Thought on why this Lucky Bamboo is suddenly dying?

2 years ago

I've had this bamboo in the same location for YEARS; maybe as many as 10 years, but I'm not sure.

I usually just fill it up with water weekly and it's fine. I recently had to leave town for 9 days, though, and I watered it before I left. When I came back it was kinda droopy, so I put it in the kitchen sink and filled it with water (well water) just over the rim of the little pot for about 30 minutes, then put it back in place and made sure the pot was full.

Something I've done a dozen times in the past.

It's been a week, though, and not only have the leaves not perked back up, now they're turning yellow and dying!

Have I inadvertently killed it?

That can't be a good omen... :-O

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Comments (5)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 years ago
can you tell us the height of the plant.. and the height of the pot.. looks like 6 inches compared to 3 to 4 feet.. ...

i suspect no potting media.. to hold any water .. and i wonder if the 9 days was relevant at all ..

has it ever been repotted.. is there anything other than roots in the pot... to hold moisture between waterings ...

ken
Dave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Looks like there's a salt and/or mineral build-up in the potting mix. I'd certainly repot into a larger pot with good potting soil.
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Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
2 years ago
Height is about 30", and the pot is tiny tiny, like 2". I've never taken it out of the pot, but I'd guess that there's just pea gravel or something similar in there.

I have another one that I watered in the same way and it's fine, so I don't think it's an issue of a water contaminant. I'll try to repot it and see what happens...
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
2 years ago
FYI, it's been about 24 hours since I repotted, and there's no apparent improvement.

In the original pot, it had WAY more root than I had imagined! I had to do quite a bit of wiggling to get it out, and when I did the whole root system was easily 6" long!

The new container is about 5" x 5", it was the only thing I had on hand that might work. I filled it with aquarium grade pea gravel, and then water to about 1/4" above the surface of the pea gravel. And I removed 3 or 4 of the obviously dead leaves, thinking that I didn't want them to pull nutrients from the living ones.

(Note: the light brown stick that you see on the left of the green bamboo stem is actually a bamboo rod used to support the stem)
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
2 years ago
FWIW, I moved it closer to a North-Eastern-facing window, where the other bamboo has been doing fine. But it hasn't seemed to improved any.

You can see that where the leaves originate from the stem, it was yellowish 2 weeks ago and now it's brown.

(Reminder: the light brown stick that you see on the left of the green bamboo stem is actually a bamboo rod used to support the stem)

The stems are nice and green, I don't suppose there's a magic trick to cutting it off by about 8"?