HELP! Any saving my bamboo??

19 years ago

Greetings,

I have planted about 15 6' tall 'Phyllostachys rubromarginata' bamboo in a line for use as a screen. Over the winter all of the leaves turned yellow. Does anyone know how to tell if the bamboo is dying?

a little more (possibly) useful info:

-I bought the bamboo last summer. It was all 6 foot tall and very well rooted (overflowing pots) and pot-grown. I bought from a very reputable seller of bamboo ("bamboo plantation")

-They were green all summer, fall, and beginning of winter

-I live in the north-east suburbs of the philadelphia area

-we had a very unusual winter. its was warm until february, then sharp drop in temperature to about 0-degrees (-5 windchill). Spring, so far, has also been unusual... after starting to warm up, the last two weeks have been cold with even possible snow on the radar.

- I didnt fertilize the bamboo yet this Spring because of the weird weather

I;m begging for help. I love this bamboo and dont want to loose them!

Thanks in advance,

-Aaron

Image link:

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Comments (5)

amb278
Original Author
19 years ago
Here are additional pictures of the troubled bamboo:

Click These:

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Or Copy/Paste these into your browser:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Aaron.M.Braun/TroubledBamboo/photo#5050737551961828082

http://picasaweb.google.com/Aaron.M.Braun/TroubledBamboo/photo#5050737551961828034

http://picasaweb.google.com/Aaron.M.Braun/TroubledBamboo/photo#5050737551961828050

http://picasaweb.google.com/Aaron.M.Braun/TroubledBamboo/photo#5050737551961828066
kentuck_8b
19 years ago
Did you keep it watered all Winter long? Sometimes a very fast drop in temps is very damaging to bamboo as opposed to a slow drop in temps.

If the ground/roots dried out during a cold spell, it might be bad news. I always water well just before a cold spell.

From the pictures that I see, it looks like it just froze, in which case, it should be just fine and will come back from the rhizomes/roots. It will get more cold hardy after a couple of growing seasons when the roots and rhizomes become more established.

Good Luck

Kt
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amb278
Original Author
19 years ago
I didnt water much during the winter because I was afraid it would freeze and destroy the root ball. Should I have watered it? The bamboo is planted in somewhat of a swale between my property and the adjacent one. As a result, it is average-to-fast draining and gets a good watering any time there is any rain, snow, etc. Since the only time it really wasnt watered was when there was ice or snow on the ground, I would think it had a good supply of water.

Does bamboo go dormant during the winter like regular grass?

Also, will the yellow leaves turn green again? If not, will new leaves grow from the existing clums?
inversa
19 years ago
that is cold damage. there is still some green on the culms and some of the branches, so it is possible that the leaf buds are intact. keep an eye out for the little tiny buds on the branchlets to begin elongating, they may leaf back out to some extent. if everything turns totally tan over the next few weeks then chances are those culms are dead, but you should see new shoots come up in the near future. don't be surprised if all of those leaves fall off, as long as there is green they may come back.

bamboo does not exhibit its true hardiness for the initial 4 years or so, and first year plantings are particularly cold tender, it does not take extreme temps just a deep freeze with sunny or windy days will top kill a young planting.
hello_c_j_here
18 years ago
Hi...Just curious... did they recover?
Blessings