Advice needed! What should I do with Spike the Yucca??

[CanIbeRio]

Hi. This is Spike....my 23 year old Yucca. I'm very attached to him...he was tiny when I got him. On the day we moved in he was left on our doorstep by the Estate Agent who handled our house sale. He lived in our window at first .. 23 yrs later he is now the height of the room.....that's the problem. He's now got no more room to grow and is too big now. He's had babies too and has offshoots which are also growing.
I've never pruned him. I'm no gardener and don't know what to do. I'm frightened of killing him if I try and chop him down....he's like part of the family .

Could he survive outside? Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Whoops forgot photo

Apparently you can prune him and he will regrow but be shorter www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/yucca/yucca-plants-care-and-pruning-tips-for-pruning-a-yucca.htm. As you are fond of your yucca and have a close relationship with him I recommend that you chat with him beforehand and tell him what you are going to do (well I would do this even if it sounds nuts). Plants do send out distress signals when cut and to my mind it’s good to enable him to prepare. Make the cut clean with sharp secateurs and take the opportunity to repot him in a slightly bigger pot with new compost. Then give a seaweed feed once a week.

From what I’ve read there are hardier varieties of yucca that might survive outside but many would not so best be on the safe side and not assume he is winter hardy.

Rather than pruning the top off and throwing it away, you might be able to air layer it. Plenty of stuff online to explain how.

Clearly it's a ploy by the estate agent to make you move to a house with taller ceilings after twenty-odd years.

Haha @ErrolTheDragon....hadn't thought of that
Thanks all for taking the trouble to reply. It's obvious there's no other answer....he has to go under the knife ...I might get my mum to do it....if I don't he'll think I've betrayed him!!! I might give him a stiff gin beforehand...just a tot in his soil fir Dutch courage!! (Joking!). I would rather raise the height of our ceilings if I could!!!

That isn't a yucca, it's a dragon tree. Unless you live in a tropical zone it won't survive outside. You can cut the stem at any height and hope new growth emerges, vyou can also propagate the plant bit that you cut off.

If I don't = if I do it !!

@kinzarose.... dragon tree ...all these years I thought he was a Yucca! Never heard of a dragon tree.. off to Google!! Thanks for the advice

This has brought back very fond memories of the cheese plant which took over my mums victorian bay window (anda large chunk of the living room) - she was bereft when it had do go on the compost heap.

Definitely a variegated Dragon plant, yukkas are much chunkier.

If you cut a bit off, try and root it in damp compost.

I do that with Yuccas and Parlour Palms.

The Yuccas are so easy that every time it reaches 5metres tall (in the garden) I saw it into 1-foot logs and give them away on Freegle. You only have to shove them in the ground and they grow. It was originally an M&S houseplant.

Quite mild here.