How to Grow Yucca Brevifolia

The Joshua tree is a slow-growing plant.

According to legend, Mormon pioneers making their way across the Colorado River named the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) after the prophet Joshua. The tree's oddly shaped limbs, with clusters of stiff, long, pointed leaves appeared to be directing the travelers to their ultimate destination. Found in the Southwest desert, the Joshua tree prefers hot dry climates and is sensitive to freezing temperatures. While bees and birds pollinate some trees, the pronuda moth, also called the yucca moth, pollinates the Joshua tree. While rarely used as a landscape plant, some desert landscapers incorporate the prickly evergreen into xeriscapes.

Things You'll Need

• Peat pot
• Potting soil
• Container
• Tall pot with drain hole
• Humus
• Granular, balanced fertilizer
• Perlite
• Sand

Instructions

1. Collect seedpods when they drop from an established tree. Do this during the fall after the summer monsoon season.

2. Fill a peat pot with potting soil, leaving a 2-inch space between the soil line and the top of the pot. Use a pot between 4 and 6 inches tall.

3. Remove a seed from its pod and place the seed on the center of the soil.

4. Cover the seed with about a 1/4 inch of soil.

5. Fill a container with 1 inch of water and set the peat pot in the water. This allows the peat pot to absorb the water from its bottom.

6. Place the container with the peat pot in direct sunlight and maintain a temperature at or above 60 degrees F. It will take about three weeks for the seed to germinate, if the seed is viable.

7. Remove the peat pot from the container of water and take it outside, after the seed sprouts. Set in indirect sunlight.

8. Water the peat pot about every two days, or after the soil dries. Irrigate by setting the peat pot in a container of water.

9. Tear off the bottom of the peat pot (leaving the rest of the pot intact) and prepare to transplant the seedling into a tall pot, when the seedlings grow to about 1 1/4 inches tall.

10. Fill a tall pot with well-draining native soil, or combine 1 part humus and granular, balanced fertilizer with 2 parts perlite and 2 parts washed sand, leaving room for the peat pot.

11. Plant the peat pot in the tall pot's soil. Keep in indirect sunlight. Joshua trees prefer temperatures above 85 degrees F. Joshua trees are slow growers. It might take 10 years to grow 5 feet, and 12 years before the plant blooms. Water the pot from the bottom when the soil dries out.

References

• Joshua Tree National Park: Park Information Page
• Lewis Center for Educational Research: Joshua Trees, How to Grow a Mojave Native
• Utah State University Forestry: Joshua-tree; April 2, 2008