Winter damage

[Alan_L]

Is this what Caryn is spreading now?

Probably. I don't really pay attention. How else did the bamboo invade the wetlands?

[stevelau1911]

Tn your boos look great! I always thought you protected them over the winter?

Steve - Dont count your chickens. THe bamboo so far may be ok, but those potted blueberries might have more damage then you think. You wont know 100% until the weather warms up and even then, the top will till start to grow, even though the roots are mush.... I think im going to have the same problem with my Jap maple....... Although, your blueberries have a better chance then my maple

I have over-wintered them in 1-3gallon pots above ground without protection for the past 2 winters and they have been fine. This year, I only have 3 of them overwintering in 15 gallon pots which they haven't fully grown into so I think they are pretty safe. The thing that seems to kill blueberry plants for me is when their roots rot due to either overwatering or poor draining soil. I've had many of the smaller plants die off this way, but this only seems to happen to the ones that are planted in the ground.

Even if we happen to get so cold that it can damage the roots on these blueberries, I still have over 30 blueberry plants that are already in the ground. All I need to do is ground layer some shoots to get more plants if needed.

[Tarzanus]

Is this what Caryn is spreading now?

It was really hard, but I had to resist.

[foxd]

Is this what Caryn is spreading now?

It was really hard, but I had to resist.

I was looking at a picture she had posted with the claim that bamboo was invading ROSE HILL NATURE PRESERVE. (You can tell I cut-and-pasted the name since it is all in caps. )

Anyway, I didn't see any bamboo in the picture and am wondering if she is now seeing ghost bamboo. Any thoughts?

[Alan_L]

...Anyway, I didn't see any bamboo in the picture and am wondering if she is now seeing ghost bamboo. Any thoughts?

She didn't see any bamboo in her yard for a couple years but it was there. She doesn't see bamboo in this area either, so logically it is there too.

[Iowaboo]

75 percent of the United States has bamboo rhizomes under it

[Iowaboo]

I haven't had culm death yet since it is mild, but obvious leave damage on a lot of it. The mix of frozen ground, wind, and cold temps is what limits my bamboo. I guess I'll see how it plays out for rest of winter.

[stevelau1911]

I did not notice until today that half my tarps were blown off including the one on kwangsiensis. I did notice that it happened to be the only one with leaf burn after going through a night of 11F which had high winds. That one has 20% leaf burn while the moso which is similar in size, but 1 year older still has no leaf burn.

The shrink wrap on my parvifolia is almost completely blown off as the wind was strong enough to rip it apart a few days ago, but I'm not too concerned as lower single digits shouldn't be much of a threat for a well established grove of parvifolia. We are also expecting as much as a foot of snow in the next few days so even if we get well below 0F as forecasts can change, there shouldn't be much of a problem.

It might be a problem for my protected bananas if we are getting highs in the teens and lows in the single digits for the next 3 days.

[ShmuBamboo]

To address the OP here, the description of the cold damage is very typical for my bamboos here, and I get that type of die back at much higher temps with several rather cold resistant types of boos. The type, size and vigor of the boos seems to dictate which plants will succumb to rolled leaf frost damage and which will not. Temps of -18 C. (0 F.) is cold. I am surprised that you do not have a lot more damage than what you have with the size of those boos in the photos, and complete top kill of some of your boos. At 0 F. I would expect to see the majority of my boos having some frost damage, some having complete top kill, and several having complete top and rhizome kill.

The lows here this year so far have been 17 F., or -8 C. It has been in the low to mid 20s F. for over a week now at night, and at or just above freezing during the day. Walking through my boos today I noticed several boos with rolled leaf cold damage, and it is on several very cold resistant types of boos. Particularly part of one vivax (Aureocaulis), one dulcis, one violascens, and all of one moso. All of them are smaller plants, to about 4 feet high, and I have other boos of the same species next to them that have no frost damage at all. The violascens is particularly sensitive to any frost, and I should have moved it next to my house (it is in a sunken pot) next to my Chimanobambusa and Phy. bambusoides species (which are happy this winter near the house where it is warmer). However, the vivax and moso damage is unexpected. These should go a lot colder w/o damage, but damaged they are. I have lots of other mosos and vivax that are smaller and larger all over the property that have no frost damage at all.

[pokenei]

After the recent arctic blast which drove temperatures down to -20 in my area plus wind chill, here's how exposed bamboos stand up to the cold:

Parvifolia: 100% leaf curl

Rubromarginata: 100% leaf curl and looking like they will drop

Aureosulcata Aureocaulus/Spectabilis: 30% leaf curl

Bissetii: 20-30% leaf curl

[johnw]

Puzzling as there's a big grove of vivax in Berlin city centre and a friend well on the Berlin outskirts saw -26c last winter.

P. arcana in the Annapolis Valley looked fine after -20c last week. Tem kiloemeters away from the arcanas P. aureo Alata had a few silvery rolled leaves on maybe 10 small canes after a brief -18c. Hard to say if they were late canes or not.

P. aureosulcatas look okay here after -17c (maybe -16c where the biggest grow), no rolling yet. The cold has been persistent for a week. It's sounding like -15c is better for the hardiest Phyllos but maybe not if protracted. The excessive snow damage we've seen on these pages suggests they come from somewhere in China where such events are rare - sounds like Z7b or better Z8.

F. murieliae and nitidas rolled but have unrolled and are fine; F. apicirubens, Rufa and scabrida no rolling/ no damage.

Surprised to hear of the carnage after -20c. Hopefully buds are not damaged.

[needmore]

I've had a decent glimpse at the least of the hardy bamboo thus far, at -13C there was just a tad off leaf damage to the tender species; after -14.2C I checked again and found A funghomii, Pl longiligula, C marmorea all pretty much 100% leaf burned, the marmorea has life in one here and there but will likely jump off with their mates. Also have the same burn on Phy nigra, Phy nigella but those were sickly from drought so not good data.

My runt walking stick is not totally whacked, no real damage to moso, viridis, vivax, H tranquillans 'Shiroshima' or Phy nidularia, Phy lithophylla and these are generally the 1st to go in a typical winter. Pl simonii has some burned but some decent leaves. A young nigra 'Hale' also unfazed thus far. We've had multiple consecutive days of below freezing high temps as well so nearly a typical winter 'cept for the low not plunging deep yet.


EDIT: I think that the vast majority of dozens & dozens of broken culms here are on 1st year culms that were very weak due to drought stress, older culms seem far fewer among the casualites. My massive rubro breakage - those shoots emerged after the drought started and really did not get rain from May to July when a dribble fell here and there, by August the tops had started to collapse - a very weak crop.

[johnw]

We have not been above -7c for a week or more and lows every night are in the double digits.

Two weeks ago they said we will be above average this winter!

[dependable]

It got down to 8f for a couple of nights and some wind. The tops of P nigra and vivax are burned and tattered, also Semiarundinaria yashadake k and a Fargesa robusta in full exposure a little fried. All else looks good so far. Have an unidentified green Phyllo that was sold to me as P decora that is a little tattered, which is the only way I can tell it from what I know to be P bissette.

[Tarzanus]

A lot of breakage here as well. Now that snow melted away a bit, it looks like most of the culms got broken. Wet snow, a lot of it.
Now with temps around 10C and a lot of sun, I'll see actual damage. I hope for the best. I also hope there will be no more extreme cold this winter.