Yucca growth rate?

[LivistonaFan]

Hello,

I wonder how many years will these yuccas take to attain 1 meter stem?:

Yucca Mixtecana: They germinated in November 2017

In the beginning of January they were in my "growing armoire" at constantly 18/15 °C together with some freshly germinated Washingtonias and S. romanzoffianas. They looked like this (sry for the bad quality):

Here you can see the root size of one of them in comparison to some date palm seedlings:

 

 

Edited July 24, 2018 by LivistonaFan

[LivistonaFan]

Yucca filifera (right of them both):

root size:

it germinated in April 2017 (again bad quality)

[LivistonaFan]

Do they grow faster with "ground water"?

For example Washingtonias tend to grow a lot faster with permanent water supply:

(left: no drip mat                                                   right : drip mat)

[GDLWyverex]

The city was tearing these out of the highway side about 8 years ago and they were going to chip them up when I came along and offered to clean the mess up for them. Lots of fun dragging them off with my motorcycle. Luckily the highway where they formerly resided is only 4 blocks away. I gave a bunch of them away to friends and kept these

Later on I bought this variegated pup to go along with them

They are NOT fast growers and as each branch blooms, which is an annual event, it stops growing at any appreciable rate and branches off new growth, so they get bushier. You can see flowers on the fist photo. Seeds are difficult as they rely upon some specialized moth to do it for them and I am not in an area where those critters live. In the 8 years that I have had them they have NOT doubled in height, though they are sending off dozens of new branches all over the stems. I have them in a roof top garden in 600 litre tubs. The ones in the park, a few blocks away, are some 15 - 20 meters tall. Quite impressive. I doubt that my tub restricted specimens will ever reach that type of dimension. They require very little attention and LOTS of sun.

When you asked how long it might take to reach 1 meter, I couldn't help but wonder if you meant tall or wide.

 

Richard

 

Richard

 

 

Edited July 27, 2018 by GDLWyverex

[LivistonaFan]

Beautiful plants!

I thought they would be relatively fast growers and meant 1 m tall.  Maybe they won't bloom and flower that often in my climate which is obviously less optimal than yours and they will grow faster in the height (they will be in ground)?

I hope it is possible for them to look in less than 20 years like yours.

[LivistonaFan]

 

One of my mixtecanas did branch. Is this normal at this early stage of life? (It obviously didn't flower yet) 

[LivistonaFan]

The Y. filifera did the same thing

Only these two Yuccas did branch (they are shown with bare roots earlier this post) so there must be a correlation between exposing their roots and growing offshots.

 

 

[Subwoofer]

It's not branching but pupping. Clustering yucca do this quite often while small, less when big. Probably because of root damage/disturbence while repotting, drought and other stress factors.

To answer the topic starters question, i have to say it depends on alot of factors.

What variety, fast growing (aloifolia) vs slow faxoniana

Soil type rich, poor soil

Availability of constant water in drought periods

Winter temperature/climate zone, some cold hardy varietes keep growing during normal winters.

Pot or ground, in pot they will grow slower and repotting can slow them down even more.

Many more variables that determine how long it takes, but i would say optimal between 10-15 years from seed to 1 meter trunk for lets say yucca rostrata. You will need a good mediteranian climate and good summer watering for that and no bad luck. :-)

Edited February 4, 2019 by Subwoofer