The older culms get yellow(ish) when they endure colder weather. The last few seasons, we had mild freezes, only down to about 30F, but the culms had blotches of yellow on them that do not go away, but do not affect the health of the plant.

This last Winter, the temps got down to 22F and were below freezing for about 10 hours. The culms turned yellow, almost completely on some.

Don't have a problem here with the black soot on the Oldhamii, but on some of my other bambusas, there is a lot.

New very green leaves are starting to come out now. The plants are 40 feet tall and largest culms are 4 inches thick.

In the gallery is a photo of mine taken back in December 2005.

Kt

Do you know for a fact that colder temps cause yellowing? We have had several cold snaps here in Los Angeles that damaged some other plants. I didn't think it would bother the bamboo.

Look in the gallery at the picture and see if it looks similar.

"Oldhamii Culm Discolouration" is the title of the post.

Kt