Propagate yucca

Yucca is a highly ornamental plant with an exotic look, grown both indoors and in garden, in ground or in pot. Wonderfully resilient to drought, difficult growing conditions or cold (down to -20°C for hardiest varieties), Yucca shows its tenacious will to live by its ease of propagation. Propagating a Yucca is extremely simple and allows obtaining new specimens to replant without difficulty. But how to multiply a Yucca? Propagation by cuttings of Yucca can be done in different ways, depending on whether you use the plant top or a piece of trunk.

Follow our tutorial, and discover how to make a yucca cutting easily!

Propagation by cuttings of Yucca makes it easy to obtain clones of your favourite Yucca varieties!

What type of cutting for Yucca?

There are several ways to propagate a Yucca, depending on which part of the plant is chosen: the top or the trunk. By taking a piece of stipe or false trunk, you make both a top cutting and one or several trunk cuttings. This technique is ideal for upright yuccas, forming rosettes of leaves on those false trunks.

For Yuccas with basal rosettes (developing directly at the base at soil level, therefore without trunk), you can proceed similarly, but by making only a top cutting, the stem being too short to be cut into several sections.

Propagating a yucca in water is possible, but it is not the most common nor the most reliable method for this plant.

When to propagate Yucca?

Propagation by cuttings of Yucca is ideally done in spring, at resumption of growth. You can take advantage of pruning and cleaning work on yuccas to propagate the cut branches and obtain free new plants to pot, plant in beds or give away!

Equipment needed to propagate Yucca

Thick gloves to protect against thorns
Gardener's saw
Well-sharpened pruning shear
Sufficiently deep terracotta or plastic pots
Clay pebbles
Potting compost or soil mixed half-and-half with coarse sand to obtain a well-draining substrate
Small hand trowel
Marker, pencil and optional labels

To propagate Yucca, you will need in particular a gardener's saw, gloves and a well-sharpened pruning shear

How to take a Yucca cutting?

The technique is the same whether you want to propagate an indoor yucca or make a cutting of an outdoor yucca: follow these simple steps to multiply your plant easily!

Select a vigorous false trunk or a branch to cut
Saw off slightly above soil level if you want the cut part to sprout and form new leaves, or at soil level if you want to reduce yucca spread
Saw the removed part to make the top cutting, which is the terminal section with the leaves, leaving about 15 cm of trunk. Remove some foliage by cutting it cleanly with pruning shear.
Saw the remaining piece of trunk into several sections of about 15 cm

make a yucca cutting

Mark each Yucca cutting to distinguish top from bottom using a marker
Fill pots with a layer of clay pebbles then substrate
Plant the cut pieces, one per pot, orienting them the right way (top up and bottom into substrate). They should be pushed deep enough into the substrate to stand upright and develop roots
Firm the substrate around the sections and moisten it
Label yuccas with tags indicating variety and propagation date
Place cuttings in a bright spot sheltered from frost. Remember to moisten them regularly, without excess.

After a few weeks, cut sections will begin to develop new rosettes of leaves

What next?

Wait until rosettes of leaves start to appear. Depending on growing conditions and Yucca variety, this can take a few weeks
If necessary, repot your young yucca plants once sufficiently developed and rooted into larger pots, handling them gently. Use a light, well-draining substrate. Your young plants can continue to take root and grow. Continue to water regularly, allowing the substrate to dry out well between waterings
In the following spring or autumn, you can proceed to plant yuccas in the garden. They will appreciate sunny beds in well-drained soil.