Yucca elephantipes – Plant

The spineless Yucca plant, a native of Guatemala and southeast Mexico, is an ideal, easy care and very popular houseplant. Yucca plants can be a bush or a stalk plant. The long, leathery, sharply pointed leaves of a Yucca plant are a foot or more in length and about an inch wide.

Yucca plants are very top heavy and should always be set into a heavy clay or ceramic pot to prevent them from toppling over.

A Yucca plant is poisonous and should be kept away from small children and pets.

Temperature : A yucca can adapt to temperatures as low as 35° and as high as 90°.

Lighting preference : Yucca plants grow best in bright indirect light. A Yucca can survive indoors in lower light but will need very little water. The slow growing yucca will be even slower to produce new leaves in low to medium light. An ideal location is near a west, east, or south-facing window.

 Irrigation of water : A Yucca plant originates in the deserts of Mexico and Guatemala so it likes to be kept dry. Allow at least the top 50% of the soil of a to dry out before watering. Over watering is the main and probably the only way to kill a yucca.

 Humidity : Yucca plants do well in basic and even low household humidity.

Fertilization and feeding : Feed monthly in the spring and summer with a basic houseplant food at 1/2 the recommended strength.

 Soil : Use a good quality, well-aerated, loose houseplant soil that drains quickly for a Yucca Plant. Add sand to the soil if it seems too heavy or clay-like.

Toxicity : Yucca plants are slightly poisonous with a #1 toxicity level. The poisonous part of the plant is difficult to reach, but a persistent child or pet might be able to get through the tough exterior and eat it.

 Pot Size : Yucca plants like to be root-bound in small pots.

Pruning :If a yucca plant becomes top heavy and keeps falling over, cut the trunks off 1/2 way down. New growth will appear on the old trunk making it bushier and less apt to topple. Start new yucca plants using the sections of trunk that you cut off.

Diseases :Usual household plant pests stay away from a Yucca; even spider mites avoid this plant.