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Old 24-08-2009, 10:25 AM
echinosum echinosum is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2006
Location: Chalfont St Giles
Posts: 1,340
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Originally Posted by funboyhulme View Post
This year however the leaves started going brown and black and there are only very few green leaves. We had a massive infestation of greenfly on all three in the spring but this was sorted with the introduction of ladybird larvae. I'm aware that they refresh their leaves but there does seem to be a massive amount of leaf drop.
Looks like you have everything right to me. Even the selection of variety for pot culture seems sensible. The main problems with pot-cultured bamboo are over- and under-watering. The latter can be due to the pot becoming so full of roots that there is no space left for soil/water, but you repotted to a larger pot recently so that shouldn't be a problem yet.

Greenfly are only an occasional pest of bamboo, the greefly usually have juicier pickings. So the heavy greenfly infestation may be an indication that the plant was already weakened. I wonder if some vine weevil grubs have been chewing the roots, or some other root ailment. Or if the greenfly brought in some rare virus.

The only other thought is that bamboos don't like strong winds. This kind of bamboo naturally grows in the understorey of forests, where it isn't very windy. I wonder if your balcony, although glass panelled, is some kind of very windy place.

I'm not sure if the culms are dead or merely defoliated. If the culms are dead, the plant might resprout from the roots next year. When the weather is Septemberish, tip one out of the pot and have a good look at the roots.