Help Me Solve Our Bamboo Mystery!

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kristyka
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Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:30 pm
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Location: Austin, Texas

Help Me Solve Our Bamboo Mystery!

Post by kristyka »

I have 7 clumping plants I inherited with the house, that are acting very weird and it's stressing me out a ton (and I have 5 kids under 6!). They look dead! I'm just north of San Antonio and South of Austin (in San Marcos TX), I don't know when they were planted but no earlier than spring 2016, possibly sooner. They enjoy full sun as the ones which are partly shaded by a lugustrum tree have only gotten 4-5 feet in almost 2 years when we moved here August 2017, but the 2 in full sun have just this season have had stray clum reach up to 20 feet. In June/July of this year we had a drought, and I didn't know much about bamboo at all until this month so I didn't regularly water them (nor did I last year, and I highly doubt the houseflippers did the year before us either). They only received VERY occasional water, and yet they were still nice and green, though small. THEN, in from mid-september through October it rained pretty much every day, and it seemed like the bamboo loved it they remained nice and green and that is when I observed the clums really taking off and going up to 20 ft (just 2-3 though, but still cool). It was a record-breaking month of rainfall for our part of Texas. Then, right after the rain, we got a week of very cold weather (a literal cold snap, it was very fast). Two of the nights it got down to 30. At the same time, last winter had recordbreaking lows and yet they didn't die, nor do I remember all the leaves dying. A few days after the cold snap, I noticed the plants seemed to be dying, all of them even though one was placed about 30 ft away from the others (which makes me think, not a fungus). This was 1.5 weeks ago and it hasn't gotten any better even though I've been watering one of them really well (I haven't watered all as I'm nervous they might be experiencing root rot, from too much water). The newest leaves and branches at the top and edges of the plant were the ones to die first, and it's been slowly getting closer and closer to the base of the plant. Yesterday I noticed green leaves at the base of the plant, but I don't know if I just hadn't noticed them before and they will be the last to die since they are the oldest parts of the plant, or if the leaves are new but I doubt it since, like I said, all the new stuff has been what has been dying. The new culms (the ones that look like asparagus) are already starting to wilt at the tips and when I broke them at the top node, it was really rubbery and black (not rigid and brittle) which makes me worry about root rot, but I honestly I don't know I'm very new to bamboo. Does anyone know what these symptoms mean? Is there any hope for my clumping bamboo? I really need them as a privacy hedge between my family and the road, and I'm so sad that the newest super-tall branches are brittle and dead. What can I do?
Tarzanus
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Re: Help Me Solve Our Bamboo Mystery!

Post by Tarzanus »

Please post a couple of photos so we can see the damage. Do you happen to know what bamboo it is?
If I'd have to guess, I would say it could be root rot due to bad drainage and waterlogged conditions, but I also have doubts it could be the case. Is it possible that someone would use herbicide on it?

Depends on the bamboo, 30°F can cause some damage, especially if the bamboo is well fertilized and growing rapidly. During the fall, they usually start preparing for the winter and gain quite a bit on their cold hardiness. You mentioned asparagus-like growth which makes me believe it was actively shooting in the fall. New growth like that is prone to cold related damage, especially if you own a sub-tropical bamboo variety.
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