Skip to Content

Why Is My Outdoor Bamboo Dying? (Top 6 Reasons with Solutions)

Sharing is caring!

You have a bamboo tree outside your backyard, and you love how it looks. It brightens up the look of your garden, always making it seem lusher and greener, always giving you a place to sit in, and shading you from the sun. But, recently, your bamboo plant has been drying up, its leaves turning pale as if it’s dying.

Bamboos are evergreen plants and are found in many different varieties. They know how to survive in difficult weather conditions. So, when you see yours withering suddenly, it’s understandable that you’re wondering: Then why is my Outdoor Bamboo dying?

Have I not watered it enough? Has it drained in all the nutrients? Does it need newer dirt?

In this article, you’ll find answers to these questions with some superb tips on what you can do to revive your Bamboo back to life.

Why Is My Outdoor Bamboo Dying
Is my bamboo dead – via https://forum.gardenersworld.com/

Is Your Outdoor Bamboo dying, and why?

Your Bamboo can turn into a variety of colors. They can turn from fresh green to pale, brown to different yellow shades. Just because your Bamboo is changing color, it doesn’t necessarily always mean that it’s dying.

So before you panic as to “why is my outdoor bamboo dying!” and take out heaps of fertilizers, take a deep breath and read this. Your bamboo plant could be communicating its needs to you.

1. Few Yellow Leaves

Sometimes, some of your bamboo tree leaves turn a normal shade of yellow. You’ll usually see this after spring, and it’s not a cause of concern. This is the time when the bamboo tree sheds the old leaves to focus its energy on sprouting new ones.

The way to know this is your typical bamboo energy-saving tactic, take a good look at your tree. Are there only parts of the tree with yellow leaves, or is the whole tree withering?

If it’s not just a part of your tree, then, yes, you may have some business to attend to, and this may not be just another typical growth case.

2. Dark Yellow Stem

Often the stems of a bamboo tree turn a shade of dark yellow, almost as if they were rotting. You may already know this, but for a variety of bamboo trees, this is completely normal. So after you’ve asked yourself: Why is my outdoor Bamboo dying? Ask yourself: What type of bamboo plant do you own?

Most often than not, when a bamboo tree is starting to grow old, its culm changes its color to a dark shade of yellow.

If this is the case with your Bamboo, you can just trim those parts off your tree.

3. Sprouting Leaves are Yellow

When your bamboo plant lacks iron in its system, it starts sprouting fresh yellow leaves. Use a pH testing kit and measure the soil of your bamboo plant so that you can add slightly acidic compost to the soil and amend it.

You could also use stuff like coffee grounds or a fertilizer. Don’t forget that the method you choose should keep everything in healthy moderation.

Sale
Scotts Turf Builder Lawn Food - Fertilizer for All Grass Types, 5,000 sq. ft., 12.5 lbs.
  • Scotts Turf Builder Lawn Food feeds and strengthens grass to help protect against future problems
  • Fertilizer builds strong, deep roots and improves the lawn's ability to absorb water and nutrients (vs. unfed lawn)
  • Apply lawn care product to a wet or dry lawn
  • Grass fertilizer works on any grass type
  • One 12.5 lb. bag of Scotts Turf Builder Lawn Food covers 5,000 sq. ft.

4. Yellow leaves and Lack of fertilizer

When your Bamboo’s leaves are falling just as drastically as they’re turning yellow, your bamboo tree may need another fertilizer bag.

Remember the last time you added fertilizer to your bamboo soil. If it’s been long, add a mixture to your soil, observe your plant, and see how it reacts.

5. Yellow Leaves with Brown Tips

If the leaves of your bamboo plant start going yellow with a brownish tint at the edges, it’s your bamboo plant telling you that it needs more water.

Check your plant’s soil and how dry it is two inches below its surface.

If it is dry, you need to increase the number of times you water your plant and keep its soil moist.

6. Withering Leaves

Lack of water and its excess can cause your plant leaves to curl, wither and droop. To identify if you’re watering too much or too little, let the direction of the leaves guide you. If the leaves are drooping downwards, then there is water excess! But, if it’s curling across its length, then your plant is asking you for more water.

Other Potential Problems

If you’ve ruled all of these reasons away, and none of these tick the boxes, then the following may answer your question: Why is my outdoor Bamboo dying?

  • Your bamboo tree may have been attacked by pests, like scales or mealybugs.
  • It may not find its current temperature favorable, which could be too warm or too cold for the health of your Bamboo.
  • Your Bamboo may not have enough space to support its growth. This is often seen when the plant is being grown in small pots. The lack of space causes the roots and the plant to suffocate and the nutrients in the soil to dry up much faster.
  • Direct Sunlight can also cause your bamboo leaves to wither. This does depend on the species of your Bamboo, but the warm, dry air with the direct Sunlight on your soil leads it to loosen its moisture quickly.

Can You Revive Your Bamboo Back?

All of these pointers can cause stress for your bamboo plant, but of course, none of these define an end. You can always use the solutions we’ve given so far and revive your Bamboo back to life.

The simplest way is to make a list of the reasons mentioned above and observe your plant. Use the solutions given, and see if it helps your plant improve. It’s a trial and error method, where you would have to gradually but consistently try each method over a period and see if it makes a difference.


Conclusion

As a gardening beginner, it’s often difficult to understand why your plant acts the way it does. The simplest of changes can be a cause of concern or a false alarm.

Hopefully, this article successfully answered your query- Why Is My Outdoor Bamboo Dying and showed you how your bamboo plant could be communicating its needs to you and why yellow leaves aren’t, normally, as bad as they seem.