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New Culms are Dying

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 5:11 pm
by deekropf
Hi, I live in Sarasota, Florida and have 5 stands of 8-10 year old bamboo, which have always been fairly healthy. I noticed issues developing recently on my blue bamboo and giant timber bamboo, especially as it related to new growth. Please see the three attached pictures.
- New Growth - a new shoot will come up and appear to be okay. But when it is about 2-3" high, it stops growing, dries out, and I can push the top off and underneath is about a 2" wide hollow culm at about ground level.
- At about 8-10' - if the new shoots make it past that point, when they get to about 8-10 feet high, they develop a strange pattern of holes in the culms. They continue to grow, but when they reach about 15', they stop and either die from the top down and flop over, or the top grows into a sort of pagoda formation and then they die.
This is occuring on ALL new growth on the blue bamboo and MOST new growth on the giant timber. My other stands are not experiencing this. Local experts do not know what is causing this. Any ideas??

Re: New Culms are Dying

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 6:42 pm
by dependable
I have seen new culm internodes shorten and become deformed, and die due to lack of water when shooting. Any chance there was a dry spell during that shooting season?

Re: New Culms are Dying

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 8:33 pm
by deekropf
Thanks for the response! Water could be a problem. It is dry here now, but my irrigation system waters twice a week. I also do some spot watering. Is it possible to overwater? Also, we use well water with a slight sulphur smell, but all the other tropicals and plants seem to be fine. Any idea on the strange holes or why they would look really good until about 8-10' high and then start to die. Water again? Thanks.

Re: New Culms are Dying

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 2:38 pm
by STUALU321
If you can find an answer will you please let me know. This has been happening to me as well. It seems like they get about 4-10 ft in the air then the tip starts rotting and just falls off. sometimes it stops there but some canes will keep dying about 2-3 culms below. SOOOOO Frustrating!!!

Re: New Culms are Dying

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 6:28 pm
by deekropf
Hi, I am not sure I ever really knew what the actual problem was, but I stopped having the problem after i used some granular grass fungicide on the bamboo and also some grass fertilizer. Also, I tried to keep the leaves cleaned out from the ground/mulch around the With the recent rain here, the new shoots on my blue gray bamboo are appearing frequently and are healthy. So far, they are not showing any signs of distress and some are up 12-14'. Keeping my fingers crossed! Also, my giant timber stands are much more finicky and are not a prolific with the new shoots. I noticed that a few of those new shoots look like they have a little white mold on them, so I have sprayed them with fungicide and that seems to have worked. Same with a few of the black bamboo shoots. Hope this help.