The youthful momentum is gone when a yucca palm gets out of shape, collides with the ceiling and gestures anxiously in all directions with thin trunks. It's high time for a courageous pruning so that the green vitality returns quickly. Read this tutorial to find out when and how to properly prune your palm lily.
How do I prune a yucca palm correctly?
To properly prune a yucca palm, choose the ideal time between early April and mid-May. Use sharp, disinfected tools to cut shoots and stems back to desired length. Seal larger wounds with tree wax and dust smaller wounds with charcoal ash or rock dust.
Best timing and material requirements
You can prune your yucca palm basically all year round. The ideal conditions for pruning are in spring. In this phase, the sap pressure is at a low level, so that the exotic succulents hardly bleed from the inevitable cuts. With the following combination of careful choice of appointment, suitable tools and practical accessories, pruning a palm lily becomes a successful project:
- Best time is from the beginning of April to mid-May
- Cutting tool for shoots up to 2 cm in diameter: bypass secateurs
- Shoots up to 3.5 cm: tree or pruning shears with bypass mechanism
- Shoots and trunks from 4 cm in diameter: folding saw or sharp bread knife
- Small straight blade knife for smoothing cuts
- rags and alcohol
- Robust gloves
- Tree wax, charcoal ash or rock dust for wound treatment
Before you start cutting, please clean the scissor blades and saw blades carefully with hot water. Then disinfect all cutting edges with alcohol or Sagrotan. The best cutting care is doomed to failure if unclean tools are used. Numerous pathogens and pests use scissors, saws and knives as a welcome means of transport into the pathways of yucca palms and other houseplants.
Background
Sleeping eyes guarantee cutting success
Although its name suggests that the yucca is a palm tree, it is actually an agave plant. This subtle botanical difference has a major impact on cutting tolerance. Real palm trees have a single point of vegetation, which prohibits regular pruning. Yuccas, on the other hand, can rely on a whole flock of sleeping eyes. These are dormant buds along the trunk and shoots, which become lively after pruning and sprout vigorously.
Cut the yucca palm into shape
If the yucca palm pushes its pretty tuft of leaves on the ceiling or gestures wildly with thin scrawl arms, a topiary will solve the problem. Indoor gardeners now appreciate the good-natured pruning tolerance that characterizes the palm-like agave plant. How to properly prune a yucca palm:
- Cut shoots and trunks to the desired length
- Smoothing cuts with the knife blade
- Spin small wounds with charcoal ash or rock dust
- Treat larger wounds with tree wax
Wounds the size of a 2 euro coin are a case for treatment with tree wax. Apply a thin layer of wound closure to the edges of the wound. Inside, the cut should only be dusted with charcoal ash. In practice, it has been proven that complete sealing impairs wound healing and promotes decay.
Tip
Yucca palms are often stingy with the growth of side shoots. Cut back long, unbranched shoots occasionally in spring. The pruning causes a sap to accumulate under the cut, whereupon several new shoots sprout and the palm lily grows bushier.
Twist out dead leaves
Trademarks of a yucca palm are green or cream-white edged sword leaves that gather into decorative clusters. The position of a yucca leaf gives a clear indication of its age. Inside a leaf tuft are the youngest leaves with tightly upright growth. The older leaves, up to 100 centimeters long, frame the young foliage and hang elegantly over them.
Over time, the leaves at the bottom of a crown shrink and fall off. This process can take several weeks and affect the beauty of a palm lily. It can also happen that a young sword leaf dries up prematurely in the center of the tuft. In both cases, scissors, saws or knives remain in the drawer. How to Handle Dead Leaves on a Yucca Palm:
- Wait until a yucca leaf has completely yellowed and dried out
- Pull the leaves downwards manually on the outer edge of the crown
- Grip the leaves in the center of the head with your fingers and twist them out
The soft texture of palm lily leaves belies the fact that the edges of the leaves can be very sharp and the tips of the leaves can be needle-sharp. Please wear protective gloves when removing dead leaves. It is important to note that you should be patient until a leaf has died. During the transition phase, valuable reserve substances are transferred from the leaf to the roots so that new leaves sprout in the upper crown area.
Excursus
Do not shorten yucca leaves
The perfect radiance of opulent yucca crowns is preserved as long as you pull off or twist out entire leaves when necessary. However, if you shorten excessively long yucca leaves, you will have to contend with a spoiled appearance for a long time. Brown, irreversible streaks form on the cuts because the succulent plant tissue dies. Until the sword blade in question is withdrawn after several years, the brown leaf tip will remain a thorn in your side.
Cut off wilted flowers
Under ideal conditions, a yucca palm feels encouraged to give its gardener a magnificent bloom. In the bright, warm winter garden there are the best views of the floral spectacle from the tenth year onwards. The majestic flower spikes are reminiscent of oversized lilies of the valley and attract everyone's attention.
After the summer flowering period ends, the withered inflorescences become an aesthetic nuisance. Since the yucca moth, as the main pollinator, is not native to our regions, there is little chance of seed heads forming anyway. Therefore, take a saw or pruning shears and cut off the withered panicle at the base.
Yuccapalmen richtig schneiden und stutzen
Frequently asked questions
Are yucca palms hardy?
Popular yucca palms for living spaces are not hardy. The picturesque Yucca elephantipes presents its magnificent leaf clusters of impressive sword leaves as long as it is allowed normal room temperatures. The same applies to exotic beauties like the Yucca aloifolia, also known as the gray palm lily. At temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius, most yuccas' existence is threatened. An exception applies to garden yuccas, such as the filamentous palm lily (Yucca filamentosa), which can survive a Central European winter outside as long as it is protected from moisture.
What to do with the cuttings of a yucca palm?
In every shoot there is the potential to become a new, magnificent Yucca palm. The cuttings are therefore perfect for propagation through cuttings. An ideal cutting is 20 to 30 cm long, he althy and leafless. It is important for rooting that you plant a yucca cutting the right way up. Mark the top end with string or marker. Mixing up the polarity will cause a cutting not to take root. In a warm, bright window seat it takes an average of a month until the first tender shoots appear.
My yucca palm forms very long, extremely thin shoots with few leaves. What to do?
Lack of light causes a yucca palm to form long, thin shoots, also known as horny shoots or fear shoots. To ensure that the palm lily regains its shapely, compact growth, proceed in two stages. First, you should change location to a bright to sunny place. Then cut all overly long shoots back to short stubs.
Another miniature plant grows at the bottom of my yucca palm. How do I deal with this?
It is an offshoot, also known as Kindel. In this way, an older yucca palm provides for offspring in good time. You should not miss this opportunity and use the child for propagation. Wait until the mini yucca has at least five leaves. Then cut off the offshoot and pot it in a small bucket with potting soil. In a bright, not full-sunny window seat, keep the substrate constantly slightly moist.
When cutting my yucca palm, I neglected to mark the polarity. Can I no longer use the clippings as cuttings?
If the original direction of growth of yucca shoots is no longer traceable, you can still use the cuttings for propagation. You can do this by planting the cuttings crosswise. Fill a sufficiently large cultivation pot with lean soil. Place a trunk segment on top and press half to two thirds of it into the substrate. Root strands then sprout from the sleeping eyes on the underside. On the opposite side, new shoots sprout from dormant buds beneath the bark.
The 3 most common cutting mistakes
The robust pruning tolerance of yucca palms irons out most beginner mistakes. Nevertheless, the following three pruning errors result in serious consequences that can spoil your enjoyment of your palm lily for a long time.
| Cutting errors | malicious image | Prevention |
|---|---|---|
| cut in summer | massive bleeding | Cut early April to mid-May |
| Leaves cut back | brown, irreversible cuts | Twist out or pull off dead leaves |
| unclean, blunt cutting tool used | Spread of diseases, pests and rot | use sharp, disinfected tools |
Tip
Yucca palms are good for many horticultural surprises. Hobby gardeners are astonished to know that there are some hardy succulents among more than 50 species. A prime example is the filamentous palm lily (Yucca filamentosa), which tolerates up to -20 degrees Celsius and snow pressure in the bed without complaint.
