Striken Chusquea culeou 'chilean straight'

[michael]

Hi, I have a Chusquea culeou 'Chilean Straight' that has been doing very well this year. It put up about a dozen new 8' culms this spring.

I've noticed in the last 2 weeks it appears to be suffering from some kind of disease / fungus / insects...see the attached picture. I don't see any insects crawling on it. The leaves appear to be shrivelling and have yellow longitudinal streaks. Does anyone know what this might be? Thanks in advance!!!

Michael

[ShmuBamboo]

My first guess just from the photo would be that you have bamboo mites. They leave scars on the leaves just like that. Use a glass on the undersides of the leaves and look for tiny fiber woven nests. If they are boo mites, they will tend to spread pretty fast and infect the entire plant or plants. You need to jump on them fast or they will just get worse.

It can also be a spotty infestation of spider mites that become very active in heat waves. They have similar woven nests on the undersides of leaves. There are several solutions for mites. Miticides like Avid are pretty spendy, but they work. You can also spray with inseciticidal ag oil, but the temps need to be below 60 degrees for at least 12 hours after you apply it, or the leaves will be damaged. You also have to apply it to the entire surface of the plant to be effective. There used to be an product called CygoneE that was a systemic that was good for mites. I do not think that it is available any more though.

[michael]

Hi, just an update from my July post 'Striken Chusquea culeou'. Per ShmuBamboo's suggestion it did appear to be mites. I purchased 1 oz of Floramite in August (via ebay, about $25) and applied it. It seems to have halted the progress of the mites. Horray! Thanks for the suggestion! Cheers, happy growing, Michael