Expert: Greg Simpson - 6/2/2006

Question
I live near San Antonio in the sandy soil.  I have a Spanish Dagger Yucca that I would like to move today (nothing like advance notice, huh?).  My cactus garden slowly, but surely, got shady as the trees around grew and it also is in a zone that get quite a bit of water...what a waste.  So anyway, I want to move it to another area.  Can I do it now? Is there any special care I should take? Everything seems to grow well in the sand, the only issues I have with transplanting is that the sand (even when I supplement it for different plants) breaks away when I transplant something and i usually end up with mostly bare roots.  And as you can imagine it stresses most of the plants, bigtime.

Any thoughts or recommendations?  By the way, I have about 10 or 12 other Cactii that are moving too, but some of them I don't know the names of and others I've moved before and never had a problem.  My guess is that the Yucca will be the same.....never even know it was uprooted.

Thanks,

John

Answer
Dear John,

Your plants ending up bare root is not a problem. With the Yucca, make sure not to over water once you move it. But do get a product called "Superthrive". I swear by this stuff, particularly when transplanting Yucca's. Just make sure to follow the directions.

Also, especially with the cacti, you may want to throw some shade cloth over them for a few weeks at least. If they are in partial shade now and will be in direct sun, they may sunburn and die or at a minimum, scar. Hope this helps, good luck.

Sincerely,

Greg