why did bamaboo die?

12 years ago

My husband and his friend found a large area of bamboo- very high he says- growing on the edge of a park in our town. His friend had taken some and then before, and so he and my husband went and brought back many bamboo plants ranging from about 12" to 8+ feet in height. As I have had some success with my own gardening( beginner) he thought I'd know what to do. He didn't listen to my suggestions as per the web anyway, except for being sure to get the root ball as much as possible. He planted them along the fence in a row and watered daily. As they began turning brown, I told him some sites say to plant in shade/ may be sunburn. Eventually he crafted a tarp screen to shield them and of course they continue to decline. I think they're dead now. Brown and whitish as well, still soft but not healthy. His friend said they are easy to grow, so I'm sure we did many things wrong. There is a house in town that has alot of bamboo growing alongside their house. It's quite shady too. Husband says the bamboo was in the shade really except for the tops of course and the ones growing on the perimiter of the woods.

I'd love to be able to tell him what we did wrong and new correct methods for how he can try again as I know he really wanted them to thrive. I love bamboo also. Thanks for taking the time to read all this, and for any input. I'll try to post a picture tomorrow...

Comments (3)

kudzu9
12 years ago
Most bamboo tolerate sun well, so I doubt this has anything to do with sun/shade issues. Most likely the reasons for failure include: not taking large enough root balls; taking divisions of new culms rather than established ones; not keeping the root balls moist; and/or not protecting the foliage from being wind-whipped on the highway. However, until you provide more information what about your digging and transplanting process was, I can only speculate.
jenraider72
Original Author
12 years ago
He says he dug down deep enough to get what seemed to me to be the entire root ball; there really wasn't any foliage to speak of on top of them- I think I recall 1 or 2 that had 3 small leaf-like things at the top; I am pretty confident that he didn't over or under water, but I suppose that's difficult to determine with certainty. Thanks again, and any tips for how to try again this time around?

Here is a link that might be useful: pictures of the bamboo from Botanical Gardens Forum
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stevelau1911
12 years ago
Based on the pictures you have, you must of dug up rising shoots which do not make good divisions because they require connection to the mother grove to finish their growth branching and leafing out. It is best to wait until fall or spring before shooting season, and then dig up the newest culms which will be charged with energy and hardened off so they don't end up flopping over.

2-3 weeks ago I took divisions off several of my bamboos that were fully branched out, but not fully leafed yet and it seemed like the ones that were less developed failed while the more hardened off ones made it. Moso was the worst as about 1/4 of them failed while I had 100% success with easy to propagate species such as bissetii. Moso still had a lot of leaf drop since they didn't have enough root mass to support their foliage while tougher species tend to keep their foliage after getting divided.

Here's a picture with my divisions, moso on left and bissetii on the right. Divisions should have good foliage, no leaf curl, and be growing new leaves. I usually wait until they are fully leafed before taking divisions, but this is an experiment. When I am serious about taking divisions, they will be well hardened off culms.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:411973}}