How to Grow and Care for Yucca Plants

Bring an exotic touch to your four walls with yucca plants.

This woody, evergreen shrub with spiky green leaves will make your houseplant collection come alive. You will agree that it is pretty eye-catching once it stands in your living space. The best part of caring for it is easy, but a note of warning the yucca leaves are like a Spanish bayonet.

What Are Yucca Plants?

The genus Yucca comprises more than 40 perennial trees, shrubs, and plants. You only find a few yucca plants indoors. These are the Yucca guatemalensis, and Yuca aloifolia.

Then you have the Yucca filamentosa color guard grown as an outdoor plant to add height to the landscaping.

Yucca plants are native to the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America, adding visual interest to the garden with similar appearances as Agave or dragon plants. These plants have blue-green leaves and grow well in the Mojave Desert.

The yucca plant has thick leaves; on mature plants, the foliage forms a skirt around the base to protect the roots. A note is that these plants are not the same as the yuca or the cassava plants with edible starchy tubers commonly found in Latin American cuisine.

The yucca plants outdoors in North and South America are fast-growing, reaching up to two feet per year, and other plants are slow growers of five inches a year.

Yucca plants are drought tolerant, and most plants can grow indoors as room-devouring monsters but can take a few years to reach a mature plant’s size.

The best time to plant yuccas as outdoor plants is in early spring but do not grow them close to home. While not invasive, they do have invasive root systems damaging foundations.

Another notable thing is that these are not spineless Yucca and have long spiny leaves that are sharp and very pointy, causing injury. The leaves look similar to a Spanish bayonet.

All parts of the yucca plant are moderately toxic for humans and pets.

Caring for Yucca Plants Outdoors

yucca

As these are desert plants native to the Southwest of the United States, they thrive in well-draining soil like a sandy one.

Whether you have a Yucca gigantea, Yucca aloifolia, or any other species like the Yucca brevifolia, they love full sun, and handle heat, salt spray, and drought well.

Still, yucca plants require a lot of direct sunlight to flower, and a yucca plant indoors is less likely to bloom. Yet, even when your plant grows outside, please provide them with some afternoon shade.

If you want to bring indoor yucca plants outdoors during the summer, it helps to slowly acclimate them by hardening them off for a few weeks in bright indirect light outdoors.

Bring yucca species that are not cold-tolerant indoors when the weather becomes cooler. Here it would be best if you also hardened them off to live as indoor plants slowly.

Indoor Yucca Plant Care

Growing Yucca indoors helps to remember that yucca plants grow a few feet tall. Still, under the right conditions, your yucca plants grow on a bit of neglect. Yucca plants live on little water, and when you care for a yucca plant, prevent overhead watering and too much moisture. Choose a spot with low to medium light with low humidity for your yucca plant.

Yucca Plant Soil

Yucca is not picky when it comes to soil requirements. You can grow them in rock gardens on sandy soils. The important thing is to use well-draining soil to prevent the roots from sitting in water. Alternatively, you can enrich the potting soil by adding some perlite with coarse sand. A note is that a yucca houseplant is extremely drought-tolerant.

Lighting Condition

yucca plant under full sun

A key factor for your Yucca filamentosa color guard is getting the right amount of sunlight. Give your desert beauty-full sun grown in a rock garden with part shade. The same applies when growing your plant indoors. Provide it with bright indirect sunlight to prevent leaf burn.

Watering

Okay, this is where your yucca plant becomes picky as it is drought tolerant, and the trick is not to overwater it. The rule of thumb is to water when the top layer of the soil is dry.

You can water your plant well during early spring in the growing season to keep the soil moist but not soggy. But remove the water from the drainage if grown in containers.

Not removing the water will cause damage to the root system leading to crown and root rot. So you can expect to water your yucca plant every three days or longer, depending on the season.

Your water schedule will change during winter as the plant needs medium moisture to survive.

Temperature and Humidity

One thing you need not worry about with your Yucca is the temperature. You can grow your plant between 44° to 75°F (7 to 24°C). Your Yucca plants can tolerate a wide selection of temperatures.

yucca temperature requirement

Another benefit is that this plant does not need high humidity, and your average living space is right. But it helps keep the humidity level a bit higher during winter. You do not want your Yucca to become a hotel for pests, and the leaves can dry out.

Fertilizer

During spring to mid-summer, you can provide your Yucca with some liquid fertilizer twice a week. Or you can use a granular feed as well.

But stop feeding your guard Yucca color in the winter months when resting. Neither is feeding your plant needed in the garden or indoors after the first year of growing or repotting.

Propagating Yucca Plants

While the division is one method of propagating your plant, you can also use stem cuttings and seed propagation.

Division or Pups

  1. The best time to propagate is in the fall, which causes less plant damage.

  2. Remove your mature plants from the container.

  3. Separate the rhizomes and transplant the divisions into new pots and potting soil.

  4. It would be best to wait for pups until the parent plant’s offsets are green.

  5. Take a sharp knife, slice the mother plant’s pups, and include a portion of the parent plant root attached to the pup.

  6. Fill a container with fresh potting soil and replant the offsets in it.

  7. Water well and keep the soil damp but not soggy. Place the container in indirect light, and you should notice new growth in a few weeks.

Yucca Plants from Seed

The Yucca can also propagate using the seeds, but it does take patience.

  1. Once the white flowers fade, forming pods gather the seed pods when they begin to dry before splitting.

  2. Crush the pods when dry to remove the seeds.

  3. Keep the seeds in moist sand in the fridge for 90 days to germinate.

  4. Start your seed germination indoors between 60 °F and 70 °F in March.

  5. It can take up to five weeks for the seed to germinate.

  6. Before sowing the seeds, you can soak them in water for up to 24 hours and scarify them or remove the hard coating.

  7. Place a soilless mix or a seed starter mix in containers.

  8. Tamp the soil down and leave about an inch of room at the top.

  9. Place the seeds on the soil surface to cover lightly.

  10. Place containers in bright indirect light or under grow lights and keep them moist until large enough to transplant to a permanent location.

USDA Growth Zone

usda map for guide in growing yucca plants

The growing zone for Adam’s needle is hardiness zones 4 to 10. You should have no problem growing your Yucca filamentosa color guard indoors or in rock gardens.

Potting and Pruning

Yucca outdoors can reach incredible heights, about six feet tall to fill the landscaping. Yet when grown as an indoor plant, it does not become that tall. So even repotting is not a big deal and is done every two years as it is a slow grower.

But as it is a top-heavy plant, it does need pruning. The best time to transplant your dessert beauty is in spring. Remove your plant from the pot if you do not want your Yucca to grow too tall. Then, use a sharp shear to cut the trunk into two pieces.

Place the rooted end in the soil mix and water it. You should notice new leaves growing in a few weeks. You can also remove any dead leaves at any time of the year.

Types of Yucca Plants

As mentioned, the guard Yucca is only one of the 40 species you can find. There are some remarkable yucca plants you can grow.

Indoor Yucca Plant

These are the two common varieties grown indoors:

  • Yucca elephantipes, also known as Yucca gigantea known as the spineless Yucca. Some call it the yucca cane as it grows from a bulbous base with sword-like leaves—some branch as trees with a bare trunk with spiraled rosettes arching.

  • The Yucca aloifolia is a Spanish bayonet with stiff leaves and sharp points. It also has dark green leaves that reach up to 20 inches long and is very sharp.

Outdoor Yucca Plants

  • The Yucca baccata or banana yucca is a cactus-like succulent with sweet seedpods ranging from green to dark purple.

  • The Yucca brevifolia is an iconic yucca plant seen growing in the Mojave Desert and is a large species.

  • The Yucca filamentosa or Adam’s needle is a broadleaf evergreen and stemless with long green leaves looking like blades.

Yucca Plant Diseases & Pests

While your woody friend is a remarkable plant, it is not perfect and pest resistant, and there are three pests to keep an eye on:

These are some of the insects that can bother your Yucca, and you can treat infestations with insecticidal soap. Another concern is root rot caused by compost that is too moist. Other concerns are:

  • Yellow leaves from over or under-watering.

  • Stunted growth can mean it needs more sunlight to help your plant develop healthy growth.

  • Droopy leaves are a sign of too little light and best to move them to a brighter spot.

  • Leaf spots can be because you are watering it with limewater, and best to use distilled or rainwater instead.

  • But if the marks are brown or black, it is a fungal disease; you must deal with fungi or bacteria caused by pests.

Frequently Asked Questions

All parts of the yucca plant are toxic, and you should not confuse it with the yuca, where the roots are used in Latin American dishes.

Keep containergrown yucca plants inside to protect them from frost in the first winter of seedlings. In warmer regions, you can leave your plants outside, but in cooler temperatures, the plant goes dormant and stops storing water in the leaves resulting in leaf scorch.

So, give your plants supplemental watering in late summer and stop by September. Also, leave the stalks to die back as they will store nutrients in the roots. You can insulate your plants to protect them from freezing temperatures and remove withered foliage from the ground.

Then apply a layer of mulch over the plant in late fall before the first frost. You can cover the mulch pile with some plastic sheets or use burlap to provide insulation and remove the sheets and mulch in spring.

You can consider tweaking the following:

  • Fertilize your Yucca enough and ensure it has nutrient-rich soil adding something like a bone meal.

  • Also, be careful not to overwater your plants, which can lead to fungal diseases.

  • Move your plant outside in early spring and summer to receive more sun but not too much sun that can damage the leaves.

It can take yuccas several years to display those beautiful white flowers.

It can be from overwatering your plant. The central stem will become soft, showing too much water. Your plant needs little water, and when grown in containers, ensure that the water drains from the drainage hole to remove from the catch saucer.

We recommend doing the finger test to check that the soil is dry between watering. To fix the problem, stop watering your plant for a while and consider transplanting your plant into another pot with more drainage holes.

While these plants enjoy full sun to bask on their bluegreen leaves, standing in too much of it can cause sunburn resulting in these spots. For indoor plants, slowly acclimate them to stand in full sun outside, doing it gradually each day. To help your plant recover from sunburn, we recommend moving it to a shadier sport. Also, ensure it has water, leave it to heal, and gradually bring it back into full sun each day.

If the leaves start to curl, it results from fluctuating temperatures being too cold or hot. The yucca plants prefer temperatures between 45 ° F to 90 °F. You may even notice red spots on the foliage, which starts drooping. We recommend moving your plant to direct sunlight or another place to see how it will improve the plant.

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