Sometimes the bamboo doesn't have enough energy to support a very large shoot, and it will end up putting out smaller ones to make up for it. It is very common with juvenile plants, but don't worry, it will successfully send out larger ones once it is well established.

This happens even with mature bamboos. They produce more shoots than they "need" and will "abort" some of them. Unless you're losing every shoot this way, it's normal.

Cool, seems like it aborted a few. Thanks!

We lost nearly every shoot of Nigra last year but this year they've all taken off (none aborted that I could see). It's still aggravating but not worrisome.

I know this may sound pretty stupid, but it actually seems to work.

If you are dealing with a potted plant with a running bamboo, one of the ways to help minimize culms aborting would be to rotate the pot every few days so that the shoots on the south facing end don't get to hog all the energy, aborting all the less developed ones on the north side.

If you're dealing with an in-ground bamboo, you might be able to activate where you want your bamboos to shoot with heat cables, but I wouldn't go through the trouble of setting it up.

I'd be more inclined to think something is haywire, like the soil not being damp enough. I am sure in my area, with its dry summers that is pretty much always the case.

I've never had any do that until this year. This year has been EXTREMELY dry. I assumed that I had shoots die because of the lack of water.