The nigras, like black bamboo and henon, don't appear to like alkaline soil conditions, like you have in Utah. Try viridis, vivax, or glauca instead.

Dulcis and bambusiodes are also two of my favorites for alkaline soil. Rubromarginata is a good screen for alkaline conditions, semiaurundaria fastuosa is extremely drought tolerant in any soil, as well. I grow these plus iiridescens, shangai 3, makinoi, decora, viridis, vivax, parvifolia, atrovaginata, slender crookstem, boryana, henon, black, golden aurea, golden bambusoides, glauca, henon, moso.

One can easiley raise the pH in an acidic soil, but there is no effective long term way to acidify an alkaline soil without creating novel chemical imbalances and you are right back to chlorosis. It's the nature of the beast, in case you were about to ask. Trust me on that one.

Chose an adaptable plant if you want to see eventual size and a healthy looking green. If you want to stick with a nigra, irrigate it with rainwater only to avoid nutrient lock up from municipal waters which are usually highly alkaline.

Moso is the very worst in your environment, often right out dies, it's an acidophile. All of the moso I have planted except for one I planted a month ago in a rare acidic seam in the hills just north of here at a frien's house have died.

Nigra, doesn't die but becomes chlorotic as soon as you irrigate it with municipal water in an alkaline soil. I'm interested in buying a five thousand gallon tank to collect rain water, if it remains chlorotic in it's fourth year, I will be giving up on henon for the most part and make room for what doesn't get chlorotic. In a few years I will have a comprehensive list for what does well in alkaline soil.

But man does henon make a grove, I like it better than moso. I've visited a maintained grove of henon where if you looked up, you couldn't see the sky, pitch dark in the middle of the summer. The temperature dropped ten to fifteen degrees inside, as well. But it was a high rainfall area with acidic red clay soil. Good luck Pea Can, visit bamboowebdotinfo sometime.

Wow I hope I have luck with the henon. Great information, I did not even think of the soil... But we don't use city water and the area is constantly moist in the summer (not standing water but moist). We have an irrigation ditch behind our place and use it to water the yard. From May - June we have Mountain water (snow melt from the mountains, crips clear and cold), from July - October we have canal water (murky, stinky canal water). But it seems to work well instead of using the city water.