Cold damage winter 2013/2014

[stevelau1911]

JD, are all your bamboos like that? Even the propinqua beijing and virella?

That looks like even more top kill than my dulcis or shanghai III which still have some green left in the culms. Of course this year may not be a very good sample to indicate winter damage for zone 5.

It will be interesting to compare the shoot sizes this year with complete top kill vs almost complete leaf burn.

[johnw]

Here's parvifolia. It looks like the remaining green leaves appear to be slowly dieing off however this winter just wasn't cold enough to produce much top kill. In this case if the culms survive over a dozen nights of subzeros, they may be hardy enough to handle zone 5 without dieing to the ground.

Steve - Are the parvifolia culms in the photo you posted indeed alive? They have the matte colouration that is not such a promising look.

johnw - +4c

[dependable]

Hi John,

To answer earlier questions, I am in zone 7a. It got 8*f below once at airport, but I only recorded 0 here in the woods, although the berm planting of Phyllostachys, (mostly aurosulcata and nuda) along the state road took a beating up top, I think they got some colder air. They a are mostly alive, but there is a thick mat of dead leaves on ground in that grove. Even have some top damage to the more exposed bissetti.

The ground was frozen for a couple months, mostly, and we had a lot of nights and a few days in the teens. We do tend to get brief warm ups between the arctic blasts, as the maritime weather competes with land based. It was not uncommon to have a little thaw and a rain/slush event between the snow storms. There were several wind events and two official 'blizzards'.

I guess I should keep better records. Let me know if you want any more details for list. I will go out with clipboard and get a damage report on all the varieties I have here at some point. Right now I am not sure the extent of culm damage to some of the leaf killed stands.

Jon

[stevelau1911]

The parvifolia is without a question alive because on the interior, there are still some green leaves, and buds are still firm. Also close to the top of the culms, I can see the transition to where the culms actually turn blonde as it has warmed up well enough to see the clear transition from alive to dead.

[johnw]

Jon

Once I plug in some more data I will send each person in there a copy of the xls file to file in their stats in case they missed a plant. If you are not fluent in excel just open the file and send me a note of what should be added.

Steve - Hope all will be okay. Today was about 42F and it felt like a balmy day.

john

[moriphen]

I've plugged all the comments in to a spreadsheet. Sometime in April I will finish it off once the reports cease.

Need to know from most of those that reported on their damage:

Ground frozen or not during the coldest period. Frozen

Ground frozen for how many weeks. 8.5 weeks

Wind during cold period and balance of winter? Wind only during frontal passage 1-2 times a week for a max of 10 hrs each, usually 15 mph gusting to 35 mph

Duration of below freezing temps in days or weeks or months - absolute low and duration / below 0f / 0-+10F / +10F-+20F / 20-32F / above freezing. 4 to 6ºF below average for 15.5 weeks

Normal zone in your area. 7b

Humidity during cold period. Precip normal or above or deficit. Normal humidity, 2 inches below average

[terrabamboo]

moso:

I think about half will survive like this - just concerned as for energy for new decent-sized shoots vrs keeping itself alive.


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[Tarzanus]

I guess that doesn't count, but it was winter damage

[stevelau1911]

Moso seedlings just won't be very hardy when they are on their first few years, especially on an extremely cold winter.

The trait where it tends to prioritize more energy to existing culms instead of going straight to new shoots seems to make sense because those leaf buds are already on the culm where all the starch is, and moso seems to always leaf out first. Mine's leafing out pretty quickly now, and looks like it will get way more loaded than ever before which may not be very good in terms of getting a strong shooting season.

This is what happened in 2012, and there was just one puny shoot produced that year. Of course I expect more than this however it seems like the generation of new foliage takes quite a bit of energy eh. I wished there was a way to artificially inject bamboo starches into rhizomes so that they can have infinite energy.

[pokenei]

Here are some photos taken after removing the tarps. I expected mice damage, but it was worse than I had thought. They chewed off nearly ever little branch and not even the leaf buds were spared. What's worse, they were very wasteful, leaving many leaves and branches scattering all over the ground.

parvifolia - major mice damage:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8G_2L ... sp=sharing

Beijing - major mice damage
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8G_2L ... sp=sharing

Rubro - minimum damage
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8G_2L ... sp=sharing

Atro - minimum damage
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8G_2L ... sp=sharing

[stevelau1911]

Hopefully the mice didn't get anything below ground which is the more important part when plants are still very small.

Here are some pictures of the damage up close here.

Dulcis


Beijing


Nigra


Atrovaginata


Decora


Parvifolia

[terrabamboo]

I have been trying to be diligent about checking my 3.7 million square feet of possible voles and have found about 20 holes next to plants - that I can SEE. now that the grass around the plants are waist high (from chicken manure) I have to leave it up to Mother Nature :--(

this $10 contraption is extremely effective.




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[johnw]

When murielae flowered here we grew somewhere between 5,000 & 10,000 seedlings but only have kept track of a mere fraction as the rest were sent far & wide. About 8 stand out from the ones we've seen, looking for height & vigour.

Here's one of them with not a speck of damagfe after this ghastly winter. (low -17c). You've seen this one before but an update I thought was in order. These two nurseryman gave it a thumb's up.

johnw

[stevelau1911]

Anyone think I should re-cover my greenhouse for tonight?

It is supposed to be a record low of 18F and even though that may not be a threat for the foliage on anything, it may damage a lot of the new shoot buds which is pretty much the lifeline of these bamboos.

[jd.]

JD, are all your bamboos like that? Even the propinqua beijing and virella?

The bamboos with deeper snow during the winter have retained more green in the culms but only below the snow line. Otherwise, similar damage appears on all bamboos here.

It is supposed to be a record low of 18F and even though that may not be a threat for the foliage on anything, it may damage a lot of the new shoot buds which is pretty much the lifeline of these bamboos.

Certainly new growth will have a greater chance to survive and thrive with protection from hard freezes.