Looking for some advice on bamboo's

AlwaysAmber

I wanted to try and screen a wall on our place in Budapest, so I planted a couple of Bamboo plants back in April.

The weather since then has been awful though. We've had floods and drought (high 30's all last week) and some of the plants are looking a little stressed.

The first plant I'm concerned about has lost most of it's leaves and doesn't seem to be getting anything new, so I'm wondering if it's dead (some images of are IMG_4222.jpg, IMG_4223.jpg & IMG_4229.jpg). The first week is was planted it got a lot of heat and the leaves curled and went brown. I watered the hell out of it, but now suspect I over watered and it may have just been badly planted. I've cut back on watering and started misting them and spraying the leaves from above and things have improved slightly, but still no new leaves.

Another one of the plants has started putting out new leaves, but they have some nasty dark down spots on them (image IMG_4224.jpg). Would this be heat damage from the concrete wall or some kind of infection?

Any advice would be welcome, as I don't really know what I'm doing with them.

Thanks

rje66

AlwaysAmber wrote: »

I wanted to try and screen a wall on our place in Budapest, so I planted a couple of Bamboo plants back in April.

The weather since then has been awful though. We've had floods and drought (high 30's all last week) and some of the plants are looking a little stressed.

The first plant I'm concerned about has lost most of it's leaves and doesn't seem to be getting anything new, so I'm wondering if it's dead (some images of are IMG_4222.jpg, IMG_4223.jpg & IMG_4229.jpg). The first week is was planted it got a lot of heat and the leaves curled and went brown. I watered the hell out of it, but now suspect I over watered and it may have just been badly planted. I've cut back on watering and started misting them and spraying the leaves from above and things have improved slightly, but still no new leaves.

Another one of the plants has started putting out new leaves, but they have some nasty dark down spots on them (image IMG_4224.jpg). Would this be heat damage from the concrete wall or some kind of infection?

Any advice would be welcome, as I don't really know what I'm doing with them.

Thanks

Stick with them and they will be ok. If they got very dry, leaf drop is a natural reaction. Bamboos are just big grasses and are very tough. They don't like drying out around the roots.

AlwaysAmber

OK thanks. I guess it's just a case of trying a couple of different watering routines to see which they respond best to.

tara m

Two reasons - these plants are way, way too dry, and need to be planted in much richer soil, or need to be irrigated regularly and thoroughly. Bamboos in their natural habitat are marginal plants, and grow in swamps. The two in pots need either repotting into a tub three times the size it's in currently with a john innes based soil, or to be planted into the ground, again with a john innes based soil. The ones planted further back, are having a tough time finding water, as they are competing with the root system of that huge tree not too far away - and are losing the fight!

The good thing about bamboos is they are forgiving, and will bounce back quite quickly if given a few treats - a rich soil mulch worked in around the base and leave the hose on trickling for half an hour every other night until improvements are noted should quickly get them to reflush with new leaves and culms. Once they are established in the ground they will be a lot less dependent on you for moisture, but this can take a couple of seasons. When they were planted, was the hole dug twice as deep as the plants rootball and back filled with fresh loose soil? it looks as if they've failed to root properly - grab one at the base and pull, if there's any give, the hole needs to be dug deeper and backfilled with good soil, before the plant is re-set in place. Then water some more....

The black marks on the leaves are a sign of the stress the plant is under, and will not re-occur on any new leaves if you keep up with the moisture needs. Sometimes bamboos under stress get greenfly - that will makes the leaves sticky with exudate from the flies, on which a secondary problem occurs - sooty mould (looks like soot, and er... mould ;-) This can be treated with any systemic fungicide, or with a very weak soap and water mix in a spray mister.

You can literally never overwater a bamboo - i have worked in garden centres for 20 years and we always stand ours in saucers of water, topped up every other day, and allow them to dry out for a few days only occasionally, or if it's frosty. You dont want the roots to freeze.

AlwaysAmber

Thanks for that Tara, I look at that tree every day and it didn't dawn on me that it would be competing with them.

When they were planted, I just used the existing soil mixed with a bit of peat, so hopefully that's OK for them. I did dig the holes big (thought they might have been too big really).

I'm pretty sure I won't be able to find that John Innes soil you mentioned locally. Any suggestions for an alternative? I was going to get a couple of bags of manure in the garden centre to see if that helped.

rje66

AlwaysAmber wrote: »

I'm pretty sure I won't be able to find that John Innes soil you mentioned locally. Any suggestions for an alternative? I was going to get a couple of bags of manure in the garden centre to see if that helped.

Anything that holds moisture, manure is great, best is rotted leaves. Collect in autumn and bag up in plastic bag. Keep damp and next year great free compost and leaves used up.