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Variegated Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ seedlings – fall 2016 update
Three variegated Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ seedlings are now all around 1 year old. All three are still showing different degrees of variegation. As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, I placed them into a more shaded position during the summer. The reason for that was the fact, that the most variegated seedling started showing leaf burn when exposed to full sun in the spring. The damage in the spring could also be a result of change of growth environment, not the light exposure alone. The reason for that was, because I wanted to see, if shaded location affects variegation level and if the leaves remain healthy – without burnt leaf tips. I planted them in the same raised bed with my chillies. I never expected the peppers to grow that large and bamboo seedlings got completely shaded out by early summer.
During most of the spring, the seedlings received full sun exposure. At that point, they had shown some growth, but not nearly as much as while they were inside under LED grow light. Even the smallest seedling that was about to perish, managed to push out two tiny shoots, both more variegated than it’s original shoot. Shade prevented it to continue growing during the summer. The largest, most variegated seedling stopped growing completely and only managed to unfold a couple of leaves. The leaves remained healthy and I think there was no difference in variegation strength. It was way to shaded to grow and it would certainly not survive another season like that. The least variegated seedling was also placed in deep shade. It somehow managed to grow a couple of new shoots and leaves throughout the summer. It’s showing a lot less variegation and most of the leaves remained dark green, which allowed it to photosynthesize in low light environment.
None of my seedlings had shown any culm variegation of the mother plant, Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’, so far. The variegated seedlings are not nearly large enough to show it. I am now deciding what to do with the seedlings, if weather permits, I could leave them outside during the winter. Much more likely, I’ll just bring the seedlings inside, not just because of the poor current weather forecast, the main reason is, that the seedlings are really not in their best shape. Full shade might not have been the best idea. 🙂
Update a week later…
We did receive enormous amounts of rain and weather cooled down considerably, so I moved the variegated bamboos inside. I have placed them into small pots where they can recover, before I up-pot them for overwintering inside. None of them had shown any leaf curl, which means there was not much root damage when I dug them out from the raised bed. A couple of days after I brought them inside, I have noticed some shoots that started growing when temperature increased.
Quick update on 3 variegated P. arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ seedlings
I’ve already been writing about possible variegated seedlings from the second batch of seedlings. The variegated seedling from the test germination of 10 seeds remains my most variegated Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ seedling. The other 3 possible variegated seedlings still show signs of variegation, but they are far smaller and variegation can not be confirmed. The seedlings in the second batch were sown tightly and became weak as they started to grow larger. I failed to plant them into individual pots on time and I’ve lost some of the seedlings that started drying out due to lack of light and water. One of the most affected was the second most variegated seedling that refused to start shooting even when other seedlings started to put out their second shoot.
I found it completely dried out and it seemed to be lost, with only 3 remaining leaves, that were also folded all the time, except during night, early morning and rainy weather. I decided to plant it into compost in the raised bed together with other two variegated seedlings and hope for the best. After almost two months, it somewhat recovered and now it’s pushing two small shoots that prove it’s going to live.
The third seedling, the one that was dark green with white variegation, looking as inverse version of the first seedling is growing into almost completely green seedling. It’s growing slowly and it changed variegation along the way into white stripe on dark green leaf, similar to Phyllostachys aureosulcata ‘Spectabilis’, but that faded out too. It will be interesting to see if it returns or not. By planting it outside, it should grow fast enough to discover its possible unique features further.
New Batch of Bamboo Seedlings
In early winter, I have germinated 10 Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ bamboo seedlings to test germination rate. I stored the rest to start growing them later. To preserve space I decided to germinate the majority in late winter, so that they can be moved outside as soon as possible.
Their time arrived and I placed all the seeds into relatively small pot that should be enough for them to start showing some of their basic characteristics. The best part of growing bamboo seedlings is the fact, that some of them may show extra features like variegation, cold-hardiness, sun tolerance, drought resistance or how vigorous the plant is. Many characteristics are not visible until later, when bamboo gets mature enough, but some can be evident from the very beginning. Some of the seedlings are strong from the beginning, and there are always seedlings, that “complain” about everything and rarely live more than a couple of years. The goal is to find any possible seedling that would end up having any of the genetic treats that would make it special. It’s fairly easy to start the seeds, but eventually they start taking a lot of space and you have to make selections and decide which of the seedlings are worth keeping.
Among albino seedlings that are too degenerated to survive, there are usually some variegated seedling that are healthy enough to survive. They may lack vigour and would have trouble surviving from seed in the wild, but with some help, they can be grown to the point, when they can thrive. Variegation often shows later in plants development and sometimes, even if the seedling shows some signs of variegations early, those features can fade away completely as bamboo gets maturer. That’s why you can’t really tell how special bamboo plant is, unless it’s completely healthy and growing for some time. Based on observation, you can pick good candidates that could eventually become worth growing for whatever reason.
I’ve had some luck during the germination trial and one of the plants appeared with serious issues producing chloroplasts, which results in unnaturally pale and variegated bamboo seedling. Low photosynthesis rate makes it grow much slower, but with some pampering, I was able to keep it alive. With all the remaining seeds (at least ten times more seeds), the number of variegated seedling should be even greater. It was not.
There were many seedlings that started showing some minor striping on their first couple of leaves, but those are usually just temporary and will eventually fade out. They can develop some sort of variegation later, so if they are growing healthy, it’s worth growing them for a while longer. One of the seedlings shows more pronounced white striping and even some kind of leaf deformation. I have yet to see if it’s just deformed and will perish before it’s first shoot, or perhaps it’s just showing first signs of variegation.
One of the seedlings is showing similar variegation to that first seedling from the test round. It has similar striping and also fades from pale green to yellow leaf with green stripes, but it’s much darker in the beginning and it actually shows some stripes that are completely green right after the leaf unfolds. If that doesn’t change, it may become more vigorous and healthy, but greener version of my previous variegated seedling.
There are also other bamboo seedlings that also show signs of variegation, but I intend to wait a while for them to become more evident. I’ll update this post in a week or so.
