any yucca plant experts out there?

mikeouk

ive had a yucca plant for about 13 years that started to look very ill, it was ugly anyway, so i decided to bin it, before doing so I decided to cut off the only bit that looked ok and put it in a glass of water, within a week or so, there were roots coming off it so ive potted it and it looks ok.
I was just wondering why, when you buy a yucca plant, it has a thick trunk which looks like its been cut off at the top and shoots coming off the side? the plant ive resurrected will never look like, just wondered how commercial plant growers do this.

Farway

They cut the top off, thus forcing the yucca to sprout from dormant buds along the stem

Much the same as pruning most plants, cut the top [leader], get more shoots from lower down

Yuccas are easy to grow from trunks, if you cut up a trunk and repot the results you will have a squillion yuccas, which is how commercial growers do it, hence the sawn off top, it is but a segment of the original

If you try this, do keep the "top" at the top

mikeouk

Farway wrote: »

They cut the top off, thus forcing the yucca to sprout from dormant buds along the stem

Much the same as pruning most plants, cut the top [leader], get more shoots from lower down

Yuccas are easy to grow from trunks, if you cut up a trunk and repot the results you will have a squillion yuccas, which is how commercial growers do it, hence the sawn off top, it is but a segment of the original

If you try this, do keep the "top" at the top

thats interesting,so if i let the plant grow for a while until its trunk gets thicker, then cut the top off, i could replant that?
when you say "keep the top at the top" do you mean to make sure i dont pot a section of trunk that has no leaves upside down?
just something else I though, the original plant kept sprouting from the same points and as the leaves died it kind of developed long spindly off shoots, should these have been kept cut short to stop that happening?

Farway

mikeouk wrote: »

thats interesting,so if i let the plant grow for a while until its trunk gets thicker, then cut the top off, i could replant that?

Yes


when you say "keep the top at the top" do you mean to make sure i don't pot a section of trunk that has no leaves upside down?

Yes, ensure the bit that points to the original roots is kept that way down, root side is always down

just something else I though, the original plant kept sprouting from the same points and as the leaves died it kind of developed long spindly off shoots, should these have been kept cut short to stop that happening?

Don't know, sorry

But yuccas are very forgiving