Hi all, I planted nine Fargesia Robusta plants in March 2016, two of which were the variety pingwu and came from a general nursery rather than one dedicated to bamboos. Anyhow, those two were the first to show signs of very obvious leaf discolouration. Could someone take a look at the pictures and tell me what this is? If this is BM I am hoping that they won't have survived the Central Scotland climate. And I have other plants!

It doesn’t seem to be the widespread bamboo mite Stigmaeopsis nanjingensis. In Europe we have another bamboo mite, called Schizotetranychus bambusae. May be it’s Schizotetranychus bambusae. Please see the picture in this Dutch publication (scroll to the end!).

https://kmdoc.naktuinbouw.nl/Datasheets/Entomologie/Schizotetranychus_en_Stigmaeopsis_spp_versie%201.pdf

Rai

I don;t bring any bamboos in from western North America as most if not all are ionfested with bamboo mites. My first sighting was on F. robusta and I wound up barbecuing all the leaves several times, spraying aqnd wiping down all the culms with miticides and drenching the rhizomes several times as well. Not worth the risk. If these mites can weather winters in Hokkaido Scotland would seem like paradise.

john

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

There are a couple more bamboos I'd like to try, but I hesitate to get any more due to worries about bringing mites to the island.

Thanks for the input, much appreciated. The damage on the leaves does look like the damage on the leaves from Schizotetranychus bambusae from the link, but I do wonder if Tetranychus urticae could also be a contender? Although, it says here http://bamboo-identification.co.uk/html/pests.html , that the two-spotted Spider mite is not usually a problem outside in the UK.

I have cut down my F. Robustas, one Pseudosasa japonica and P. Dulcis, both young plants showing signs of damage. I have been inspecting the plants with reading glasses on (!) and a magnifying glass and I must say I could't see any colonies of webbing, but there were fine strands of webs going from branch to branch on the F. Robustas.

While inspecting I noticed spots on P. Vivax, too. I have about twenty plants, some mature, mostly not. What does one do to eradicate the pest, cut them all down?

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Boohoo?

Thats not mite- just some old crappy leaves with age related damage, probably some obsure virus that does no real harm, there fall of soon to be replaced witn some nice shiny green ones.

The mites would love a scottish winter but a scottish summer would not be welcome .

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Bamboo...Please note... This plant is seriously addictive and you may lose interest in other, less rewarding plants!

Nice to see the chomping panda again!

Scottish summers aren't welcome even to the indigenous. Thanks, Markj. I am relieved it is not anything more insidious.

I wonder if it is ok to use the cut culms and leaves for mulch, or is better to be safe and bin them?

Btw, I am hoping to acquire P. parvifolia this year. I happened upon pictures of your plant somewhere and used them as my desktop background for a while.

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Boohoo?

Markj, thanks for the info and putting my mind at rest. I had already pruned out the older foliage but fortunately left intact the emerging shoots. Would it be safe to use the cut stuff as mulch, anyone?

I've posted this message a couple of days ago but it didn't appear. I must have hit the wrong button.

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Boohoo?

This is definitely not bamboo mite damage, the spots are far too small. As the bamboo mites live in colonies under their webbing tents, they produce distinctive large blotches of consolidated grazing damage representing each tent.
There are patterns of bamboo leaf damage that are not caused by pests or disease, but by leaf physiology. They may relate to temperature, water, pollutants such as ozone, or mineral deficiencies, especially manganese, or a combination of factors. Iain's pattern of damage looks similar to necrosis I noticed in April 2013 on my Borinda perlonga, but have not seen much since then. From the way the physiological damage is limited by the veins, I would guess some kind of water/temperature interaction, possibly akin to oedema blisters.
This is very different to the distributed feeding damage caused by wandering 2-spotted mites rather than bamboo mites, which gives a speckling on the same scale as physiological damage, but each spot is much more varied in shape, see enlargement below of the BI website pests page image, on Himalayacalamus porcatus after it had been inside the house.

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Chris
SE England
bamboo-identification.co.uk

Think globally, act locally

Thanks you for the info, Chris S. This thread will be helpful to others, too.

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Boohoo?

Spotted this bamboo mite damage whilst on holiday/vacation down in the south of France, in a garden not far from la bambouseraie

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Bamboo...Please note... This plant is seriously addictive and you may lose interest in other, less rewarding plants!