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Making Your Own Yucca Extract?

Dignan

Dignan

The Soapmaker!
Veteran
Hey all,

I live in the Southwest and have access to a lot of wild yucca. I've never tried yucca extract but have seen it demonstrated to be excellent stuff by organic growers online. But I'm too cheap to buy it and am wondering about making the extract myself.

I've googled it quite a bit and can't find anything about the process used to make yucca extract. Wondering if anyone here knows, or is more resourceful than I am, and can find the info online and post it here.

Peace-

Dignan
 
G

Guest

Google: "Yucca Oil Extraction".

If after reading the many sites dealing with Yucca Oil I think you might just find that buying the refined product is much cheaper than purchasing all of the equipment necessary to do it yourself.

TyStik
 
jaykush

jaykush

dirty black hands
ICMag Donor
Veteran
hey dig i tried to make my own once and it did work. and i know i never say this but just go buy some lol its CMEMORY and little goes a long way. i can get a gallon for 10$ at the health food store. you need some kind of machine to make the job easy imo. making it myself was a pain in the ass and took longer than i expected.

if you have yucca locally just find out if its an eatable species. i have one and when it flowers i get free snacks when hiking.
 
Clackamas Coot

Clackamas Coot

Active member
Veteran
Dig

Don't laugh, but I lived in Yucca Valley at one point in my life so I've seen a few yucca plants.

What I'm confused about is what part of the plant do they pull the extract from? I suppose that they don't have to destroy the plant to get the extract meaning that perhaps it's something in the flowers of the plant?

Weird looking plant to say the least.

CC
 
jaykush

jaykush

dirty black hands
ICMag Donor
Veteran
i dont know how the companies do it but i made juice from the seed pods and the stalk when before it flowers as its coming up. chopped, squished and filtered the juice. worked but a hassle.
 
Dignan

Dignan

The Soapmaker!
Veteran
Clackamas Coot said:
Dig

Don't laugh, but I lived in Yucca Valley at one point in my life so I've seen a few yucca plants. CC
Click to expand...

I could never laugh at that because I lived in Lancaster-Palmdale about 15 years ago. It doesn't get any worse than that.


Dear Diary,

For the first time ever today, I had jaykush tell me to buy something gardening-related. It was a most momentous day, indeed.
Click to expand...
 
jaykush

jaykush

dirty black hands
ICMag Donor
Veteran
add to that yucca is NOT needed. its one of those things you can get by without but its cool to have. the store bought stuff is also good for you as well to take so two birds with one stoner.
 
Dignan

Dignan

The Soapmaker!
Veteran
Yea, I'll skip it. There are many things like yucca that I think may give some little boost or otherwise be advantageous, but I'll only bother with it if I can get it extremely cheaply or make it myself. Like humic acids... you won't catch me buying a bottled version of anything that my soil will produce anyway. But if I found humic acids leaching through my compost pile into the ground and I could easily catch and bottle it, then I'd use it. LOL

Free Is My Favorite Word,

Dignan
 
sophisto

sophisto

Member
What about aloe vera extract.....

I assume that you want to use the yucca as extra proteins for the fungal teas and also as a wetting agent for foliar sprays ????

Apparently Aloe Vera extract works just the same....I read it some where in one of my soil biology and tea brewing books..... Dont know what the rates of dilutuion or application are though??????
 
Clackamas Coot

Clackamas Coot

Active member
Veteran
^^^^^Good advice on the aloe vera extract.

If you have a retail chain of stores in your area called "Trader Joe's" you might want to see if they carry the organic, unfiltered aloe vera juice/extract. They do at the stores on West Coast and back into the Midwest.

I just checked the jug and I paid $8.95 per gallon and that was last October or so. This product comes out of a company based in Texas and it is food grade extract. It's pure enough for people & pets to ingest so spraying in and around plants, yard, gardens, is of no concern.

The rate that I read somewhere (and I apologize that I can't recall exactly where) is to go with 1 tablespoon (1/2 oz.) per gallon of water. It's the same amount if you're using it in a nutrient tea of some kind.

HTH

CC
 
W

Whatever

Free Is My Favorite Word
Click to expand...
Free is good.

It's proven the polysaccharides in yucca promote fungal growth. Is it needed...no...if you have provided other food for your fungi. Does it help...yes....regardless of other fungal food sources IMO. When I use yucca extract I make a very concentrated solution and squirt just a little bit on the soil surface once about two weeks after I flip. This just after a day or so after watering to let the fungi have a feast. I'll then water only the top few inches when I think the pot is about half dry then just full on watering. I treat the top few inches as a mini composter throughout the grow. I now don't go full wet dry cycles like I used to. Many times when the plants are kind of close to needing water I'll just mess with the top few inches.

I'm a fan of diversity. It's not necessarily you need a lot of something...a pinch of this..a little of that sometimes. A 6 oz container of Humes yucca extract goes a looooong way IMO. Jeez...it's only $9.99. The container I'm currently working on is like a year old. But I paid for it and others have the luxury in life of getting stuff like this for free just because...lol.

EDIT...BTW...aloe extracts are made form the leaves...if you can call em that...while yucca extracts are made from the roots. Aloe leaves are high in glucans (sugar basically) which is a bit different than the sugars found in the roots of yucca. The sugars in the roots are a bit more complex.

I'm pretty sure that's right.

Anyway it's been a long day...definitely a difference in the sugars from aloe leaves and yucca roots...then there's the saponins...lol.
 
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sophisto

sophisto

Member
Whatever said:
Free is good.

It's proven the polysaccharides in yucca promote fungal growth. Is it needed...no...if you have provided other food for your fungi. Does it help...yes....regardless of other fungal food sources IMO. When I use yucca extract I make a very concentrated solution and squirt just a little bit on the soil surface once about two weeks after I flip. This just after a day or so after watering to let the fungi have a feast. I'll then water only the top few inches when I think the pot is about half dry then just full on watering. I treat the top few inches as a mini composter throughout the grow. I now don't go full wet dry cycles like I used to. Many times when the plants are kind of close to needing water I'll just mess with the top few inches.

I'm a fan of diversity. It's not necessarily you need a lot of something...a pinch of this..a little of that sometimes. A 6 oz container of Humes yucca extract goes a looooong way IMO. Jeez...it's only $9.99. The container I'm currently working on is like a year old. But I paid for it and others have the luxury in life of getting stuff like this for free just because...lol.

EDIT...BTW...aloe extracts are made form the leaves...if you can call em that...while yucca extracts are made from the roots. Aloe leaves are high in glucans (sugar basically) which is a bit different than the sugars found in the roots of yucca. The sugars in the roots are a bit more complex.

I'm pretty sure that's right.

Anyway it's been a long day...definitely a difference in the sugars from aloe leaves and yucca roots...then there's the saponins...lol.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the knowledge brotha...

So would you say that one or the other is better when used as a food source for fungal teas ?

I think I remember reading in DR Elaine Ingham's compost tea brewing manual that either or could be used. I could be wrong though.

I would like to see a side by side of these two being used as supplements to fungal teas. A tea with aloe and a tea with yucca.....Somehow I personally dont think the difference would be significant. If so I guess it comes down to cost?

Looking forward to hearing a response on this question......... :chin:
 
W

Whatever

I'm still on a big learning curve with the organic stuff. From what I understand yucca extract is a great food for fungi but not THE food for fungi. I think rolled oats is another food. Honestly this thread is the first I've heard of aloe for growing but have 15+ years in the health food industry so know a thing or two about the basics of each, aloe and yucca, and both are recommended for different uses for humanoids. They are not interchangeable.

As for Dr. Ingham...I have to defer to her experience in regards to their interchangeability when used in fungal teas.

Personally I'd just stick with yucca and wouldn't even bother with aloe. After years of making things complicated I like simple.
 
Tactical Farmer

Tactical Farmer

Member
Pulled some large Yucca plants today & harvested the roots & some leaves. The roots are alot like a tough potato but with a thicker bark on the outside.

Found out tonight that the roots are a fancy meal "for us" if your otta spuds plus it makes for a killer fungal amendment & or foliage spray.

So I skinned the bark off, ground the white juicy roots & some leaf for some homemade liquid Yucca.

See ya expensive wetting agents :)
 
h.h.

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
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I use the trunks after they have been down for awhile. I usually collect down and dead. The bark I use as mulch or mix it in the soil. The stringy heart is where the soap is. Where the minerals are.Dried, I soak it overnight for a rich dark tea. Aerate it as well. It seems to help hold the oxygen or maybe I just like the bubbles.The tea will stay good for a couple of days. Takes quite awhile to turn even with EWC or EM's.
I use it a lot. Foliar is great except it quickly ruins my spray bottles now I just drench them a bit when watering. No burn just happy plants.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=10738&pictureid=483055

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h.h.

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
Clackamas Coot said:
Dig

Don't laugh, but I lived in Yucca Valley at one point in my life so I've seen a few yucca plants.

What I'm confused about is what part of the plant do they pull the extract from? I suppose that they don't have to destroy the plant to get the extract meaning that perhaps it's something in the flowers of the plant?

Weird looking plant to say the least.

CC
Click to expand...
Don't laugh but I just moved from Yucca Valley.
 
C

CC_2U

h.h. said:
Tapioca is "Yuca", or cassava. Not "yucca".
Click to expand...

Good info there! And then there's the deal on which yucca variety is being used. Yucca Schidigera is the one you want to source. It's the one found in Mexico and the Southwest.

I found some yucca powder at a very inexpensive price and it was from the roots of a yucca plant but it was a variety grown in Asia.

Aloe vera extract (the pure, powdered form) is an excellent fungi food as well as being a solid surfactant and a host of other reasons to consider this plant besides these 2 benefits.

CC
 
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