertical peduncles covered with a mass of buds. The flowers resemble white, yellowish or pinkish bells.
Getting into the house with a fairly small plant, the yucca in a few years turns into a large bush or tree that requires special treatment and care.
How to care for a yucca in order to maintain its compact form, small dimensions acceptable for a room? What needs to be done to make the plant feel like at home?
Peculiarities of home care for yucca
As a houseplant, the species most commonly grown in nature are accustomed to the arid climate and the abundance of sun. Such specimens withstand temperature fluctuations, are not afraid of dry flat air, unpretentious to the composition of the soil.
And yet such a hardy plant has weaknesses. For yucca, the main danger is excessive watering, especially in combination with cold air in the room.
Doubting whether to water the yucca, it is better for the florist to postpone the procedure for a day or two. The plant without any problems will suffer short-term thirst, but immediately let you know about the excess of moisture.
Watering frequency and amount of irrigated moisture depends on:
- season;
- on the temperature and humidity of the air in the room or in the garden, where the plant is taken out for the summer months;
- on room yucca flower size, as pictured;
- on the volume of the pot and on the ability of the soil to evaporate water.
From spring to autumn, the soil is moistened frequently and abundantly as the substrate dries to a depth of 2–5 cm. Then, watering becomes less and sparser. The colder in the room, the less water the plant consumes. Therefore, care for yucca at home is constantly adjusted. Irrigation moisture should not penetrate inside the leaf outlet. It is better not to pour water between trunks growing close to one pot. In both cases, there is a risk of decay, which threatens to lose the flower.
Watering combined with fertilizing, which is carried out from spring until autumn. It is especially important to support the plant during the flowering period.
Dry air is not a problem for yucca, but to maintain the cleanliness of the leaves and improve their breathing in hot weather, the crown can be wiped with a damp, well wrung cloth. To avoid burns, after such a procedure, yucca should not be carried out in the sun. It is more correct to arrange the “washing” of a flower in the evening, since the crown will dry out well during the night.
Yucca loves light, warmth, but does not tolerate cold wind and drafts. To facilitate the care of the flower at home, yucca find a place on the south window.
Large copies are placed near the window. Such penumbra also likes plants. The main thing is that direct sunlight falls on the crown at least three hours a day, and the plant does not suffer from excessive moisture. In the summer, the pot is carried out on the balcony or veranda. If the year is warm, and the owner of the flower is not afraid of its growth, the yucca can be planted in the ground.
For a room yucca brought to fresh air, as in the photo, a temperature of about 18-25 ° C is acceptable. But with a decrease in night temperatures to 12–16 ° C, it is better to return the pot to the house. The minimum allowable temperature for this culture is +8 ° C.
How to transplant yucca at home?
Transplantation for yucca, as well as for other indoor crops, is a serious stress. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out such a procedure in two cases:
- when the root system has grown so much that it occupied the entire pot, leaving no space for the ground;
- when the plant needs urgent help due to rotting roots or other mistakes made when caring for yucca at home.
In the first case, small plants are turned over into a pot of slightly larger diameter, in which drainage has been previously poured. Empty places are filled with fresh substrate, simultaneously updating the top layer of the old soil.
But how to plant room yucca, in the photo, and care for it, if the plant so takes up a lot of space, and the owner does not want to allow further growth?
To limit growth, do not change the pot. And before transplanting yucca at home, the root system of the plant is cut with a clean, sharp knife by about a quarter. The cut sections are treated with ground charcoal. New drainage and soil are poured into the pot. And then they plant a plant. Be sure to pour fresh substrate and on top. Annual sprinkling of new soil is limited in the situation when the plant is already too large for transplanting.
After the transplantation, the yucca is not watered at all for two days, and then the soil begins to be moistened very carefully and moderately, waiting for the surface to dry.
Yucca grows well in the finished purchased substrate, but you can make the soil yourself by mixing in equal proportions the sand and leaf soil. To provide power to them add half the amount of humus.
Yucca breeding at home
As the yucca grows, the trunk of the yucca becomes bare and becomes like a room palm tree. The higher the tree becomes, the faster it loses its decorative effect. Keep and care for him all the more problematic. How to return to the plant acceptable size and former appeal?
It turns out that if a yucca cuts the top with a bundle of leaves and trunk fragments at least 10 cm, then you can rejuvenate the old plant and get a new one. In this case, care for Yucca "palm", in the photo, at home is not at all difficult.
The operation is carried out in the spring, when a period of growth begins. Pre-plant well watered. After a couple of days, the top of the yucca is cut off with a sharp knife. The remaining stump can be trimmed, leaving the desired height. When the weeping cut dries out a little, it is treated with a garden pitch.
Pot transferred from the shade, where the plant will spend about two months. At the same time the yucca does not need to be watered. Without a crown, the plant can not consume water, which only becomes a source of disease and rot.
In the warmth on the stem of a yucca, buds that have fallen asleep will soon be noticeable. When new rosettes of leaves develop from them, the plant is transported to the light and begins the usual care for yucca at home.
The tip is not thrown away, as it is an excellent planting material for the rapid reproduction of yucca at home. The lower leaves from the top are carefully cut off, and then the cutting is dropped in wet sand, covered with a bag or film and put in heat. For rooting it takes no more than a month, and then the top with its own roots is transferred to a pot, where the yucca is to grow further.
