Winter of 2010-11 Fried Bamboo List " Hold the cheese pls"

[David]

And so go the hopes of a mild winter! Here in Middle Tennessee we are having a 6a-6b season so far. All the japonica are burned beyond recognition. This is the earliest I recall the japonica burning. All exposed nigras are curling leaves and burning, the plants with cover are fairing better. We have had sub-freezing temps, and high winds for 3-4 days now, and it has done its dirty work!

Burned List 6b:

Ps. japonica 12/15
Ph. nigra 12/15

[Iowaboo]

Yes, the high winds have been brutal for the bamboo. Anything that didn't make it under snow, looks pretty much fried. -2F with 50 mph will do such.

[needmore]

And so go the hopes of a mild winter! Here in Middle Tennessee we are having a 6a-6b season so far. All the japonica are burned beyond recognition. This is the earliest I recall the japonica burning. All exposed nigras are curling leaves and burning, the plants with cover are fairing better. We have had sub-freezing temps, and high winds for 3-4 days now, and it has done its dirty work!

Burned List 6b:

Ps. japonica 12/15
Ph. nigra 12/15

And they burned well above the 'listed' temps didn't they?

[Paul Ont]

Great topic! I'll add mine when I have a chance to check them out.

[stevelau1911]

With temperatures lingering well below average since the start of December and no warm-up in the forecast, I think the snow is going to stay around well into March, and it looks like I won't get many opportunities to see if some of the bamboos leaves burned regardless of the snow pack. There also seems to be almost no sunshine ever since the first snow maybe because of the la nina weather pattern along with under 9 hours of daylight at this time of the year which will easily keep the snow around. I'll probably have to wait until March to get some pictures and assess the damage. I think this year's snowfall totals have already exceeded last years with 2 big snow events.

Has anyone ever seen bamboos fried despite being under the snow all winter?

[bamboothew]

It has already gotten down to 18 degrees here with high, dry winds, extremely cold and windy for December in this area, in fact record breaking cold! Of my 30 or so species in ground, it's of course no surprise that my first year Chimonobambusa quadrangularis is already about fried. That obvious one aside, though, my henon 'Dwarf', rated at 0 degrees f, looks pretty bad, about 70% leaf burn! Of course, I have heard that henon doesn't stand up to wind very well anyway. I am surprised, though, at how horrible Phy. bam. 'Allgold' has looked ever since the nighttime lows first reached the forties! Besides that, most of my other bamboos have some minimal leaf burn. The star of the show is my newly obtained Spectabilis, which has only been here for a few weeks, planted in a large container outside, and it is by far the best looking one right now. All the other aureosulcatas are showing some slight distress. All of my runners are 1st year plantings, so it will be interesting to see how their hardiness may increase in the years to come.

[Alan_L]

Matthew -- the 'Spectabilis' is looking "beat" or "best"? (Unfortunate typo I think)

Also, you need to update your plants list in your profile.

[Paul Ont]

"Has anyone ever seen bamboos fried despite being under the snow all winter?"

Nope, well, they get less green, but come back in spring. The only leaves I've seen 100% burnt have been above the snow...

Here is my aureosulcata during a thaw last winter. You can tell the leaves that are green (have been under snow) from those that are yellow (have been exposed).

[foxd]

Grrr....just lost everything I typed!

Technically, since it is not yet Winter we could still have a mild one.

The Arctic Oscillation which caused the weird weather last year is taking place once again. As I type this the temperature in Nuuk, Greenland is 39°F.

I wonder if anyone is growing bamboo in Greenland?

[Case]

I have had some leaf burn/curl on a few of my clumpers. It has gotten down to 24/23 degrees (maybe colder at the house, going off weather channel) here a couple of nights, zone 8B.

Bambusa vulgaris 'Wamin', was the first and expected. 3G pot planted this late summer.
B. Oldhammi, second winter and top killed last winter. Hopefully it will hold out ok and just lose the leaves.
B. Oldhammi Hirose, second winter top killed last winter, seems to taking it better than the B. oldhammi.
Bambusa chungii, planted this late summer with 3G pot.
Bambusa chungii "barb" planted this late summer with 3G pot.
Bambusa eutuldoides 'Viridivittata Inversa', again late summer planting 3G pot.

I also planted Bambusa emeiensis 'Flavidovirens' and Bambusa emeiensis 'Viridiflavus' late summer as well; however, they were like 20G pots and are doing fine so far
(fingers crossed). My potted B. Lako indured a 26-28 degree night before I brought it inside and a few leaves got damaged.

Hopefully it won't get super cold and I wont have and total top kills again this winter.

[stevelau1911]

Here's a few photos of bamboos that have started to stick out of the snow. Nothing has really been touched by 6F other than the juvenile moso seedlings, and those are still far from top-killed. I might shovel some snow onto them the next time we get extremely cold temperatures.

[bamboothew]

Matthew -- the 'Spectabilis' is looking "beat" or "best"? (Unfortunate typo I think)

Also, you need to update your plants list in your profile.

lol yes, a most unfortunate typo, both in the meaning it conveys and in that the verb usage in that case would be atrocious

The last time I tried using that plant list editor it was loading very slowly for some reason--but try, try again...

[bamboothew]

Of my 30 or so species in ground, it's of course no surprise that my first year Chimonobambusa quadrangularis is already about fried

Ok, so maybe I don't know exactly what fried bamboos look like. That Chiminobambusa looks fine today , even though the leaves looked totally dessicated and as though they were about to fall off yesterday! Marvelous! Hopefully some others of you with topkill worries are as pleasantly surprised!

[Case]

Ok, so maybe I don't know exactly what fried bamboos look like. That Chiminobambusa looks fine today , even though the leaves looked totally dessicated and as though they were about to fall off yesterday! Marvelous! Hopefully some others of you with topkill worries are as pleasantly surprised!

Funny, when I went to work this morning the and checked out the Oldhammi it looked completely fine. The last couple days have been real warm and wet and a few of the others dont look so bad as well.

[needmore]

Leaf burn can be quite deceiving, sadly I've had a goodly amount of experience with it. Burned leaves that at any point looked like burned leaves usually ARE burned leaves. Once the cold snap passes they can unroll and look almost normal, particularly if they get rained on. Then, several weeks off they'll suddenly fall away. I've seen many instances of where I cut down some culms in summer and toss them in the ditch. Weeks later after a big rain the leaves can still uncurl and look greener even on cut culms - even in the heat of summer.

Clearly I'm no fan of cold damage but I have a decent observation period right now, I am currently without a thermometer so am unsure how cold we've gone. The nearest reporting centers both were around 0F so I'm within a degree or so of that. I also was able to eyeball some damage at around +3 to +5F. Some strong winds with temps in the 30's dropping into the teens so that is a bit of a factor of course. I have had 3 years or so in a row with 5year+ or older bamboo conditions like this and I am seeing some fairly consistent patterns of damage. There really seems to be a big drop off between 0F and +5F, somewhere in between those temps nearly everything will start to show some degree of burn. We also have not been to 32F in so long I can't remember, maybe once or twice is all this month and it has been brief, so the deep freeze is a factor as well.

Moso always burns away here at around +5F perhaps even a bit warmer

Nidularia, Pl simonii both burn hard much below +10F it seems

My 5 year old patch of Parvifolia appears to have pretty significant burn, as do the younger groves, the older one is one of best best wind protected bamboos. I'll have to look closer as those small leaves are hard to read but it has some damage for sure.

Shanghai 3 looks nearly totally burned, it is the first winter for it though, with culms in the 7 foot range

Viridiglaucesens is totally burned AGAIN

Viridis and Robert Young are heavily burned but both still have viable leaves down low

The 3 subspecies of Nigra I still have look better than expected. I need to check things out more this weekend to get a better read but I like being able to see what 0F does to everybody. I don't want to bore folks but if you want me to report more species condition now I'll make some notes...pretty freakin' bored anyway.....