Cold damage winter 2013/2014

[Alan_L]

...Hopefully all that (sometimes standing) water will drown voles.

Don't count on it. Unless the water hits all at once (like a dam burst) they probably had time to find a dry spot.

[Tarzanus]

About voles, they might as well get moldy and rot as far as I'm concerned, they are most certainly not dry.

About denudata, ...



If that's a typical leaf shape and if I interpret size correctly, they are way too large, too wide and too fragile, seems more like my Borinda than my denudata. Color seems darker on my F. denudata, despite watching it struggle to survive. That's the reason I never really take photos of it - it just can't take off like Murieale did. Speaking of F. murieale, blackbirds again removed top 3 inches of mulched soil and bare rhizome necks are exposed bare naked. There's really a lot of them this year, and they may upsize nicely again. With almost 3m tall shoots last year, they will most likely go above that! It was planted into heavy compacted clay that was never used for nothing. I had to use pickaxe to loosen up the soil a bit, mixing it with some peat moss - Eartworms did the rest. Soil is too hard for voles around it, haven't seen one.

UPDATE: Just something I forgot to mention - ask. How do the culm sheaths look like? Denudata has very short sheathes and internode appears sooner and exposed internode gets much larger than on Borinda which practically keeps everything covered until the start of branching out. If culm sheathes are long, it's not denudata.

[JWH]

Tarzanus-

Here are some more pics.

I'd call the leaves small, they seem wide for their size, papery thin, and a vivid bright green in color.

Culm sheaths are slightly shorter than the internodes, not super long like my other borindas. One interesting thing I've noticed is the new branches burst through the bottom of the culm sheath, and the sheath is retained for several months before falling off, very similar to my chusquea gigantea and C.culeou.

[Tarzanus]

How about older culms, 2 or 3 years? these all have only 2 or 3 leaves with 3 branches per node, which is way too low, even for Borinda. Denudata grows more than just 3 branches, and they tend to be thinner than those on your photo. Culm sheath can burst that way, but they are not persistant and can go off pretty easily on denudata. Borinda, on the other hand, has more persistent sheaths that are more likely to show that kind of behaviour, they all show similar branching like the one on your photo with 3 dominant branches on lower nodes, and with branch number increasing when you go higher up the culm. Higher branches are also thinner and shorter, not long and thick as those dominant 3 branches on the lowest nodes.

I'll make more photos of F. denudata (i have Lancaster 1 version) when I get the chance.

[stevelau1911]

Looks like cold damage for everyone should be a lot worse than it has been in many years seeing how cold the meteorologists are predicting it to become.

[foxd]

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to this.

I guess the Musa basjoo, Bambusa ventricosa and Pseudosasa amabilis will get a real cold hardiness test this year.

[stevelau1911]

Would regular tarps work if it got down below -10F?

I've never seen it reach that extent here so I don't know. One thing I am certain of is if something is tarped, and there's also a thick layer of snow over the tarp, there will be a huge temperature differential due to the insulation. Anyways, we could see more record lows in the next few days.

[Tarzanus]

A question. I have plants yellowing in a protected place (14 - 19C). There's not much light, due to the fact there's rain all the time. They all started at one point, and I'm not sure what could have caused it.

1. watering with too cold water - watered it once with water that was outside for some time and could be cooled down to 5C
2. lack of light
3. emerging nutrient deficiency

I'm waiting for number 2 to get corrected by itself, I've used only warm water since and I applied fertilizer. Could yellowing and growing tip deformations come from too cold water? It all happened at once on both bamboos and some ornamental grasses. No previous nutrient deficiencies occured.

[Iowaboo]

I guess every year I am prepared for total topkill, so bring it on

[stevelau1911]

The accuweather says that it dropped to -6F on Friday night even though my weather station sensor read -2.2F at worst, but it certainly caused some damage even through some of the protection. I know this is nothing compared to what the midwest is in for, but it is still cold enough to set a new record low for the 3rd time so far this winter. With the temperatures swinging back and forth so erratically this winter, and for the most part below average, more record lows won't be a surprise.

Dulcis: This one looks like a goner as it looks like everything is leaf burned and potentially top killed regardless of the plastic tarp.

Decora: The leaves look completely burned, but it looks like the buds are still viable. It's a good thing I had most of this one covered up.

Shanghai III & prominens: The sections I left unprotected on these are completely leaf burned with probably top kill.

Atrovaginata & Parvifolia: While everything else with exposed foliage looks crappy, these 2 species do seem to show quite a bit of resistance to extreme lows, and most of the foliage is still intact, even the exposed sections. Anything covered up doesn't look burnt.

Moso Bicolor: This one felt around the 12F mark inside the greenhouse at the coldest point during the major freeze, and it looks like the leaves and branches that were touching the top of the greenhouse are completely burned while everything else is left unharmed. I should have kept the branches away from touching the greenhouse plastic, but now I know how bad winter extremes can be.

In conclusion, I believe that for this year in particular, most of my bamboos would have been destroyed if it had not been for an attempt to protect them. On a positive not, I've noticed that none of my exposed tree peony branches have any damage at all on their buds so there's a pretty good reason why that are rated for zone 3.

[jd.]

I guess every year I am prepared for total topkill, so bring it on

Maybe you'll get lucky and discover a mutant survivor.

Meanwhile, here's a Phyllostachys virella bamboo facing a breezy -18°F (-28°C) for the first time:

[johnw]

It would be nice to have an online spreadsheet that every forumist could enter their lowest temp this year and the damage caused to their bamboos. Perhaps we would come up with some very useful and believable data. I'm thinking of an xls spreadsheet listing all bamboos on the sourcelist with 3 columns for each forumist - lowest temp/branch-culm-rhizome kill/ exposure. No idea how that would work though, at least the accessibility part.

[needmore]

Bill has been building a new feature to the site that may allow this type of input-I think I recall that feature.

[jpluddite]

Hi Johnw.

We could create an editable spreadsheet using Google's free software.

Someone would be the 'owner' and be responsible for adding the email addresses of anyone who requested access. All who have access could then enter their data. I use the google spreadsheet at work to collaborate with colleagues.

I think you have to have a gmail account to use it. If you have one, I'll make a sample speadsheet, and 'invite' you to gain access so you can see how it might work. Let me know.

[jpluddite]

Hi again Johnw (or Needmore),

I could just add you to my current bamboo spreadsheet so you can see how it might work.