Helping potted yellow groove bamboo survive

15 years ago

I ordered unidentified bamboo off of ebay, which I believe to be yellow groove due to the occasional yellow stripe and a zig-zagging culm. I bought it from a seller who lives about 100 miles from me, so I'm pretty confident it will do well here.

Anyway, the seller jammed the plants into a 3 foot high x 1 foot wide box, and you can see below how tall some of the plants are! They were packed with bare roots covered in wet newspaper and plastic bags, so the bamboo is looking pretty sad. I planted it right away in large plastic pots in a mixture of potting soil and compost. I also watered liberally last night. This morning, some of the leaves are curled and dry to the touch, especially on the center and righthand pots pictured below. The right pot is especially dry and spindly looking. Is there anything else I can do to help this stuff make a comeback? I assume I shouldn't fertilize until spring, right?

Pictures:

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

kudzu9
15 years ago
All you can do is treat them as if they were healthy and make sure they stay moist. In order for bamboo to do well in shipping, they should not be barerooted. It's entirely likely that you will lose all leaves and possibly the culms. Sine the roots were wrapped in moist newspaper, they will probably survive, but you won't see new growth until at least next year, and it will only be rather small. Don't cut the culms back unless they end up dead (tan-colored). There is a slight chance of re-leafing, but don't hold your breath. I know eBay is tempting because of the low prices, but I have rarely seen a bamboo seller on eBay who knew what he was doing. If you end up having to buy more bamboo, email me and I'll direct you to reputable sellers that will send you healthy plants.
abnormalsanon
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the information. I had no idea this guy was going to package them as poorly as he did. It looks like we're going to lose 2/3 of the plants this year, maybe all of them. The culms are still green, so I'm hoping they'll recover somewhat. He also sent a bunch of extra roots, so I potted some of those in the hopes that they'll produce a few shoots in the spring and can make up for some of the losses. Oh well, I learned my lesson and at least didn't spend too much money doing so!
Related Professionals
Simi Valley Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · White Oak Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Waterbury Landscape Contractors · Hoffman Estates Landscape Contractors · Petaluma Landscape Contractors · St. Louis Landscape Contractors · Weymouth Landscape Contractors · Carlsbad Carpenters · Enterprise Carpenters · Ossining Carpenters · Sandusky Carpenters · Cedar Hill General Contractors · Lewisburg General Contractors · Rolla General Contractors · Seabrook General Contractors
silent1pa
15 years ago
Yellow grove is pretty tough stuff. I've had it survive worse.
abnormalsanon
Original Author
15 years ago
Hi all, just wanted to say thanks for your advice and give an update. The bamboo in the left-most pot in the picture above is the only one that hasn't shown signs of major die-back. The large middle plant is basically brown, and the smallest/youngest plants are trying to survive. But the good news is that there are 4 new shoots--1 in the left-most pot, and 3 from one of the youngest plants in the middle pot. I was really surprised to see new growth on plants that have been through so much stress, and especially when temperatures have been in the 40s at night! I'm excited to see what happens this spring...
mersiepoo
15 years ago
Maybe a good thing to ask the buyer if you want to purchase stuff on ebay is to ask them *when* the bamboo was dug up. When I bought mine online from a nursery, the person said that they pot them up and let them grow in the pot for a season before they sell them.