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dying bamboo grove

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2016 12:23 am
by tomh4
Our bamboo grove came through last year's winter in poor shape, with more brown leaves than green. But we thought the cause was the winter itself, which was long and harsh. The winter that just ended, on the other hand, was mild and short. Yet our bamboo grove appears to be almost dead. We live in New Jersey, so I wouldn't expect bamboo mites. Any thoughts on what might be causing our problem, and what we should do about it?

Image

Re: dying bamboo grove

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2016 12:37 am
by needmore
Greetings, what species is that and what were your winter extremes? Everything about your photo suggests cold damage, was the bamboo exposed to wind chills below +10F for any length of time? Actual temps around 0F or colder? One cold blast is all it takes even if the overall winter was mild.

Re: dying bamboo grove

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2016 1:18 am
by tomh4
We inherited this bamboo grove from the previous owner, so we don't know the exact variety. It's a running bamboo, with culms about a half-inch in diameter.

There was one extremely cold weekend in February that went below zero, so that could be it. If the problem is cold damage, what should we do to revive our bamboo grove? How best to prepare it for next winter?

Re: dying bamboo grove

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2016 1:28 pm
by johnw
Looks like Pseudosasa japonica and it got battered here in coastal Nova Scotia winter 2014/15 with one night close to 0F. It was about 13ft tall and last year only managed about 6 or 7 ft. Have to check how it's fared this year. No doubt it will come roaring back in NJ, the roots should be fine so a good shot of fertilizer about now would do no harm..

john

Re: dying bamboo grove

Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2016 12:26 pm
by dependable
I agree it looks like Psudosasa japonica. Mine all looks like that after the cold snap in Feb. Despite the mild winter, it was at least -5F here for a brief and windy couple of nights. It will come back from the roots and recover quickly until there is another windy cold snap. You can help it by fertilizing with a slow release lawn food.

The existing canes are not going to come back. You can save yourself a lot of work by mowing or cutting down dead growth (I uses gas powered hedge machine) before the new shoots come up in late spring/early summer. Once the new shoots come up, you'll have to prune the damaged ones away individually if you want to save new growth.

Re: dying bamboo grove

Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2016 9:00 pm
by johnw
Here'a shot of the local Pseudosasa today with the worst of the 2014/15 damaged culms removed. No winter burn at all this year though still showing a few leaves burnt the previous year. It's making a very slow come-back as is usual. Be nice to have a form of this bone-hardy in Z6.

john

Re: dying bamboo grove

Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 8:31 am
by Tarzanus
Japonica survived our winter too. Some of growing tips are damaged, but it mostly survived without any real damage. I always cut down damaged Pseudosasa japonica culms, because even if they are only half dead, the end result is rather ugly. When it does survive the winter completely, the bamboo is one of the best looking bamboos (my opinion :)).

Re: dying bamboo grove

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 1:25 am
by marcat
If have access to a chipper/sheader I would chop up the dead culms and leaves and use it for mulch. It has all the good stuff your boo needs.
MarCat