Question
i recently purchased the plant and soon noticed slithering bugs. to rid the bugs, i immersed the entire pot in water for 30 minutes. when i took the plant out of the water, i noticed one of the three trunks to be  soft.  can this plant be saved and should i re pot.  it is a beautiful plant with three trunks and leaves appear to be healthy. thank you for your time. audrey

Answer
Audrey,

A yucca is a dessert plant an should be given the sunniest location in the house next to a window with the drapes and blinds open from dawn to dusk so it gets all the sun it needs. It should be watered only when it has been very dry for 3 days. It has to have drain holes in the pot and a drain tray under it. If it doesn't you need to move it to pot with drain holes immediately.  An hour after you water it you should empty the drain tray. If you can't pick it up use a turkey baster to empty it.

The bugs and the soft trunk indicate that you have been watering it too much. If the bugs come back do not immerse the plant in water, water it with rubbing alcohol so all the soil in the pot get rubbing alcohol. That will kill anything living in the soil. Keeping it too wet rots the roots and the smell of the rotting roots attracts fungus gnats. The soil need to be kept dry  more than it is wet and the fungus gnats will go away.

If the trunk that is soft is soft all the way through it will need to be cut off with a saw below the soft part. It will not get firm again.  If there is firm trunk above the soft part you can treat it like a cutting. Cut off the soft part, remove the lower leaves on the trunk, dip it in rooting hormone available at any garden center and insert it in a separate pot of sandy cactus soil and put it in a sunny location. After you are sure that it has grown roots it could be repotted back into the pot with the parent plant. If you leave the trunk that is soft there the rot will spread through the rest of the tree and you will loose it all. That parent plant should also be in sandy cactus soil that drains well. Good luck!

Darlene