Some simple advice on Yucca care
Yucca are pretty
hardy plants, and so long as you exercise some
common
sense and are aware of the
basics you should be fine.
If you sit your Yucca in direct
sunlight it should stay pretty
compact, as
it'll be getting all the light it needs. The less light they get, the
more they
stretch towards the light source.
As Yuccas age it's quite common for black spots on the leaves to appear
-
don't panic, it's not fatal. Try to
remove the blackened areas if
possible, or, failing that, just remove the whole
leaf. If the whole
head
becomes 'unsightly' simply cut it down a bit and wait. Yucca's will take
pruning like this in their
stride and grow new, healthy heads. Make
sure
you don't over water the plant during this time though, it has less
foliage, and so needs less water.
Watering:
Yuccas are
durable, and can tolerate being dry, so don't panic if you
go
away for a while and there's no one around to water it. The
rule of thumb seems to be to check the
soil, and when it dries out it's time to
break out the
H2O.
Under-watering will show - the leaves will turn
yellow and/or
brown,
and
the stalks will
shrivel up.
Similarly, over-watering will also show - although I've never seen it,
over watering a Yucca results in the leaves having brown
tips, with a
yellow '
halo' around the tip.