I recently received a beautiful variegated yucca that a friend had found abandoned in a dumpster. It's horribly top heavy and leggy (single stem, no offshoots) and been grown in a far-too-small pot. The top growth is gorgeous though and I would like to correct its growth and salvage it. Ideally I would like to keep it in a pot in a conservatory setting. I have no experience with yuccas save for digging them out of clients' gardens and I'm hoping that someone here can help. Regarding propagation, I have read conflicting information. Some references say they will strike from tip or stem cuttings, others say they won't. Can anyone shed some light on this? I have the space to pot it on to a larger pot and wait for it to produce a viable shoot but how long might that take? Thanks in advance for any advice/guidance you care to offer! ~Rachel
In my experience, they do indeed strike from both crown and stem cuttings - what I'd do in this situation is cut back to about 6" of stem below the crown and pot that up, then divide the remaining stem into straightish pieces and pot those up as well. They usually resume growth for me within about 4-5 weeks of this type of propagation, but I've got no idea what your climate might do to them - it might take longer for you.
Thank you so much for that lorax! I'm blessed enough have a spacious potting shed so I won't need to worry about the climate for a little while : ) I'll let you know how successful I am! ~R
have you managed to propagate yucca from tip cutting? I've recently bought yucca "golden sword" in a rather large pot so I hoped that I might be able to propagate it through root cuttings. To my surprise, there was very little of roots left so I assume they were taken by nursery for propagation prior to selling this yucca.
From crown (tip) cuttings is the usual way that I propagate Yucca, Pavol - I take the entire crown and at least 10 cm, though usually closer to 20 cm of the stem, then plant that in sterile medium with sparing water. They usually strike fairly quickly that way.
