Dang. Should I dig up my potentially dead Ph. Nigra?

15 years ago

I am typing on my wimpy itouch, so it's slow going and I can't upload my pictures! I bought a five gallon nigra off of eBay in January or so. Showed up with moist soil, etc and a sawed off, 2.5 ft tall 2.5 " thick culm plant.... I knew I was buying the root system, so I wasn't worried about no leaves, etc.

I popped it into a pot and watered it until I could get it into the ground... After digging the a gigantic hole for the installation of the bamboo barrier, I finally planted the Nigra.

Fast forward to now.... Texas has had it's fair share of below freezing nights, and now I'm thinking it's dead. My outdoor simonii JUST put up some shoots, but no sign of shooting from the nigra. The culm was never a true black, but is now more of a light green, mottled with black at the nodes. It's in full sun, so I wasn't sure if the color change was because of that?

I'm not sure if Nigra turns a death yellow like my other bamboo when they expire? But the point is, no shoots. I am tempted to dig it up just because it looks silly as a gigantic stump thing poking out of the ground... Ya think it's dead?

Comments (7)

kentuck_8b
15 years ago
Don't touch it. Let it alone for a few weeks and see what happens.

Mine hasn't shooted yet either, and it's an established grove. Give it time. If the culms are green, then it is OK. It's too early to throw in the towel.

Good Luck

Kt
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
15 years ago
Mine haven't come up yet, either.

Josh
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threemonsters
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh, thank goodness...all my others bamboo have sent something up, so I was really perplexed with the Nigra. Let me know when yours starts shooting!
hello_c_j_here
15 years ago
Hmmm something to do with planters -vs- in ground. I split up a 50+ gallon of P. Nigra 2 months ago. 1/2 went back into the ground and the other half I split into 3 divisions and placed back in planters on the deck. All 3 planters have sent up new culms just this past week. The larger division in the ground has done nothing...some new leaf growth is all.
CJ
patdagardenguy
15 years ago
My belief is that the soil heats up quicker in the container, opposed to the ground temp staying cooler much longer. The boo is tricked to thinking it is later in the year. My container started shooting weaks ago, and I still have nothing from the Boo in the ground.
kudzu9
15 years ago
threemonsters-
Nothing you've said makes me think it's necessarily dead. And, if it's alive, it might not even shoot until next year. When you shock a bamboo by dividing it, and then shock it more by chopping off the culm so severely that there aren't any leaves left, it can take a long time to recover.
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
15 years ago
Finally, a shoot...just spotted this afternoon.
I hope your Black Bamboo is waking up, as well!

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