burnt laeves on Bambusa ventricosa

Controlling pests of bamboo

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Tarzanus
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burnt laeves on Bambusa ventricosa

Post by Tarzanus »

Anyone knows what could be the reason of dried leaf points on my Bambusa. At one point it's leaves became sickly and almost all of them got their tips dark green and they started drying out. Now there are leaves that are 1/2 dry and surprisingly all new leaves seem to be normal. At the time when that happened, it was warm, sunny and for a change it wasn't raining. I snapped off tallest shoot at that time, and it's branches are all healthy looking. Older culms seem to have somewhat wilted leaves (but healthy) and most of them stopped growing new leaves when cold weather kicked in some time ago. After that I took it inside and it seems to like it's new environment, but the old brownish leaves are still there and I'm trying to decide what was wrong with it.

It looks like salt buildup damage, but I'm not sure how could that be even possible with all the rain this year. I did flush the soil after I noticed the damage (placed it under direct rain when we got second wave of 100 years repeatable flooding in merely 14 days) so it might be that saved it. It's now drying out for some time - I want it almost completely dry, before I start watering it again. Needless to say there is almost no swelling on it's culms without the needed drought.


Anyone with exp. regarding bambusa bamboos? Do they do anything like that when winter starts kicking in?
Rufledt
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Re: burnt laeves on Bambusa ventricosa

Post by Rufledt »

I've noticed my bambusa multiplex doing a similar thing any time the environment changes. It gets stressed looking anytime I move it to a new area with different conditions. It was highly stressed when I got it, too, while a japonica in the same box showed no stress whatsoever.

Do you have any pictures? I don't get what you mean by saying the leaves go dark green and dry out. mine just dry out from the tips. It appears to happen like you said on only old leaves, all new growth looks good and the whole thing keeps pumping out leaves faster than the older ones dry out.

I don't think bambusa leaves (especially on my multiplex) last as long as leaves on other plants. I've had leaves on japonica that didn't start dying for years, while the multiplex has always been in the process of loosing leaves somewhere.

I don't know what causes it. I'm not sure anything is wrong with the plant at the rate mine is growing, and I also doubt it's salt damage since i've been using distilled water, though it does look like salt damage a bit. I just assumed it was normal since this is the only plant that does this often and it's done it since I got the plant 4 years ago. Does iron do similar things to leaves? I watered mine with a hose for the summer, and last time I filled up a jug using the hose it looked almost like apple juice :shock:

On the other hand I put it in drastically different environments every few months so it's always in a mode of adapting to new things.
Tarzanus
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Re: burnt laeves on Bambusa ventricosa

Post by Tarzanus »

Leaves became dark, just like if their tips would get frozen and then thawed - a darker, watery green. The second step was brown tips. I just used scissors and snipped off parts of the damaged leaves, because there's not a lot of light inside and I don't think additional shading helps it. :)

It seems healthy and there are new oots on the bottom of the pot, so I guess it's doing perfectly good.
marcat
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Re: burnt laeves on Bambusa ventricosa

Post by marcat »

Bambusa's will do that under all types of stresses. Frost, drying out ,over watering ect. I believe it is a self defence mechanism. If the new growth is fine it will recover.
If it got below freezing before you brought them in that could be the cause.
MarCat
marcat
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Re: burnt laeves on Bambusa ventricosa

Post by marcat »

Oh I forgot did you have any frost (freezing temp or not) B. ventricosa will definitely take damage from frost.
MarCat
Tarzanus
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Re: burnt laeves on Bambusa ventricosa

Post by Tarzanus »

No frost, but it could be overwatering, drought, overly damp air for prolonged period of time and so on. I think it will be fine. Thank you :)
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