Golden 'boo Browning

16 years ago

Hey everyone, a quick question. I have two porches, one facing south, and one facing west. On both, I have a five-gallon planter with a nice clump of Golden Bamboo. The one on the west-facing porch is doing just great. Lots of new growth, big and filled out. The one on the south facing porch, however, doesn't seem to be doing so hot. The tips are all browning, (some leaves have even completely died), etc. They get the same water, the same fertilizer, everything. The only difference, is the one on the west porch gets 4-5 hours of direct sun a day, while the south one gets full sun all day.

Any thoughts? The south-facing one DOES have new growth on the culms, and, I just noticed, it's sending up a rather large new one. Could it just be that it's Fall, and the old growth is dying back?

Thanks everyone!

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Comments (2)

mersiepoo
16 years ago
Sounds like too much sun and not enough water. Fall dieback doesn't have brown leaftips. hth!
socalboo
16 years ago
Personally, I've seen browning leaf tips from: too much water (yes, too much), nutrient imbalancing, and fertilizer burning, in that order of frequency from most to least. With too little water, I tend to see leaf curl leading to total leaf dessication rather than tip burning.

Grab a moisture meter from home depot/lowes and take a reading every after for a week or two (but before watering occurs, if you water in the afternoon).

Given your set of parameters, although I've never seen it on my bamboos, my bet is either some type of sun burning on the leaves or not enough water.

Also, if the plant in the south was bigger to start with, you've got to adjust your watering to account for the larger plant.
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