Bamboo Distress

We've gotten 12 or so new bamboo culms this summer, big fat ones, so many that I felt very good about my favorite plant and its general disposition, which appears to be a happy one on the surface--so green and tall.


But the other day I noticed that one of the tiny new shoots lost its green color and just quit growing and died at about 2 feet tall. That hasn't happened before.

Then I looked up into the canopy and could see that many of the new culms are a little pale looking on top. Have they quit growing? Arghhh! Let the hand-wringing begin: Maybe I fed it too much this spring. Maybe it needs more fertilizer now. Maybe it's gotten too much rain. Maybe the dogs pee on it too much. Maybe I am a complete and total idiot. Maybe the thick canopy is robbing it of the sunlight it needs. In times like this I tend to pull back and wait and watch, not knowing what to do and all.

Instead I did a little investigation and found that the ground on that side of the bamboo, right next to the dead shoot, has a sort of white fungus just under the mulch. Must mean too much water. So I turned off the sprinkler (the one dedicated to the monk's cap and bamboo) to see what happens.

Bamboo. Good.