Yucca filamentous: a botanical description and the rules of agricultural technology

Yucca filamentous (Yucca filamentosa) is a popular perennial evergreen among foreign amateur gardeners. It is characterized by the formation of a practically stemless aerial part with a base of a woody type. Belongs to the genus Yucca and the family Asparagaceae.

Botanical Description

Perennial and evergreen shrub plant has linear lanceolate and flat leaves, basal location. The foliage growing from the outlet has a blue-green color. The length of the leaves can vary between 30-90 cm, and the width can be 20-40 mm. The apical part is sharply pointed, soft or hard. On the edges of foliage are hanging threads that can fall over time.

Flowering filamentous yucca at home is quite rare. Paniculose inflorescences, ranging in length from 1.0-3.5 m. The flowers have a creamy-white color, but sometimes they can be yellowish-white or white in color with the presence of a slightly expressed greenish tint. The length of each drooping, six-petal flower varies between 50-80 mm. After flowering, on the aerial part of the decorative culture, fruits are formed in the form of a rounded and dry box 4.5x2 cm in size. Seed black stain, thin, relatively large.

Landing and care in the suburbs

Even non-blooming yuccas of this species are very decorative due to the presence of large leaf rosettes represented by sharp bluish leaves. In recent years, yucca filamentous has been quite often grown in the middle lane of our country and the Moscow region, where the decorative and tropical culture is able to grow and also winter quite successfully, but subject to all agrotechnical requirements, which allows the exotic to get acclimated as successfully as possible during the summer period and increase leaf sockets:

• yucca is a xerophyte plant, and planting will be ideal for a tall, dry, sufficiently drained and sunny place;
• the optimal site will be represented by light and well-structured soils, and in the presence of depleted and dry soils, the false palm is smaller, but has increased resistance to adverse environmental conditions;
• in the presence of loamy soil on the site, pre-planting of coarse or medium grained sand is mandatory;
• if the soil is excessively damp or heavy enough, it will be necessary to use drainage or plant on an artificial hill.

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Yucca: Care and Reproduction

Subject to the planting technology and quality care, peduncles with a large number of buds are formed in the first decade of summer around the fourth year of life of the decorative culture. After flowering, a sufficient number of daughter sockets are formed, suitable for propagating a false street palm. If the landing was carried out as competently as possible, then
further care of tropical decorative culture is not difficult:

• it is very important to regularly carry out weeding measures and timely remove all weeds;
• irrigation measures are carried out only as necessary, if there is a steady dry weather for too long and the foliage of a false palm begins to curl from a moisture deficit;
• It is recommended to feed the plant through inorganic fertilizers, but it is impossible to add a significant amount of nutrient components, since in this case the winter hardiness of a decorative garden plant sharply decreases;

• Experienced domestic florists, when growing yucca filament in the middle lane of our country, prefer to do without fertilizers or introduce mineral composition at the initial stage of active vegetation;
• for a false palm tree cultivated in open ground, not severe frosts are of particular danger, but spring heating of the aerial parts caused by untimely removal of the shelter or waterlogging;
• in the autumn rainy season, it is recommended to install a protective canopy over the street yucca, which prevents excessive soil and root system moisture;
• with the onset of steady cooling, it is desirable to cover the ornamental plant with spruce spruce branches and dry foliage, which allows the yucca to keep the aerial part of the green and positively affects the external attractiveness;

• air-dry shelter, similar to the winter protection of rose bushes, has proven best. In this case, you need to cover the plant with a frame covered with non-woven covering material and a warming layer of foliage. At the final stage, a polyethylene film layer is laid.

Yucca filamentous is characterized by the presence of a clear cyclical growth process and development. After planting for several years, the size of the aerial part increases, after which the flowering period begins, accompanied by the formation of a high peduncle. After flowering in the open ground, seed material does not form, due to the lack of natural pollinators.

How to prepare yucca for winter

Seed cultivation

In recent years, in flower shops you can increasingly find yucca seeds, but, according to experts in the cultivation of false palms, it is not recommended to grow such an ornamental culture from seeds. Plants obtained by seed propagation do not have sufficient indicators of frost resistance and freeze when cultivated in open ground conditions.

In the Moscow Region, getting your own yucca filamentous seeds will not work at all due to the absence of nocturnal butterflies pollinating a tropical culture. Of course, as an experiment, you can sow yucca seeds in a nutrient soil substrate in early spring or mid-autumn, but you must remember that with this reproduction it is not always possible to obtain seedlings. Ideally for sowing seeds, a mixture based on drainage, sheet soil and coarse sand in equal proportions is suitable. Crops need to be covered and installed in a place with good lighting and temperature conditions at level 20^aboutC. Shoots appear after about four weeks.

How to grow at home

In indoor floriculture, filamentous yucca is not grown too often. The plant does not tolerate the lack of fresh air, and to maintain decorative indicators, it is necessary to provide roomy false palm with proper care:

• watering should be relatively plentiful, with standing water at room temperature, about two to three times a month;
• in case of non-compliance with microclimatic conditions and violation of the regime of irrigation measures, the culture is able to be affected by pathogenic microflora;
• it is best to propagate a decorative culture by root shoots, which, when observing the cultivation technology, are formed in significant quantities;
• transplantation is carried out as necessary, if the flower pot has become too small and is not able to provide sufficient nutrition for full growth and development.

Yucca filamentous: plant features

It is important to note that filamentous yucca belongs to the category of the most unpretentious crops, and even with massive damage to the aerial part, the formation of foliage of a false palm quickly resumes, and when creating conditions comfortable for growth and development, a tropical plant will delight lush flowering for a long time.