First hard frost of the year

[vinniedriver]

Last night was the first hard frost - was down to about -1c, and hasn't managed to get above 5c, now it's cooling down for another freeze. A bucket of water in the garden has a nice thin layer of ice over it that didn't melt.

A couple of days ago, I put down a further 3 inches or so mulch on my babies in preparation. I hope this is going to persuade the Phyllostachys aurea to stop sending up shoots. I also hope it's not going to do any damage to it or the Pseudosassa japonica that I planted about 3 months ago.

I'll be keeping a keen eye on them.

Do I stop watering now even if I have prolonged dry spells? Or shall I keep my eye open for curled up leaves that suggest the need for water? I am planning to drastically thin out the aurea sometime before springtime in readyness and I hope it'll encourage thick, strong new culms. Whadda rekon?

[Mark Meckes]

We had our first freeze here in Central Texas last night too, but not quite hard enough to finish the annual tender plantings.

If there's ample rainfall and warmth in the autumn, temperate species of bamboo will continue to grow new leaves at the branch tips, and these are usually not damaged by light freezes. When a really hard or extended freeze comes along, these new growing tips will be the first to become frazzled, and will turn beige. Providing all of the leaves and dormant leaf buds don't turn beige, there will be new leaves forming on the branches in spring, which usually begin to unfurl from previous years branches before the onset of shoot emergence.

Unless it's been really dry, there shouldn't be a need to water the bamboo during the winter season providing the newly planted bamboo has 'taken root'.
One needs to be wary of oversaturation during the dormant season as soggy conditions can lead to rhizome/bud rot.

Here in Austin, Texas, we have had a dry hot summer led by a very dry and unseasonably warm autumn. Usually after a parched summer ... and a bedraggled looking grove, autumn rains induce a flush of fresh new leaf growth on our Phyllostachys aurea grove, which hardens up in time for winter.
This year there has been little autumn leaf growth, and our grove, which is not irrigated, now looks wantingly thirsty as we head into winter, with no signs in the weather forcast for rain. :(
I'm expecting a greater harvest of poles this year of culms that had a diminished life as a result of this stress and possibly less and smaller diameter new culms next year.

Fortunately our livelihood is not directly contingent on the health of the grove ... as it already produces more then we'll ever need, so we will continue to observe it's responses, as it has done for many years, to what ever weather is dished out to it.
... though in the few minutes a day I have an opportunity to spend time with the grove I do so with a water hose in hand.

~ Mark