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Phyllostachys arcana seedlings – shooting season 2019

Phyllostachys arcana seedlings – shooting season 2019

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Early starters

First shoot on variegated seedling
First shoots started to emerge

Like each year since I’m growing the seedlings in their outdoor location, they started shooting before other bamboos. Fargesia Rufa started a week later and Phyllostachys pubescens ‘Moso’ seedling woke up 2 weeks after the seedlings.
Winter was mild and bamboos managed to get through it without much damage. Sun during the summer is much bigger threat to the variegated seedlings than winter weather. This year, we’ve experienced dry winter with little precipitation which made most of the bamboos I grow thirsty. Arcana seedlings were hit the most, since they are still growing in their raised beds with good drainage. Despite slight desiccation, seedlings kept the leaves without much visible damage. In early March first shoots started appearing on all but one seedling. By mid March the shoots started showing around all the seedlings. March 13th was their earliest shooting date so far.

Non-variegated seedling started shooting as well.

Nice upsize

Variegated seedlings showed stem variegation last year and I really hoped for a decent upsize, to make the variegation easier to notice. It seemed at first, that culm diameter won’t increase much, except on one seedling that started the first. They are growing many shoots that are around last year’s size and larger. Some should be almost twice the size. I’m sure they will look much better now. Variegated foliage is getting dense and it will finally shade out itself a bit. It needs protection from hot early summer sun, so I’ll try to help it with some additional shading as well.

First variegated seedling upsized quite a bit
First variegated seedling upsized quite a bit

Colorful shoots

Second seedlings shoot
Fast growing bamboo shoot

The shoots are still juvenile and need quite some time to start showing more mature characteristics. They all look arcana-ish, though. They also vary in colour a bit. The yellow culmed seedling has more reddish shoots, compared to all the darker ones. The two other variegated seedlings have darker shoots, but not nearly as dark as the shoots of green non-variegated plant which gets almost black. As the plants grow, the shoots started to turn a bit darker. Last year, the yellow culmed seedling pushed out only yellow shoots with a hint of red, now there’s some green on them as well.

Second seedling's shoots along the runner rhizome
Second seedling’s shoots. Nice upsize in both size and number of shoots.

The waiting game

Third seedling’s shoots

Variegated seedlings are slower to develop and it takes longer for them to mature. Last season, I could only check one of the seedlings for culm variegation, other two were too small to make a valid observation of green striping. This year, shoots on all the seedlings are thick enough and it will be interesting to finally see how they look like. It might be interesting to see if I can save the early set of yellow leaves. Last year sun scorched them before I could make a decent photo, but the bamboos looked fabulous. Sadly not for long.

First seedling upsized. Hopefully culm variegation will get more visible this year
Non-variegated seedling has dark shoots
nice upsize of variegated seedling
Nice upsize of second variegated seedling
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Darkening of the foliage is evident.
Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ seedling’s autumn transformation

Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ seedling’s autumn transformation

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Winter is coming

Leaves become much darker in the fall
Leaves become much darker in the fall. On the photo: Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ seedling 2.

Tonight, we’ve seen snowflakes in the air for the first time this autumn. Before the arrival of winter and bitter below freezing temperatures, bamboos prepare and become hardier which makes them more likely to get through the winter unharmed. With first cold, all Phyllostachys bamboos started shedding some of their leaves to decrease water loss due to transpiration in cooler weather. Leaves also become thicker and coated with waxy protective layer, which also prevents desiccation.  The variegated seedlings had a lot of issues early in the growing season, but came out in excellent shape. They lost most of the damaged leaves from early summer and spring and ended up with new, mostly undamaged leaves. Sadly, some kind of fly destroyed most of the growing tips.

color change

Darkening of the foliage is evident.
Darkening of the foliage is evident.

Like expected, based on previous observations, leaves started changing their color in mid summer. First leaves were all completely yellow. Every following leaf got a bit more dark green color in the form of dark green striping. The last leaves that grew just before winter weather kicked in, started to look almost as green as the regular unvariegated seedling form. New leaves are also much less prone to environmental damage and should survive the winter intact. The gradual darkening also appears on the variegated seedlings culms. It seems that usually green variegation forms on sulcus, but can appear on other sides of the internode as well.

Difference between the two seedlings

Very bright yellow culm of the first variegated seedling. It does have some green striping which should become much more evident next season with an upsize

The most apparent difference is the culm color. I wrote about it some time ago and observations only became more evident as the shoots started maturing. The first seedling changed from lime green to bright yellow. There is almost no red tanning, but I expect it to start again in early spring and around shooting.  I’m not certain about the amount of culm variegation yet, since both the seedlings are still in young juvenile form. Based on last year’s progress, I expect them to upsize significantly. It should be interesting to see them develop.

Leaves are very similar on both seedlings and have the same type of progressive darkening. First leaves are all lime green or yellow and gradually start darkening. There seems to be a difference in how dark the leaves finally get, but it might be too early to tell for sure. It seems that the first seedling doesn’t get as green as the second one. It was also a little bit less prone to sun damage, which is quite strange, because it’s leaves were just as pale if not paler.

Second seedling often shows darker green coloration below the nodes
Second seedling often shows darker green coloration below it’s nodes

Second seedling has started with bright green culms and dark green striping. Sun tanning was extremely strong during early spring and it turned almost black on sun exposed shoots. With time it started fading to brown color with a hint of red. The lower parts that were not exposed to sun, changed from bright green to olive green color. Variegation of the culm appears on all sides of the culm, but is usually found as darker green sulcus. A lot of internodes have a dark green coloration below the node, some can extend further down as green striping. It is not as evident as green variegations of yellow culmed bamboos like Phyllostachys aureosulcata, at least not yet. Culm color might change a bit as the culms fully mature. Time will tell how they look like when they get there.

Darker green sulcus on yellow-ish olive green culm.
Darker green sulcus on olive green culm.

Variegated seedling in front and regular dark green form of Phyllostachys arcana 'Luteosulcata' seedlings
Variegated seedling in front and regular dark green form of Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ seedlings

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Dark green stripes on light green culm. Heavily sun tanned on sun exposed internode below.
Possible culm coloration on variegated Phyllostachys arcana seedling

Possible culm coloration on variegated Phyllostachys arcana seedling

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Pale green colored culms of first variegated seedling.
Pale green colored culms of first variegated seedling.

Three year old seedlings of Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ finally got culms that are up to pencil diameter. Until now, it was impossible to see any culm coloration, except for the rough estimation of culm color. First shoots finally started to show the exposed culms above their culm sheaths and it seems that one of the seedlings got culm variegation that is similar to that expressed on its leaves.

I already wrote about how different the culm color of the seedlings is, so this is an update on that topic.
I also wrote a lot about the leaf variegation, growing these seedlings from seeds and similar. If interested, you can look it up using search option.

Culm color expectations based on last year

Dark green stripes on the exposed culm
Dark green stripes on the exposed culm

After slow start with many setbacks, seedlings started extremely well this spring and took off. I expected culms of three variegated seedlings to have different shades of green, but I never expected culm variegation. The first seedling shows the most leaf variegation and has lime green, almost yellow culm color that eventually fades to light yellow with orange hue. It easily gets sunburn and the color of sun exposed culms is light red. Second most variegated seedling with a bit darker green culms sunburns to dark red color. Third seedling did not manage to push out any shoots this year. Deer devoured it completely last fall and it only managed to push out survival shoots and branches. It has culms that are even darker green than the second seedling, but still less dark than regular non-variegated seedlings.

A bit about sunburn

Sunburn on Seedling #2
Sunburn on Seedling #2

Every seedling of Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ got sunburn when exposed to bright light in a sunny location. Even culms that were not directly exposed to the sun darkened-up.  Seedlings got purple color, which combined with regular green culm color and appeared dark brown. Variegated seedlings with less chlorophyll  turned bright red with more or less dark tone, depending on the seedling.  It will be interesting to see, how long the color of sunburn remains apparent on the colored culms. Non-variegated seedlings got light brown in their second year as the green started to fade into yellow. Variegated parts will most likely have darker sunburn but I don’t think it will easily visible feature because sun tanned color is too dark and intensive. I guess we will see more about it next year.

Dark green stripes on light green culm. Heavily sun tanned on sun exposed internode below.
Dark green stripes on light green culm. Heavily sun tanned on sun exposed internode below.

Culm variegation on seedling #2

Sheaths are falling off. soon we'll see the results.
Sheaths are falling off. soon we’ll see the results.

Second seedling had shown no culm variegation last year, because all the schoots were toothpick diameter or smaller. I pampered variegated seedlings way too long, keeping them inside during the winter – big mistake. This year, when they had a chance to go through winter dormancy, they started growing like a Phyllostachys should grow! When I first saw almost undetectable striping on the freshly exposed culms, I thought it was lack of wax or shade. In the following days it became more and more apparent and it darkened with passing days – same thing happens with leaf variegation. Culms are still pretty small, so it might take a few years before I can get a feeling about how the mature culms will look like, but we’re getting there! It will be interesting to see how the effect of sunburn on the culm striping.

Fresh leaves emerging at last. See how the last leaf is lighter colored than the previous one?
Fresh leaves emerging at last. See how the last leaf is lighter colored than the previous one?

Leaf variegation

Bye-bye old damaged leaves, new leaves are emerging!
Bye-bye old damaged leaves, new leaves are emerging!

Many of you already know about the leaf variegation of all three seedlings I’ve grown from seeds. They start as very pale lime green or even yellow leaf which eventually starts showing darker stripes and it turns darker green. The ‘transformation’ happens in about a week or two. After that, leaf starts maturing and it gets darker green but the variegation remains. Some of the leaves are completely pale and appear yellow even after a few weeks. Usually leaves like that get damaged easily (I suspect bright sun related burn) and partly or completely dry up. Usually these are the first leaves that appear on new shoots, so they end up falling down anyway. As the branches or shoots age, there are usually more and more darker green leaves. I have to admit, I want to know how it would look like on a mature grove during the shooting, soon after and right before winter. It may change color a little bit during the seasons. Hopefully we will see.

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Variegated Phyllostachys arcana Seedlings – Fall 2017 Update

Variegated Phyllostachys arcana Seedlings – Fall 2017 Update

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As the weather cooled down in late summer, all my bamboos started growing faster above and below the soil level. Even the highly variegated seedlings started running with extreme vigor, this fall. The fact, that that they are variegated and have somewhat lower photosynthetic ability didn’t seem to bother them. Most of my Phyllostachys arcana ‘Luteosulcata’ seedlings had shown extreme vigor and tendency to grow many runners that often appear above ground only to dive into the soil again. All the variegated seedlings are showing the same kind of growth, as I’ve already mentioned in previous post.

Leaves started to recover

When the summer heat and drought passed, we’ve been hit by colder than average weather and close to record breaking amounts of rain. We’ve only have a couple of sunny days and most of the time it was raining. All the water managed to wake up the bamboos that were mostly sleeping and quietly storing energy during the summer. Like I mentioned earlier, the leaves were badly burnt in the summer due to high amount of direct sun, heat and lack of precipitation. Days have shortened and the sun lost its scorching strength in late summer. The change made bamboos look completely refreshed and renewed, compared to rather sad  burnt seedlings during the summer.

The second variegated seedling getting greener
The second variegated seedling is now the largest

 Gradual change of color

I have expected the leaf color to change when the leaves receive different amounts of light and it seems they did turn a bit darker green as soon as sun exposure declined. It could as well be a coincidence related to the growth pattern they are showing – gradual change from almost completely yellow leaves on the bottom of the new shoot, all the way towards the almost solid green leaves on top. Same growth pattern occurs on branches as well. One of the seedlings has wider range of leaf colors, because it gets darker green than the other which remains intensively variegated.

The first seedling remains the most variegated seedling I had ever grown
The first seedling remains the most variegated seedling I had ever grown

Thickening of leaves

When the weather started cooling down, leaves started changing rapidly. Light and thin leaves thickened and got almost glossy surface. With warm daily high temperatures, all bamboos grew fast, even when temperatures during the night fell below 5°C. It should be interesting to see, how much cold the ‘waxed ‘leaves can hold during the winter. The leaves also started getting a bit darker color on the variegated part of the leaf. Transformation is similar to Hibanobambusa tranquillans ‘Shiroshima’, which turns from cream white to yellow color.

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