Why does bamboo dry out? Indoor bamboo turns yellow and other troubles
Bamboo leaves turn yellow in late fall, bamboo is not diseased or suffers from symptoms of nutrient deficiency. Bamboo is an evergreen deciduous plant that is decorative at any time of the year, but in late autumn yellow leaves are observed; in the genus Fargesia, yellowing of leaves from 10% to 30% is observed, with late autumn planting up to 50%, in the genus Phyllostachys up to 15% yellow leaves. Bamboo prepares for winter by shedding some of its leaves to conserve energy and survive the cold winter months. When winter comes, the wind blows away the yellow leaves and the bamboo looks bright green again. Enjoy the beautiful falling leaves!
Bamboo leaves turn yellow in spring and summer
Why bamboo leaves turn yellow in spring and summer should be considered more carefully. The two most common causes of yellowing leaves in bamboo.
Flooding. In spring and summer, the leaves may turn yellow due to overwatering; in the worst case, waterlogging of the soil; there is a process of rotting of the roots, which will lead to the complete loss of the plant. Bamboo needs to be dug up as quickly as possible and rotten roots removed, then replanted in fresh soil, and watered extremely sparingly. When waterlogging in heavy or silty soil, to prevent root rot, the soil should be weakened, add sand and mix thoroughly and drain the planting hole, the bottom should be loosened well, mixed with sand or gravel. If the bamboo is growing in a container or pot, check all drainage holes.
Chlorosis. In the second case, there may be chlorosis, a deficiency of nutrients such as iron, magnesium or nitrogen. Chlorosis can also be caused by soil salinity. To prevent nutrient deficiencies, bamboo is fed with complex fertilizers, and the bamboo will be lush, green and healthy.
Yellowing of the leaves and trunk of the indoor bamboo of happiness or Dracaena Sander is a fairly common problem among gardeners. Most often, the plant can be returned to its normal state, but in some cases, yellowed lucky bamboo may die.
Let's try to understand the reasons for this process and what to do to return the plant to normal life. If your bamboo grows in an aquatic environment or hydrogel (hydroponics) without soil, then there are only a few reasons for the yellowing of the leaves and trunk of the plant, and they are very easy to deal with:
When growing dracaena in soil, the reasons for its yellowing are almost the same as those listed above, with some exceptions.
When growing in soil, bamboo is not very demanding on the quality of water, but is very sensitive to its lack. If you water the bamboo of happiness very rarely, then from lack of moisture its leaves will begin to turn yellow, and if there is no watering for a long time, the plant may dry out and die.
In addition, the roots of a plant grow much faster in soil than in water, and after a while there may come a time when the roots fill the entire pot and there is no room left for them to develop further. In this case, the plant will not be able to receive enough moisture and minerals for further development and will begin to wither, turn yellow and shed its leaves. What to do in this case: it is very simple to correct the situation that has arisen - just transplant the dracaena into a larger pot.
The exotic plant has perfectly adapted to growing at home. Dracaena is sensitive to errors in agricultural technology, which causes a lot of anxiety for inexperienced exotic lovers.
The key to successful cultivation is constant attention to the condition of the specimen. Indoor bamboo is much easier to save if timely assistance is provided.
Possible causes of yellowing leaves of dracaena
The non-standard plant quickly gained popularity among flower growers and designers. Simple agricultural technology, endurance and high plasticity of the stem contributed to its triumphant march through apartments and offices. Unlike other indoor plants, growing dracaena is little trouble.
Yellow leaves signal the poor condition of the specimen. Hardy bamboo dies quickly, so you need to react quickly.
The reason for the loss of decorativeness may be:
- Poor quality water composition;
- Violation of lighting conditions;
- Untimely watering;
- Inappropriate air humidity;
- Damage to the root system.
Timely identification of the cause and correction of agricultural practices will help preserve your favorite plant.
Optimal water composition for indoor bamboo
Most often, Dracaena Sander is grown in ordinary water. This gives rise to certain requirements for its composition.
Violation of agricultural technology consists of:
- the presence of unacceptable elements and chemical compounds;
- lack of essential nutrients.
In the first case, the most common mistake is:
- use of untreated water;
- too frequent feeding;
- wrong choice of fertilizers.
Home bamboo does not accept tap water, which is highly hard and contains a large amount of mineral impurities and chlorine. Western gardeners grow it in distilled water. The lack of special water for dracaena can be compensated for by special treatment of tap water.
The best option is to use melt water. To obtain it, just freeze tap water in the freezer of the refrigerator for a day. After thawing, it is infused in an open container for a couple of more days to get rid of chlorine.
Unlike other indoor plants, dracaena does not need frequent feeding. Bamboo grown hydroponically is fertilized no more than once or twice a year. Potted cultivation requires one-time feeding throughout the year. This is due to the presence of nutrients in the soil.
Bamboo is fed with fertilizer for algae and aquarium plants.
It is advisable to eliminate complex fertilizing or significantly reduce the dosage. Important: periodically wash the container and stones in which the dracaena grows. Deposits of mineral salts accumulate on the walls of the vessel and decorative elements, which can cause the bamboo leaves to turn yellow.
Lighting and humidity parameters for dracaena
Hardy bamboo is quite difficult to destroy. You can lose an exotic specimen only by radically changing the growing conditions. Dracaena has won the love of interior designers for its undemanding nature to the sun. Often the cause of a yellowed plant is excess lighting.
The herbaceous perennial grows well in the depths of a bright room and does not tolerate sunlight at all.
Air humidity plays a big role for potted plants. It is necessary to take care of air humidification if dracaena grows in the ground. It is advisable to install the flowerpot next to an aquarium or other container with water. Hydroponic cultivation promotes optimal levels of air humidity and does not require additional hassle.
Indoor bamboo growing in the ground is watered at least twice a week, preventing the soil from drying out.
Experienced gardeners add hydrogel granules to the soil to ensure uniform moistening of the substrate.
What to do if the stem of indoor bamboo turns yellow
Sometimes the death of a plant begins with a change in the color of the stem, not the leaves. A yellowing stem is an alarming signal that requires radical intervention. And the sooner the better. Hydroponic dracaenas suffer from this disease. The bamboo must be removed from the container and the degree of damage must be determined. Perhaps the situation can be saved by removing the affected roots.
Experienced gardeners prefer to completely remove the yellowed part of the stem.
The flowerpot and decorative elements are thoroughly washed with soapy water and treated with boiling water. The plant is disinfected with a barely pink solution of potassium permanganate. You need to add several tablets of activated carbon to the water. Timely removal of fallen bamboo leaves from the water will help prevent water from rotting.
Group compositions composed of a large number of bamboo stems require special attention. Crowding often causes rotting of the roots and stems.
Indoor bamboo, which gives the room an exotic look, is not actually bamboo. This is Sander's dracaena (Latin name Dracaena sanderiana) - a plant of the Asparagus family, named after the British gardener Conrad Sander.
General information
Most often, dracaena is sold as “lucky bamboo” or “lucky bamboo”, since according to the logic of Feng Shui, the plant brings happiness, prosperity and prosperity to the home. The plant is given as a gift for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, New Year and other holidays and celebrations.
Why is Dracaena Sander called home bamboo? The similarity between two completely different plants is obvious - dracaena has the same dense and even stems with transverse seals located on the stems at a certain interval. But domestic bamboo has fleshy and soft stems, while real bamboo has woody stems.
Indoor bamboo.
Experienced flower growers have learned how to twist the soft stems of Sanders' dracaena in an original way, creating original compositions from them, but no one has ever been able to “curl” real bamboo.
The roots of indoor bamboo are a whole bunch of strong and long shoots; the stems are tall; at home they can grow up to one and a half meters. The leaves are dense, glossy, lanceolate, up to 25 cm long and 3 cm wide. The shape of the leaves of home bamboo is also similar to the leaves of real bamboo; their color varies from light yellow to light green, with a dark border. At home, dracaena does not bloom.
Diseases and pests
Indoor bamboo is a unique plant; it can be grown in water, without using soil. But only under certain conditions: the water should be changed at least once a week; the water must be clean; ordinary tap water is not suitable for this; You need to add a little charcoal or activated carbon to the water for disinfection. With this growing method, fertilizing is very simple: fertilizers are applied directly to the water.
But sometimes, even with careful care, the plant begins to hurt, the leaves turn yellow and dry out. Why is this happening and what needs to be done to save it?
Some experts believe that the leaves of bamboo grown in this way turn yellow due to the high concentration of minerals in the water. Perhaps the plant does not like stagnant water, or other conditions, such as light or temperature.
If you notice that the leaves and stems of bamboo are beginning to turn yellow, immediately replant it in a soil mixture of turf, peat, coarse sand and humus, taken in equal volumes. You can purchase a ready-made universal soil mixture for plants of this type. Make a drainage system in the pot so that the water does not stagnate and the bamboo grows in slightly modified conditions.
Bamboo's roots grow deep, so the pot for planting it should not be wide, but deep. A heavy, stable pot that will not be knocked over by large stems is best suited for these purposes.
The plant should be replanted every 2-3 years, depending on age. If replanting is not carried out, bamboo leaves in depleted soil will begin to turn yellow and dry out.
Large plants are difficult to replant without damaging them, so replanting can be replaced by partially replacing the soil in the pot.
House bamboo prefers diffused light; direct sunlight can damage the leaves, causing them to turn yellow and fall off.
Fungal diseases are another answer to the question: why do the leaves of homemade bamboo turn yellow? What should you do in this case? If the yellowing comes from below, the plant is removed from the pot and the roots are examined; if damaged areas of the roots are identified, they are removed. The plant with roots is placed in a solution of potassium permanganate or treated with fungicides. The soil is poured out of the pot, the pot is disinfected and filled with new, clean soil mixture, the drainage material must also be replaced or disinfected.
In order for dracaena to grow and develop well, it is enough to do one feeding per year; too many nutrients will only damage it, and it will begin to turn yellow.
If dracaena grows in water, there are no problems with air humidity, but if it is grown in soil, air humidity should be increased artificially by any acceptable method - by spraying or wiping the leaves with a damp cloth. In addition, next to the plant you can place an aquarium, a tray with wet moss, and a glass of water.
Bamboo is a traditional plant for Asian countries that migrated to our region. According to popular belief, bamboo is a plant of happiness, prosperity, and health. In the East they believe that the “tree of happiness” energetically nourishes its owner and charges the house with positive energy. The owner of the bamboo wants the natural biostimulator to have as much “charge” as possible, but what to do if the bamboo turns yellow?
In order to understand what to do if bamboo turns yellow, you need to understand why bamboo leaves or trunk usually turn yellow?
Yellowing of bamboo leaves is a common phenomenon in home plant care. Depending on the growing method, there are two care strategies:
- How to regenerate bamboo hydroponically?
- How to restore bamboo in potting mix?
Bamboo can be grown hydroponically. To determine the reason why bamboo leaves turn yellow, it is necessary to start from the following points:
- Quality of water for humidification.
- Draft/cold water or temperature fluctuations.
Water, which the grower uses to grow bamboo is required must be distilled. You cannot use tap water and very rarely purchased water - mineralization of water has a negative effect on bamboo, as a result of which its leaves turn yellow.
Bamboo does not tolerate low temperatures. The usual environment for the normal development of the plant is from + 25° C to + 30° C. Being a heat-loving plant, it also prefers moderate lighting. The minimum available air temperature for keeping bamboo is + 18° C. 
Bamboo plant grown in soil mixture may also suffer from similar problems, but experienced gardeners also identify the following:
- Excess of mineral fertilizers in the soil mixture/water.
- Direct sunlight on the leaves.
- Lack of hydration.
Let's start with the simplest reason why bamboo leaves turn yellow - lack of hydration. Bamboo is extremely susceptible to fluctuations in watering. An excess of moisture or a lack of it in the soil mixture will cause the bamboo to respond to disturbances in care by yellowing the leaves or trunk.
Water mineralization, as we found out earlier, negatively affects the condition of bamboo. The same rule applies to fertilizing the bamboo soil mixture. An excess of mineral fertilizers will cause the bamboo leaves to turn yellow.
Exposure to direct sunlight or constant exposure to the sun is harmful to bamboo - its leaves literally burn out under the influence of sunlight, which is especially true for late spring and summer. As soon as yellow spots appear on the bamboo leaves, this indicates the negative influence of the sun. Subsequently, the bamboo leaves will acquire a yellow, uniform tint, and the plant itself will die.
What to do if bamboo leaves turn yellow?
After identifying the problem of why bamboo leaves turn yellow, we will begin restoring the plant. What to do:
- Reduce watering if waterlogging is a problem.
- Use suitable water for irrigation.
- Do not allow temperature fluctuations or drops.
- Shade from direct sunlight in summer.
- Apply the optimal amount of mineral fertilizers.