I planted a healthy cutting from a 40 foot Hawaiian gold timber bamboo, around 6 or seven years ago. Since that time, it has only produced new shoots a grand total of 2 times. Two new shoots each time. Other than this problem, the plant is healthy.

I have black bamboo and mexican weeping bamboo, and they both do great.

For some background, we live along the coast in Los Angeles, so it's generally not very warm. Our house is built in sand, but I dug out quite a bit and planted the bamboo in soil. I water the plant quite a bit, using water from our koi pond, so I'm assuming it's nutrient rich. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!

Kt

And to clarify a bit, I've tried less watering for extended periods of time, and only in the last two years, have I watered more frequently, maybe two to 3 times a week, during the warmer weather.

If it is the Bambusa Hawaiian, then it needs a lot of warm weather and well drained soil to do the best. Cooler temps, particularly at night, will make growth very slow and even then the plant probably won't reach it's maximum size. Nights in the 70's are OK, but below that, the plant growth slows and/or will be stunted.

Kt

This summer has been warmer than usual, but we're talking about a few weeks of getting into the 80's, with nights maybe around 70.

It's more typical, in the summer, that the high temp. is in the 70's, and the lows down into the 60's.

So maybe it's just a matter of having planted the wrong type of bamboo for our climate. We have had a good run of higher than normal temperatures, but I'm wondering if it's too late in the season to see any new shoots.

If a bamboo such as Hawaiian has a low temp rating of 30F, then it generally needs higher temps to do it's best.

I wouldn't give up on it yet.

Does it have yellow culms with green stripes?

Kt