Propagation question

10 years ago

I took a nice size root ball with a decent size rhizome out of my chungii clumping bamboo. The section I took out was one culm that I cut down to six feet tall and had a decent amount of leaves on it. The leaves and culm stayed green for almost 2 months, but I planted it in the brutal Florida sun. The last green leaf fell off last week and the culm is brown now. My question is.. Should I wait and see if the root ball will shot up new culms or is it completely dead? The plant defiantly looks dead, but can the root ball still survive and produce?

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Comments (8)

kentuck_8b
10 years ago
On some occasions I've had the top growth die completely off, but the roots and rhizomes live and regrow.

It depends on what caused it to die back. If it was just the intense sun, then it will probably recover, but if it was lack of water, it may have died already.

Kt
botanicalbill
10 years ago
I have a house in SW Florida that I planted some chungii last fall. I had two of them die all the way to the ground. This past rainy season, one of the dead ones sent up 1/4" clum. It then sent up a second one a few weeks ago that looks to be around 1/2". give it time, it might bounce back. I find the cungii love the Florida sun.
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ra
10 years ago
I actually have this same problem.

I bought several 3gal potted bamboos this past spring and planted them in ground. Once the brutal heat of our summer here in AZ came, most of them turned brown and died. I have some that stayed green and are alive still.

I dug one of the ones that died back and it looks like it's got a lot of roots that are still alive. I'm not sure if I should dig them all out and replace them or will they send out shoots next spring?
kentuck_8b
10 years ago
Raimeiken, what kind of bamboo do you have and did you buy it locally?

Kt
ra
10 years ago
it's a green timber, clumping type and bought locally.
kentuck_8b
10 years ago
Does it have large leaves?

Sounds like they may have dried out or either you had some really dry winds blowing. They need to be watered daily if the soil is well drained.

Even if the soil around the transplant is wet, the rootball can still dry out until it takes root, so once again, keep them watered well.

They may still be alive, but keep the soil moist and see what happens. I had some die back before, and thought they were goners only to find them putting up new shoots several weeks later.

Kt

This post was edited by kentuck_8b on Fri, Oct 25, 13 at 11:33
ra
10 years ago
oh they're well watered and mulched. I made sure of that since our summers here are brutal. I'm thinking it might've been just heat stress. Do bamboos only put new shoots out in the spring time?
kentuck_8b
10 years ago
Generally speaking, runners shoot in the Spring, and clumpers shoot later in the Summer or Fall. My textilis is just now shooting.

I do have some runners that will put up random shoots throughout the growing season, and I have some clumpers that will sometimes shoot in early Spring depending on the shape the plant is in or how stressed it has been.

Yours may remain dormant until next year and put up new shoots.

Kt