Is my newly planted Pseudosasa Japonica in trouble?
Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 3:39 pm
It is winter in Germany at the moment and in my opinion my potted arrow bamboo which I planted in June is showing signs of distress. I fertilised the soil shortly after I planted the bamboo with a long term (~three months) fertiliser high in nitrogen. The water I'm using for the bamboo is tap water which I put in a watering can on the balcony for a week before I use it. I read I can get rid of the fluoride and chloride that way.
Is the coloring of the leaves to be expected in winter or am I looking at a serious issue? Is the tap water hurting the bamboo after all? Did I overfertilise?
I went to the gardening center right around the corner where I purchased the plant and the ones in stock are not looking like this. Their leaves are green with a few dying, old leaves. But almost all the leaves of my plant are kind of brown/browning. New leaves on my plants are green, "older" ones are like you see in the pictures. Those leaves are about 2-3 months old.
After a hot summer of intense watering, I watered conservatively during the last months. Down to 1.3 gallons once a week. Still I do not see dry soil in the pot. For now I decided to cut back on watering until I'm beginning to see really dry soils or V shaped curled leaves. I have 6 covered holes in the pot for drainage and as far as I can see it is working (when I water the bamboo, excess water is flowing out of the bottom of the pot).
The pot is a bit more than three times the size of the pot it is growing in in the gardening center, so there is room for the bamboo to grow (at least in my opinion).
I started noticing this phenomenon end of October and thought I might have an issue with pests. There where some spots of mealybugs, but not a huge colony and I exposed them to the weather by removing dead bark around the spots and wiped them off.
This is how the leaves looked end of October:
https://imgur.com/a/7PMJwws
Now the leaves are looking like this:
https://imgur.com/a/iUbMvVj
I'd appreciate any ideas.
Is the coloring of the leaves to be expected in winter or am I looking at a serious issue? Is the tap water hurting the bamboo after all? Did I overfertilise?
I went to the gardening center right around the corner where I purchased the plant and the ones in stock are not looking like this. Their leaves are green with a few dying, old leaves. But almost all the leaves of my plant are kind of brown/browning. New leaves on my plants are green, "older" ones are like you see in the pictures. Those leaves are about 2-3 months old.
After a hot summer of intense watering, I watered conservatively during the last months. Down to 1.3 gallons once a week. Still I do not see dry soil in the pot. For now I decided to cut back on watering until I'm beginning to see really dry soils or V shaped curled leaves. I have 6 covered holes in the pot for drainage and as far as I can see it is working (when I water the bamboo, excess water is flowing out of the bottom of the pot).
The pot is a bit more than three times the size of the pot it is growing in in the gardening center, so there is room for the bamboo to grow (at least in my opinion).
I started noticing this phenomenon end of October and thought I might have an issue with pests. There where some spots of mealybugs, but not a huge colony and I exposed them to the weather by removing dead bark around the spots and wiped them off.
This is how the leaves looked end of October:
https://imgur.com/a/7PMJwws
Now the leaves are looking like this:
https://imgur.com/a/iUbMvVj
I'd appreciate any ideas.