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Yucca's homeland is Central America, Mexico, southern USA. It would seem that such a heat-loving plant will not grow in the harsh Russian climate. But planting garden yucca and caring for it have already become familiar to domestic exotic lovers and landscape designers, who have appreciated the high decorative properties of the crop. Oddly enough, some species turned out to be quite resistant to the conditions of Russia, and overwinter with minimal shelter or even without it.
Yucca garden and its medicinal properties
In fact, garden yucca is the name given to yucca, which can be grown in personal plots. This is not one of the more than 30 existing species, but simply a statement of the fact that the plant can withstand winter in open ground.
Description of Yucca
Yucca (Yucca) is an evergreen plant belonging to the Agave family, originating from Central America. There are more than 30 species, among which are rosette and tree-like.
Hard sword-shaped leaves, gray or green, grow from 25 to 100 cm in length and 1-8 cm in width. Depending on the type, they are collected in a rosette or arranged in bunches on the tops of the trunks. The edge of the leaf blade can be smooth, jagged, or covered with threads. The tips are pointed, sometimes turning into a rather large spine; in different species, the leaves can be straight and drooping.
The flowers of the plant are collected in a panicle with a height of 50 to 250 cm. Each contains up to 300 white, cream, greenish-cream, yellow buds. The shape of the flowers is bell-shaped or cupped, the size is up to 7 cm, the smell is strong and pleasant. Each bud hangs on a small stem.
The fruit of the plant is a capsule or fleshy berry, edible in some species. In Russian conditions, it is almost impossible to obtain seeds.
Medicinal properties
Yucca is used as a medicinal plant in folk and official medicine. It is unusual for us to make decoctions or lotions from its leaves, however, the healing effect of the culture has been scientifically proven.The only contraindications include individual intolerance and urolithiasis or cholelithiasis, for which you should consult a doctor before taking medications.
Medicinal properties of yucca:
- the leaves are used for the manufacture of hormonal preparations due to the presence of steroidal saponins and aglycones;
- saponin is also used to produce tablets for the treatment of arthritis;
- extracts from the leaves are used in the treatment of atherosclerosis, inflammatory processes, and normalization of metabolic processes;
- Yucca preparations treat allergies;
- flower extract contains selenium, zinc, carbohydrates;
- the roots are rich in saponins, folic and pantothenic acid, vitamins E, K, riboflavin, niacin, thiamine, and trace elements.
The chemical composition of the plant allows it to be used to treat a wider range of diseases than is used by official medicine:
- saponin steroids have antifungal and anti-edema properties, lower cholesterol levels;
- antioxidants neutralize the effects of free radicals and other harmful substances;
- mucus, due to its enveloping properties, is used in the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases;
- Anthraquinones have an astringent and laxative effect.
Use in cooking
Yucca flowers taste like artichokes and are included in exotic salads and side dishes. They are put in omelettes and soups.
You can often come across the statement that in Latin America they widely use yucca root, which is boiled for a long time and sold on almost every corner. This is wrong. People who are far from exotic cuisine are misled by the consonance of the names yucca and yuca. The latter is nothing more than edible cassava, belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family, as the inhabitants of Central America call it.
Economic importance
In the USA, yucca is grown as a technical plant, making strong fibers from it for the production of wear-resistant jeans, ropes, burlap, fishing gear, and paper. A natural red dye is extracted from the root.
Yucca in landscape design
We use garden yucca in landscape design without much imagination. Of course, this plant already looks exotic in flower beds, rockeries, hills, in landscape groups and as a tapeworm. Meanwhile, in America, simply fantastic compositions are created with the participation of species that can grow here.
Yucca can grow where there is no watering or the soil is so poor that other crops cannot withstand or lose their decorative value. It is important that the soil is not clayey or soggy, and that the plant has enough sun, otherwise it will rarely bloom.
Types of garden yucca
Yucca can be grown as a houseplant. Many species reach such a size with age that it becomes impossible to keep them in a city apartment; a greenhouse or a spacious winter garden is needed. Tree-like plants are especially popular.
Garden yucca usually forms a basal rosette, which is located at ground level, and, if necessary, can be covered for the winter. In the southernmost regions, where even in winter the temperature rarely drops below 0⁰ C, many species can be grown. But in the rest of the territory, only Yucca Slavnaya, Sizuya, and most often, Filamentous are planted.
Yucca filamentous
Yucca filamentosa grows naturally in the eastern and southeastern United States. It is located on sandy or rocky dry lands adjacent to the coasts, extends to fields and roadsides, and other places open to the sun.
Yucca filamentosa is an evergreen perennial stemless shrub. The basal rosette consists of dense linear-lanceolate bluish-green leaves 30-90 cm long, up to 4 cm wide, with a pointed tip. Threads hang along the edges of the plate, from which the plant got its name.
The flowers are drooping, white, with a yellowish or greenish tint, 5-8 cm long, collected in panicles 1 m or more in height. Some older specimens boast a 2 m peduncle with numerous lateral branches. The fruit is an oval capsule up to 5 cm long with small black seeds (6 mm).
In Russia, Yucca Filamentosa is most often grown; planting and caring for it is not difficult at all, and allows you to leave the plant without shelter in the middle zone.
There is a variegated form of variegate with yellow or white longitudinal stripes. Two varieties have become widespread:
- Yucca Filamentata Color Guard is distinguished by yellow leaves up to 70 cm in size, bordered by a green stripe. The white flowers are large, about 6 cm, collected in a panicle up to 120 cm high. Yucca Filamentous Color Guard grows much slower than the original form, but this is typical for all variegated plants.
- Yucca filamentous Bright Edge is characterized by a more modest size, but it grows faster than the variety described above and produces many offspring. The leaves are blue-green, with a wide yellow border, the color of which is often mixed with pink and crimson shades. The peduncle reaches a height of 90 cm.
There is another taxon - Yucca flaccida, which some taxonomists consider a subspecies of Filamentous, and not an independent species.The plants are very similar, only the first is slightly lower, the leaves are softer and weaker, often hanging under their own weight.
Yucca Slavnaya
The most heat-loving species grown in Russia is Yucca gloriosa. This evergreen plant at a young age forms a basal rosette of leaves from 36 to 100 cm long, 3.5-6 cm wide. Their color is dark green with a bluish tint, the edge is slightly wavy, serrated at the base, with a yellow-brown edging. The leaf is narrowed at the ends, wide in the middle, and ends with a spine.
With age, Yucca Slavnaya forms a trunk, which under natural conditions in the southeastern United States can reach 5 m. But more often it grows up to 1.5-2.5 m, while in garden plots you can rarely see a shoot exceeding 1 m.
The older the plant, the higher its loose peduncle - from 60 to 150 cm. The buds are bell-shaped, white, cream or greenish, sometimes with a red-violet border. The fruit is a capsule 2.5-8 cm, with black seeds 5-8 mm.
There is a variegate form with leaves edged with a light stripe and several varieties common to America, which are extremely rare in Russia.
Yucca Sizaya
The homeland of Yucca glauca is Mexico and the eastern United States. This species is an evergreen shrub that forms a basal rosette or trunk up to 40 cm high. The bluish-green, 40-70 cm long leaves are thin, drooping, linear, about 0.8-1.2 cm wide. Their edges are whitish and decorated with twisted threads.
The peduncle is 1-2 m high, according to reviews in natural conditions it can reach 3 m.The buds are white, greenish or yellow, up to 7 cm in size. The inflorescences can be highly branched; it was they, and not leaves of different colors, that served as the reason for breeding different varieties.
The capsule is 5-9 cm long and contains black oval seeds up to 9-12 mm.
Planting garden yucca
Although yucca is an undemanding and persistent plant, it grows in one place for up to 20 years and does not like transplants. Therefore, the choice of site must be taken seriously. Garden yucca is planted in the sun, otherwise it will rarely bloom, and the bush will become loose, stretch out and lose its decorative effect. In varieties with variegated leaves, the light stripes will disappear.
On the one hand, yucca is undemanding to soil and can grow on sandstones or rocky poor soils. On the other hand, dense soil is contraindicated for it, and in a place that is soggy and constantly suffering from excess moisture, the plant will simply die.
Yucca should be protected from the wind. It can break a tall, strong, but overloaded peduncle with buds. In winter, cold wind coupled with a sunny location causes damage to the leaves, especially if the plant is not covered.
It is best to place the yucca in a rock garden or on a gentle slope - this will prevent the roots from becoming soaked and will increase the outflow of water after watering or rain.
Yucca planting time
Yucca is planted in the spring, after the temperature stops dropping below 10⁰ C even at night. Usually this happens no earlier than May. Then the plant will have time to take root before the cold weather.
Planting yucca in open ground in the fall is allowed only in the southern regions, where above-zero temperatures do not give way to stable frosts for a long time.But excavation work needs to be carried out as early as possible, as soon as the heat subsides - at the end of August or September. The plant takes a long time to take root.
Soil preparation
The main requirement when growing yucca in open ground is permeability to the soil, ensuring the outflow of moisture and access of oxygen to the root system. Loose soil containing large amounts of sand or stones does not need to be improved.
On dense or soaking soils, dig a hole with a diameter of at least a meter and a depth of more than 50 cm. The soil there is completely changed. The fertile layer of soil is mixed with sand, brick chips, and fine gravel. If the top layer is too thin, salty, or cannot be used for another reason, it is replaced with rotted compost, turf soil or a mixture of humus and peat. Drainage made of broken brick, expanded clay or gravel is laid at the bottom and covered with sand.
Acidic soil is brought in accordance with the requirements of the plant by adding chalk or lime. It is better not to use dolomite flour - it has the ability to improve soil fertility, which yucca does not need at all.
Preparation of planting material
Before planting in the ground, remove all dried or damaged leaves from the plant. The root is inspected and rotten or broken areas are cut out.
If the yucca was dug up in advance, it is soaked for at least 6 hours, adding root or another growth stimulant to the water. When purchasing a container plant, you should ask where it was kept. If it’s outside, you can water it and plant it the next day.
A plant standing indoors must first be hardened off by exposing it to fresh air during the day.At first, staying outside lasts 1-2 hours, then gradually the time increases to 6-8 hours. Only after this the plant can be planted.
Planting yucca in open ground
To make it easier to care for in open ground, planting yucca should be done according to all the rules. The main ones:
- do not deepen the root collar;
- the planting hole should be approximately 2 times larger than the size of the plant root;
- on dense soaking soils, it is imperative to install a drainage layer at least 10 cm thick.
Place the plant in the center of the prepared planting hole, carefully straighten the roots, cover them with soil or prepared soil mixture, squeeze and water abundantly. Check the position of the root collar and mulch with dry peat. To decorate the soil under yucca, you cannot use decorative powders - they compact the soil and limit the access of oxygen to the roots.
Garden yucca care and replanting
If the location is chosen correctly and the root collar is not buried when planting, caring for the plant is easy. It is important not to overdo it here; the culture is unpretentious even for Russian conditions; excessive care can only harm it.
Watering mode
Immediately after planting, the plant is watered abundantly, and every other day the soil is loosened. Moistening should be done as the soil dries out so that the roots do not begin to rot.
A rooted plant needs infrequent watering; the soil should be completely dry between waterings. Water should not get into the rosette - if this happens, the top may rot, which will require pruning. If you do not notice the problem in time, the yucca will die. Therefore, watering should be done only at the root of the plant.
To prevent rain from causing rot, the soil must be loosened.In hot weather, the plant actively loses moisture, but there is still moisture in the soil, but it does not have time to reach the vegetative organs. This happens especially often if the yucca has grown and covered the soil from drying out with leaves. The plant should be sprayed with warm water, being careful not to let moisture get into the center of the rosette.
How to feed garden yucca
It should be noted right away that the plant does not like fertilizing with organic matter. Green fertilizers, infusions of mullein, bird droppings and grass should be excluded from the “diet”. In general, you need to feed the plant carefully. If you overdo it, the leaves will grow large and juicy, there will be no flowering, or the panicle will grow small. In addition, yucca's winter hardiness will decrease.
A young plant must be fed after planting or transplanting, but only when new leaves appear. It is best to use fertilizers for indoor succulents. As a last resort, you can take a complex one with a low nitrogen content and dilute it 2 times. Depending on the size of the plant, pour from 1 to 5 liters at the root. The first feeding is given in May, the second - after the end of flowering.
How to prune garden yucca
Pruning is an important point when caring for yucca flowers in open ground.
Annual care
In early spring, when the plant is not in the active growing season, the root rosette is cleaned of old, dried leaves. They are carefully torn off or cut off, wearing gloves so as not to injure your hands on the sharp edges.
The dried peduncle is removed in the fall as low as possible, but so as not to injure the green leaves of the plant. To do this, use pruning shears and, if necessary, a garden saw.
Pruning old or damaged yucca
By pruning you can rejuvenate old yucca. This is easy to do only with species that form a stem and not a rosette. Yucca Slavnaya grows it at an age when it can only winter outside in the southernmost regions. In other regions, it is impossible to insulate the plant so that it does not freeze due to its size. Gray does not always form a trunk. The filamentous one does not form it at all.
But all really old yuccas, whose age is approaching 15-20 years, after the annual removal of old leaves, rise above the ground, unattractively bending the rosette due to the exposed lower part of the plant. Perhaps, from a biological point of view, this cannot be called a trunk or shoot, but it looks very similar. This is where you need to cut:
- to rejuvenate an old plant;
- to save a frozen yucca or one whose top has begun to rot;
- in order to restore decorativeness to a plant leaning to the side.
Yucca Slavnaya or Sizuya, which has formed a small trunk, is easy to prune. So it is better to consider the option when, instead, only a short piece of the stem freed from leaves is available. This is the problem that domestic gardeners most often face. Plant pruning is done in the following sequence:
- 2-3 days before the operation, the yucca is watered.
- A sharp knife is sterilized.
- The “trunk” of the plant is trimmed so that the wound surface is smooth, clean and perpendicular to the direction of growth. A torn edge, splitting of a shoot or peeling of the bark is unacceptable. The hand should be firm, the movements should be confident and fast.
- The wound surface is sprinkled with crushed activated carbon, allowed to dry until callus forms, and treated with garden varnish.
Here a logical question arises: where to make the cut? If the top of the plant is frozen or rotten, it is not needed in any case. They cut as high as possible, so as to remove all the affected tissue and some healthy tissue.
When a yucca is rejuvenated, and they want to leave the old plant and root a new one, the height of the “stem” is assessed. The long one is divided approximately in half. The lower part is treated as described above, the upper part is left to dry for 2-3 days, then planted in sand, perlite or peat-sand mixture, using growth hormone.
But it happens that the process is very short. If the top of the plant is rotten or frost-damaged, there is nothing to think about. It is removed, capturing part of the healthy tissue, and discarded. When the growing point is healthy, and the shoot is short, there is reason to think, why torture the plant? Is it really old and needs pruning? Isn't it better to just leave the yucca alone?
After pruning, the old yucca not only forms several tops, but also actively grows daughter rosettes.
When to replant garden yucca
The best time to transplant yucca varies by region. A culture does not like having its roots disturbed and takes a long time to take root in a new place. Therefore, the plant needs to be given time to adapt. In the south, transplantation is done in the fall, and as early as possible, as soon as the heat subsides. If the operation is carried out in the spring, a sudden rise in temperature can destroy the plant.In temperate and cool climates, on the contrary, replanting yucca in the fall is undesirable. It is moved to another place in the spring to give time for rooting.
Plants are easiest to transplant when they are under three years of age. Therefore, if it becomes clear that the place for the yucca was chosen poorly or it cannot be there for another reason, the bush needs to be moved as soon as possible.
The roots of the plant can spread over 60-70 cm; the earthen ball should be dug as large as possible, this will minimize damage. In order not to shake off the soil when moving, the yucca intended for replanting is placed on burlap, tarpaulin or other material. Handle it carefully. Plant the plant in the prepared hole, trying not to damage the earthen ball, at the same depth as in the old place. Water and mulch.
Transplanting root suckers or the entire yucca colony will be discussed in the “Reproduction” section.
How does yucca overwinter?
In the southern regions, well-rooted Yucca Filamentata overwinters without any shelter. In the middle zone, it requires light insulation only for the first 3 years. As we move to the North and beyond the Urals, the shelter for the plant becomes more and more serious.
Yucca Sizaya does not withstand long-term frosts below -20⁰ C. Moreover, the growing point suffers first. This must be taken into account when building a shelter and based on your own climatic conditions. For example, in the conditions of the Moscow region, without shelter, some of the leaves of the yucca will freeze, and it will take the whole of May and part of June to restore them. Therefore, the plant will not bloom.
The species Yucca Slavnaya winters without problems in the southernmost regions. In others, it needs to be carefully covered or dug up and moved indoors.This is easy to do with a young plant, but as the yucca grows older, it grows a stem, and insulating and moving it becomes problematic.
Preparing yucca for winter
If the filamentous yucca was planted in the “right” place - protected from the wind, on permeable, non-soaking soil or on a hill, southerners do not need to prepare it for winter. Other types should be taken care of as described below.
In cool regions, it makes sense to feed the plant with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers at the end of the growing season - the first half of September or the last ten days of August. They make wintering easier and increase frost resistance. The yucca leaf should be treated with epin, which activates its own protective properties.
It is better not to remove dead and damaged leaves in the fall - they will serve as additional protection for the plant from frost. If the peduncle was not cut on time, it must be removed.
How to cover a yucca for the winter
The more severe frosts are typical for the region, the more serious the winter shelter of the yucca should be. The place where the garden plant is planted also matters. A windy area is generally not suitable for yucca, but if it is placed there, at least a light shelter will have to be provided even in the south.
Easy cover
Without waiting for the first frost, yucca leaves are collected in a bunch and wrapped with a strong rope from top to bottom. You cannot use wire or synthetic material. The lower leaves of the plant are left to lie on the ground and sprinkled with dry leaves of fruit trees, and then pressed down with wooden slats.
You can fill the soil with a 15-20 cm layer of earth, but this will require a lot of effort both in the fall and in the spring when the yucca opens. When covering the lower part of the plant with soil, all the leaves should be lifted up.
Capital shelter
Young yucca under the age of three years and heat-loving species may not have enough light shelter even in the south and in the Middle Zone. Those who decide to plant a crop in a windy area also need to carefully prepare the plant for winter. In the North and beyond the Urals, the shelter should be even more thorough.
First, a light shelter is prepared for the plant, then it is protected with a wooden box without a bottom. The yucca should fit freely in it; the raised leaves should not be tilted or twisted. If necessary, the shelter is reinforced with insulating material, for example, lutrasteel or spandbond. A layer of fallen leaves is poured around and covered with film, which is secured with tape.
In the spring (mid-March), the yucca is opened by first removing the box and wrapping the bush in burlap or lutrastil. Around mid-April, the shelter is completely removed, and a week later the leaves are untied and the plant is cleaned.
Reproduction
Yucca reproduces well vegetatively. This is the most reliable and simplest method, and the plant produces many lateral shoots.
How to propagate garden yucca with shoots
In open ground, yucca forms a bush.Over time, it becomes overgrown with daughter rosettes, which can be located at some distance from the mother plant or emerge from almost the same place.
This leads to the following:
- the bush thickens;
- the plant's feeding area decreases;
- intertwining roots impairs soil permeability.
As a result:
- yucca weakens and becomes smaller;
- roots may rot;
- decorativeness decreases;
- the plant may not have enough resources to flower.
Once every 3-4 years, the daughter rosettes need to be planted. It is easiest to dig up shoots that are no less than 15-20 cm away from the mother bush. If everything is done carefully, the root system of an adult yucca will be minimally damaged. Recommended planting density is 3-5 plants per square meter. m.
You can plant shoots in spring or autumn. Each time has its advantages and disadvantages. If you plant yucca in the spring, it will better survive the previous winter due to the thickened planting. But the root may be so damaged that the adult plant will not have time to restore it and will miss flowering.
Here it is better to proceed from considerations of the safety of the yucca, and not to focus on its decorative properties. It’s better not to see flowers for one season than to lose a plant completely, perhaps even more than one.
Reproduction of garden yucca by dividing the bush
How to plant garden yucca was described in the previous paragraph.Why describe the division of the bush separately? The fact is that some of the daughter rosettes fit tightly to the mother plant. They can be separated only by digging out the bush completely.
It happens that old yucca even dries out completely after flowering, since it has used up all its energy to form buds. But a weakened plant cannot replenish its supply of nutrients, unable to withstand competition with young shoots. This serves as a signal to divide the bush.
In this case, dig out the yucca completely, along with its daughter rosettes. They are separated with a sharp sterile knife and placed in a suitable place. You need to dig carefully and deeply - after all, the root of only one plant extends 60-70 cm, and in an overgrown bush there are several of them.
Otherwise, the division is no different from the propagation and planting of garden yucca shoots.
Cuttings
Garden yucca can be propagated by root cuttings. Parts of the stem are not used, since the plant simply does not have one. Even Yucca Sizaya does not always form a short stem, only in “advanced” age. And cutting it is inconvenient - it’s easy to make a mistake and destroy the plant, the operation is carried out only to save a valuable specimen, and it is propagated by daughter rosettes. Yucca Slavnaya, after the formation of the trunk, usually no longer overwinters in the ground, and becomes an indoor rather than a garden crop.
The plant is simply propagated by root cuttings. You can’t dig them on purpose - you can destroy the yucca, but when planting offspring or dividing the bush, many “extra” pieces of root remain. Instead of throwing them away, you need to carefully examine them and select those that have dormant buds.
Select healthy, strong roots and cut them into cuttings 5-10 cm long so that each has a growing point. The cut is treated with crushed activated carbon mixed with a crushed heteroauxin tablet.
Allow the wound surface to heal and plant it in a peat-sand mixture or perlite. To do this, the cuttings are laid out on a moist substrate, with the dormant bud pointing upward, pressed in a little, and sprinkled with a thin layer of soil. The surface is sprayed daily with a little warm water from a household spray bottle.
The cuttings will begin to grow in 2-3 weeks. At the end of the season, young plants are separated from each other and planted in a permanent place.
Seeds
This is the most difficult and unreliable way to propagate yucca. If it is possible to get a daughter rosette, it is better not to mess with the seedlings. It is impossible to collect your own seeds, since pollination is carried out exclusively by butterflies that live only in the plant’s homeland. But no one can vouch for the quality of purchased planting material.
Nevertheless, the seeds can be sown in light soil, covered with film and placed in a warm place. For the first 10 days, the soil must be regularly moistened and the planting ventilated. After the shoots appear, they are planted in separate cups. Young plants are planted in open ground after 2 years.
Yucca garden flowering
The leaves of garden yucca are beautiful in themselves, but the blooms are simply amazing.Tall panicles, sometimes reaching 2.5 m, well branched and dotted with large white, yellowish or cream bells up to 6-7 cm in size look amazing. Only Yucca moths (Tegeticula yucasella) moths pollinate flowers; their habitat coincides with the plant.
When does garden yucca bloom?
Young plants take root in about 3 years. Only after this can the yucca bloom. At the end of June (later in the north) a peduncle appears. It grows very quickly, reaches 1-2.5 m and reveals white, yellow or cream bells hanging on a thin stem.
Flowering lasts about a month and is accompanied by a strong pleasant smell. Then the panicle begins to dry out and can be cut off.
Yucca usually blooms 3-4 years after planting, but it can linger and throw out the first panicle after 5, even 7 years.
Why garden yucca does not bloom
If yucca does not bloom for a long time, or does not throw out a panicle every year, there is reason to think about the reasons. It could be:
- improper planting, namely excessive deepening, then the plant not only does not bloom, but generally looks sick;
- lack of light - yucca blooms in partial shade, but not every year; variegated forms especially suffer from this;
- frost damage - the plant needs time to recover and may miss flowering;
- lack of nutrients - this rarely happens only if a huge bush has grown with a large number of daughter rosettes, or on completely depleted poor soils.
If the yucca has rotted due to overwatering or planting on heavy, wet soils, you need to think not about flowering, but about saving the plant.
Diseases and pests
Yucca rarely gets sick, but can be affected by pests. Most problems arise from deep planting, dense soil, or lack of sunlight.
To make yucca look beautiful, you need to find the cause of the problem and eliminate it; the plant may need to be replanted:
- Brown spots appeared on the leaves - dry air, lack of moisture, cold strong wind.
- Light spots are sunburn.
- Falling leaves are the consequences of plant transplantation, or hypothermia.
- The lower leaves of garden yucca turn yellow - this is a natural process, if not widespread.
- Rotting of the growing point - improper planting, dense soil, overwatering.
- Brown spots on the leaves have yellowish convex edges - anthracnose. Over time, the marks merge. Affected leaves are removed and destroyed, and the yucca is treated with an appropriate fungicide. Watering is limited.
Among the pests that most annoy the plant are:
- Snails and slugs. It is necessary to reduce watering the plant, as these pests love damp places. Sprinkle the soil with a metaldehyde-based insecticide.Important! Some gardeners complain that the drug does not help. If you follow the instructions, the result is 100%. No need to save, and everything will be fine.
- The leaves of the plant are covered with convex brownish growths, similar to oblong ovals about 2 mm long. If they are difficult to clean off with a fingernail, then they are scale insects.At the initial stage, you can try treating the plant with insecticides, for example, Engio or Calypso. If the infection is severe, it is almost impossible to fight the scale insect on the yucca - it hides at the base of the rosette. It may be necessary to destroy not only the affected bush, but also the neighboring ones. It’s good that scale insects rarely attack garden yucca.
- When overwatering, fluffy white lumps may appear at the base of the leaves - this is a mealybug. Plants are treated with an insecticide (for pests) and a fungicide (for rot, which usually accompanies waterlogging). Reduce watering and remove dried leaves. If necessary, thin out the planting.
Yucca can also be affected by other pests; this happens infrequently and can be treated by spraying with appropriate insecticides.
Conclusion
Planting garden yucca and caring for it does not present any difficulties even in cool climates. The main thing is to choose the right place and not “strangle” the plant with your care - watering and fertilizing.
