Everyone can now send invitations! Please read the guidelines. And then send your invitations.
How to kill a Yucca
I hate these things - they are sharp, OUCH! I suppose I should be glad that they grow in the driest clay. But I'm not. Years ago I dug one up and decimated it, so I thought, and it just came back. Later, I injected one with a mixture of blackberry poison and diesel and it didn't seem to have much effect.
However, I tried again, and the "simple" solution seems to be a. dig around it enough to expose the buried "trunk", b. slice off a section of the trunk and c. paint the exposed section liberally with glyphosate in "stump-killer" concentration. You need to do every single trunk this way - I've not figured out when they are the same plant and when they are different ones.
Pic tomorrow.
Comments
Oh dear, this cracked me up:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg0718130510862.html
"If it's wrapped itself into the wall, stern measures will be needed. To ensure yucca elimination:
1) Take down the wall and dispose of it well away from your property.
2) Dig deeply and remove all visible bits of the plant.
Dispose of the soil, well away from your property.
3) Dig even more deeply (preferably down to molten magma). Once you have excavated a crater roughly 10 times the diamter of the original plant and at least 3 feet deeper than all visible roots, remove all dirt, rock etc. and dispose of well away from your property.
4) Fill the pit with double-strength Brush-B-Gone and erect a security fence around it. Inspect around the edges once daily for marauding roots. Be prepared to call in air support if needed.
5) Approximately 50% of gardeners have found that by strictly adhering to these methods, the yucca will be vanquished within 5 years.
6) If you are within the unlucky 50%, move to a new home. Do not take any plants or garden equipment with you. Do not leave a forwarding address.
"
The rest of that thread is hilarious BTW (well, it might be if you've tried to kill one and failed...
And I found this: http://bearsbutt.com/2011/08/18/how-to-kill-a-yucca-plant/
So my working theory is that if you cut the head off it you'll just stimulate new growth. You need to poison it while it "thinks" everything is normal.
Some years ago, my housemates and I decided to destroy the yucca/Century Plant in the side garden of our rental.
We took to it the only available suitable equipment to hand (axe, mower fuel, box of matches).
The axe was fairly successful but the knowledge of impending hydrocarbon application got us a little carried away. We dosed the sucker with a half a jerrycan then stood well back and tossed a lit match.
A hypersecond and one large whooomph later we all realised we were standing in an inferno in our thongs.
The entire side garden, the garden path and the carpark of the neighbouring business (fortunately closed) was a puddle of fire because the petrol fumes had migrated 'quite far' from the target. The target was a pillar of flame that towered over the house...
After a few minutes, we had the side garden in a general state of damp and merely smoking. The pillar of flame was gone leaving a slightly scorched and axe damaged plant. None of us had much hair left on our legs below the knees. The wry, quiet applause from our elderly neighbour over back fence was a bonus...
That plant remains there to this day...some 20 years on.
I send you some ticl4
Cheers
Very funny Seano
I'm wondering if this really is killing it, but it certainly seems to be dying... (this is maybe 3-4 weeks after the deed)
Personally I like Yuccas and I have a handfull of different ones. You can cut off a trunk, leave it on the ground sitting there, through a heatwave and some time after you'll see leaves sprouting and eventually it will throw roots down. It only takes one remaining bit of trunk!
I have sandy soil with slopes and I'm near the beach, so things that are tough are needed! I have some plants that are meant to be very drought tolerant that get dry in my garden, some of them are even classed as weeds in this area! You know things are tough when weeds struggle!
So in my garden, it's survival of the fittest. The tough things remain. I have one yucca type that is spikey and nasty, but the ones you actually BUY are usually not like that. The great thing is, buy one you like and you can cultivate into as many as you want.
It's just bluffing you John.
If you listen really closely, you should be able to hear it giggling
Hah you might be right. I'm not giving up!
Hi Paul, didn't know there were non-spiky yuccas but this is definitely not one of them!
Kill it with fire!!!!! :->
Actually...I have found another way to disarm a yucca.
The neighbour decided to lock his sheep in the house yard because his approach to fences is not up to the bloodymindness of the Dorper crossbreed.
There's not much vegetation within the yard at the best of times (though if sheep ate metal they'd be happy) and one of the vegetative exhibits was a Yucca in a pot.
It's still in its pot but it now looks like someone attacked the head of it with a whipper snipper and a cheese grater. Most impressive.
Hah hah. If they keep at it it might eventually give up the ghost. Mine is looking even deader now, nearly time for the obit shot.
There is no amount of deadness in their appearance that means victory! If it has anything green on it, no chance. Even if it's just a detached stump of yucca with no roots. In that case you have a zombie yucca. Expect to see green leaves appearing within a few months of chopping them off. Unless the stump is in a bath of acid.
Zombie yucca! I think I saw a movie about that once.
Or not, all zombie movies are a bit the same to me.
I cannot stand to watch zombie movies.
They just freak me out!
'Zombie Yucca from the deep!'
You can't even kill it with fire!!!
What a great title for a B-grade film!
Soft cock
=D>
Have a look at a British 3 part series called
In the Flesh
A different take on the old zombie movie/show
or
Warm Bodies
:-b
It may be soft, but it is pretty! :-P
Is that pretty darn soft
:-P
Oh Yucca...
I've been trying to figure out a joke involving application of herbicide, but can't.