New Culms are Dying

Controlling pests of bamboo

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deekropf
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Location: Florida, USA

New Culms are Dying

Post 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??
Attachments
These are culms which I removed which had died - tops flop over or get "pagoda" like top with no new growth
These are culms which I removed which had died - tops flop over or get "pagoda" like top with no new growth
This is a new shoot which stopped growing and dried up - I pushed the top off to reveal the culm below at ground level
This is a new shoot which stopped growing and dried up - I pushed the top off to reveal the culm below at ground level
These is a shot of several dying culms which have the holes in them - have many more photos of this if needed
These is a shot of several dying culms which have the holes in them - have many more photos of this if needed
dependable
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Re: New Culms are Dying

Post 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?
deekropf
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Re: New Culms are Dying

Post 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.
STUALU321
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Location: MELBOURNE FL

Re: New Culms are Dying

Post 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!!!
deekropf
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Re: New Culms are Dying

Post 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.
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