Lucky bamboo not drinking?

17 years ago

Hi, I just got two lucky bamboo plants, I put them in vases supported by marbles, and filled the bottom with a couple of inches of bottled water. A friend of mine has the same plants and said they suck up the water pretty quickly, but it's been a couple of days and I haven't noticed any change in the water level yet. Is that normal, or am I doing something wrong? Also, I have the marbles up to the top of the vase -- does that mean the water should be just as high?

Thanks!

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Comments (8)

bud_wi
17 years ago
Mine suck up a lot of water. Maybe yours are adjusting to their new home and are stressed from being moved and replanted?

Two days is not enough time to judge ther personality of a plant.

The roots need to be covered in water. The stems should be out of water. How deep did you plant them?
scottshlaw74
Original Author
17 years ago
They are 19-20 inches high, each of them is in a separate vase about 8 inches high (so a lot of the stem sticks out), the marbles go up to the top of the vase, the roots are probably about 1 inch from the bottom of the vase, and the water is filled about two inches. So far I still haven't noticed any change in the water -- I suppose it's a bit early, but I just was concerned that if they weren't taking in water, they'd die.
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scottshlaw74
Original Author
17 years ago
Anyone else have other ideas? The water level still hasn't changed, but I think I'm noticing new roots that I hadn't seen before. This is really strange...
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
17 years ago
I think you should determine your success by how your plant looks rather than how much water it's taking up. If the plant cells were not filled with water as they are supposed to be, your plants would begin to wilt, brown, and die.

If the room is on the cool side and the plants are basking in a lot of natural light, they won't be doing a lot of active growing. So not only is there less evaporation but less transpiration. This is pretty normal for this time of year in much of NA. If you grow other houseplants, you'll know that you have to greatly reduce watering in the fall/winter.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
17 years ago
Correction: if your plants are NOT basking in a lot of light. That makes more sense, right? ;-)
scottshlaw74
Original Author
17 years ago
Hah, yes it does, I figured that's what you meant.
Thanks, I will keep an eye on them -- I have them away from the window because they aren't supposed to get direct sunlight. So far they are pretty green (alternating light and dark) and the leaves seem to be healthy, I was just a bit confused. Needless to say I do not have a green thumb (I've killed cacti before), and I had though these would be idiot-proof...
Pam Honeycutt
17 years ago
Just because other's are having the water disappear faster doesn't mean that their plant is drinking it. Maybe its evaporating. It's very dry in my house and things dry out very, very fast. I have to watch all my plants for this and try to mist often.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
17 years ago
scott, you'd be surprised at how challenging it is to grow terrestrial plants (or those that are 'supposed' to be) in water. ;-)