Bambusa emeiensis 'Flavidovirens' Under Attack!

Controlling pests of bamboo

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bambambooboo
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Bambusa emeiensis 'Flavidovirens' Under Attack!

Post by bambambooboo »

Halp! Bambusa emeiensis 'Flavidovirens' with some blackness creeping thing on it. In it? Not sure if it is coming from outside in or inside out. I tried to pressure clean it off but the culms remain discolored. My seabreeze discolors after a number of years but these seemed to discolor fairly quickly. (not sure the precise timing but seemed too soon.) Any ideas?

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Chris S
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Re: Bambusa emeiensis 'Flavidovirens' Under Attack!

Post by Chris S »

Caveat: I am no pathologist, and have killed all my tropical bamboos, so have no authority, but come to think of it I'm not really a botanist either and I've killed plenty of temperate ones too, so here are some thoughts.

These are necrotic lesions, but just an extreme form of what happens to older culms as they lose their resistance to infection with old age. This would probably be caused by a fungus, the lesions spreading from where the airborne spores land and grow. These are much more noticeable on cultivars with yellow culms, but there still looks like a major difference between these enormous spots and the mass of much smaller spots that you normally see with age or the larger more irregular blemishes around scratches and cuts

Similar large lesions are seen on other plants, eg spur blight on raspberries, caused by Didymella applanata, see http://www.pisvojvodina.com/RegionPI/Li ... gavost.JPG

So this might be an opportunistic growth rather than a real infection, encouraged by a humid climate, spreading from the primary host to bamboos

On the other hand it could well be something unique to bamboos, carried on vegetatively propagated material, but something the bamboo can live with. Are others seeing it on their culms? Are there tissue cultured yellow-culmed bamboos around to compare?

Anyway, puzzling though it is, it looks like the bamboo is not seriously affected by it? If you see it on young, otherwise healthy culms that would be the time to really start worrying
Chris
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bambambooboo
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Re: Bambusa emeiensis 'Flavidovirens' Under Attack!

Post by bambambooboo »

Loved your intro Chris S. Very funny. And you've a good eye. Very much looks like the bruising in that link you posted. Interesting. Come to think of it, I'm starting to get the same thing on my arms as I age. Not so much from the Florida humidity but from our sun. Probably too late to slather sunscreen on me or the boo.

If I recall correctly those green culms are the most recent and the yellow is the prior year's growth or the year before that. I'd guess then that the bruised ones are two to three years old but could be four or more. I did divide that clump once so far (with the divided clump being all green, no yellows yet).

It's late but couldn't sleep so logged on. Don't think the lesions are on the others but I'll check tomorrow in the daylight and report back if so. So maybe these culms have a shorter shelf life than what I'm used to. Other yellows in the garden are Asian lemon which stay very well for a long time. Sunburst that I've had a rough time with. Also no blackening on that though every division I've done I've lost. Fussy damned thing. And I've got some struggling Hawaiian (gets a tad too cold every so often for them) which do darken with age but not spotty like these guys.

Meanwhile, just a casual hobbyist here so not real familiar with the terms. Tissue-cultured? I'll guess that refers to propagation method? I think I got that one from Robert at tropical boo so by whatever method he used. And then I've divided the clump once. Pictured is my original of that.
"Without bamboo, the land dies." ~~saying
bambambooboo
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Re: Bambusa emeiensis 'Flavidovirens' Under Attack!

Post by bambambooboo »

Okay, so daylight inspection shows the divided clump (all green) also with lesions but also only on the elder culms. I usually divide newer growth off older when they've a good root system so I'll guess the ones bruising on the divided are about three or four years old as I think I did that division two years back.

Fortunately I see no bruising on the younger culms of either division. So by this it seems they blacken earlier than I'm used to with other varieties in the garden and that I just wasn't familiar enough with the behavior of these.

Panic averted.

thank you Chris S for your good input.
"Without bamboo, the land dies." ~~saying
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