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Old 20-07-2010, 09:14 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 hardcoresoldier View Post
Hello everyone, i require some help regarding some bamboo i have recently planted at the front of my house. A mate of mine was going to get rid of the bamboo at the back of his house to make way for a new garage. It was too beautiful to destroy, so i said i'd take it off his hands. I removed the the bamboo, put it in my van and transported it to my house. I dug a bed out, planted the bamboo and filled the area with compost and fertilizer.

I have supported the canes with pipe clips for the time being, until they establish themselves. The bamboo ranges from 5-9 foot tall. The bamboo was vibrant green when i bedded it, but over the course of the last three days the leaves have started turning a yellowy brown.

I am now getting worried as the last thing i want to do is damage the bamboo, it looks great at the front of the house. My kids love it, the way it starts to droop from about 5 foot up and sways in the wind. From a little bit of research i think it is yin yang bamboo. I will upload or post a link to a picture of it so that hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. Is it usual for the leaves to turn?, the bamboo was out of the ground between the transfer, for about an hour.

Thanks in advance to anyone who tries to help or offers any advice, it would be greatly appreciated. By the way, i am a total novice in terms of gardening but am eager to learn.
In moving the clump of bamboo, you have inevitably damaged the roots, and almost certainly not taken all the roots with you - many of them are very fine and extending a long way, as well as the thick rhizomes. It's the fine roots that gather water and nutrients, so their loss is keenly felt by the plant.

So you now have a plant that doesn't have all the roots it used to have, and is putting energy into repairing and extending its root system. So it no longer has sufficient energy/resources to support all of the above-ground part of the plant. Which is why it is shedding leaves.

What you need to do in this situation is reduce the size of the above-ground part of plant. People have various theories on the best way to do this, some shorten the canes, some selectively cut out some of the canes, some partially de-leaf the plant. Since you already have some damage, I think you should take out any parts of the plant that are damaged. And then use your judgment how to reduce further if necessary. People usually say you should reduce the plant by about 30-40%, ie a third or a bit more.

You also need to feed and water it well. The plant should then re-establish itself, and send up new canes in future years, so you'll probably regain its previous look, if not next year, then in two or three year's time.