Reading the leaves

17 years ago

I have a 1 Year old Phyllostachys atrovaginata that survived winter for the most part, and I just planted a Phyllostachys vivax 'Huangwenzhu Inversa' this spring.

I don't know what happened, my vivax was doing great until what I assume was a frost. It started to slowly brown from the bottom up, which I thought was odd, as I thought frost would kill from top down. I then started to think, perhaps I was killing it with poor dirt and too much fertilizer. I promptly dug it up, rinsed the roots, and replaced all the soil with fresh potting soil.

I am now seeing some new leaves slowly pop out, although not as fast as I would like, compared to my atrovaginata, which is generating gobs of new greens. I did however find some evidence to support my frost theory, the new leaves that were in progress of coming out had their tips brown and die. Now any new growth since then is clearly visible, because it is the only green left on the plant.

Next year if it makes it, how do you tell if an Inversa clum is dead or not? At least my boring Atrov. was very telling which part of it was dead, with my vivax, Its kind of a guessing game where I assume that since the top of it has leaves, everything from the top down is still alive.

Anyway, my real question is about reading the plant. What can you veteran growers tell from reading the leaves? Brown tips, folded leaves, brown leaves, dark spots, what is my boo trying to tell me?

Here are some photos that are a few weeks old, may post updated ones later:

Phyllostachys atrovaginata with companion soft neck garlic.

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Newly planted vivax in its cage, for no good reason other than it was very expensive and I dont want to give the dear a chance to determine whether they like it or not.

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Top down of the atrov.

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Leaves closeup atrov.

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This picture shows the leaves on their way out starting from the bottom up.

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Comments (4)

Embothrium
17 years ago
Last photos show a mite infestation.
kudzu9
17 years ago
nonyaz-
Bamboo can tolerate very poor soil. It was not necessary to dig it up, and washing away the soil from the roots probably set it back. In addition, bamboo can take more than a year to get established, so what you saw that you were worried about was probably normal seasonal damage and leaf changeout. Unless you have a bamboo that, all of a sudden, is dropping all of its leaves, there may be no problem at all. As for dead culms, only remove culms if they have turned tan and have no re-leafing.

As for reading leaves:

-when they are curled longitudinally into a cylinder, the plant is not getting enough water

-when only the tips turn brown it may be a sign of too much water

-when they have some tanning and look frayed, it means they may have suffered some frost/wind damage, but will hopefully be replaced by normal new growth

And as for mite infestation, I'm not seeing it. Those look like slightly damaged, but normal leaves.

Bottom line: give your plants some time, don't overwater, don't over-fertilize, don't dig them up, and don't obsess. Enjoy....
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nonyaz
Original Author
17 years ago
Thats the thing, it was all of a sudden dropping its leaves, hence my panic that if I did not do something, it would die.

Apparently I have been over watering them both. They both have brown tips, so I'm going to back off and let it dry out.

Its hard not to obsess, bucause I paid an obsessive amount for the Vivax and I really want it to do well.

I got another question for you. When I first got the Vivax, it had nice green distinctive stripes just like the pictures on their website. When all of this leaf dropping panic started to happen, the stripes turned dark green/brown, and started to fade. What does that mean, will they ever return?

Took some more pictures today, but the sun ruined most of them:

A welcome surprise from my atrov.
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Messed up leaf coming out:
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Fade example 1:
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Fade example 2:
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kudzu9
17 years ago
The existing culms will not revert to the original appearance. New shoots/culms should have the characteristic appearance you expect. However, in my experience, many of my phyllostachys species change from green to yellowish culms, which I think is a function of the amount of sun they get. Bamboo can get "suntanned" and that is why your bamboo may not look the way you want it, even when it is otherwise perfectly happy and healthy. Below is a link showing some pictures of your vivax species as grown by other people...note the variation in appearance.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ph. v. 'H. inversa'