Re: Bamboo

[echinosum]

gardenmaturin;997230 Wrote:
> Should I be pruning my Bamboo. They're awfully brown now but I've never
> dealt with them before. I'm seeing conflicting info throughout the web.
> Help!
Q1 - Are you sure it is bamboo, and not a perennial grass or something
that is only colloquially known as bamboo (in the way that a hot dog is
not a real dog)?
Q2 - What has browned, leaves or canes, and if canes then some or all of
them?

If you shorten bamboo canes, they don't grow back, so pruning them is an
extreme step if the cane is stilll alive. You don't need to do this
unless the cane is dead.

Some bamboos defoliate in the winter, and the leaves go brown, depending
upon how cold the winter is. But the cane is often still alive and will
leaf out again in the spring. Can be quite late in the spring. Just
leave them.

If it is some of the canes that appear to be dead, then they are dead.
The canes don't live for ever and do eventually die, and need cutting
out. Cut out the dead ones near ground level, and trim them for use as
garden canes. Replacements will grow next year, assuming the
underground plant is still alive.

If all of them have gone brown, then you have suffered some serious
damage, either from waterlogging or extreme cold, perhaps. Cut all the
canes to ground level and hope the plant is still alive and will
regenerate itself over the next few years.

Bamboos can also get overcrowded, and it is worth, for aesthetic
reasons, thinning out the weedier canes to get a tidier more impressive
clump. Also you can trim off lower leaves to show off the canes.




--
echinosum