Florida Bamboo Forum

I live in the Pacific NW where we have a lot of cloudy days, even in summer, and temperatures rarely get into the 80's. I'm growing probably 80-90 bamboo species, mostly runners, but maybe 15 or so clumpers. Because of the mildness of the winters and the species I choose to grow, I typically don't get culm dieback, or even much leaf loss over the winter, so most of my bamboo keep all their culms until the individual culms die a natural death after many years. One thing I have noticed is that many of my green bamboo do not stay green over the years, but change to a yellowish or yellowish-olive color over several years. New culms come up dark green, but change over time. Most of my bamboo sit out in the open with little or no shielding by trees from the sun we do get. It also seems that some bamboo with particularly dense foliage will not have as much color change with the inner culms that are shielded, so I've always assumed that the color change is due to sun exposure over time. However, I'm curious to see what others have experienced and whether this color change can be prevented or affected by attention to fertilizer or soil pH.

Observations, insights, ideas?

Statistics: Posted by kudzu9 - Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:12 am - Replies 1 - Views 62

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