Lucky bamboo disease and its cure

I never get tired of saying that "lucky bamboo is very hardly plant" :-), and if you just leave it alone it would grow happily. But there are times when it needs some extra care and attention.

Symptoms of lucky bamboo disease

Here are some early signs of lucky bamboo disease and their simple cure:

Yellow leaves
Complete leaves turning yellow and falling down one by one.(more...)

This is a symptom of poor plant health and not of bamboo disease. This can happen if you feed too much fertilizer to your lucky bamboo plant. Too much direct sunlight is another reason behind this problem. Cure is simple. Stop feeding the plant. Change the water. Move it to a place with lesser light. Lucky bamboo really don't need too much fertilizer (also read 9th point).

Brown leaf tips
Drying out of leaf-tips is by far the most common problem(more...)

This plant prefer shade and high humidity. Dry air will cause this problem. Second reason behind this problem is high floride contained in water. Usually tap water contains heavy amont of floride. Either use distilled water or allow the tap water to stand for 24 hours before using it to water the plant, floride escape into the air this way. If air is dry, then spray the plant with some water every day. Remember that floride gets stored in plant so even after changing water the result can take some time.

Dull brown Stalks
Lucky Bamboo stalks are turning soft(more...)

This is one of the most serious lucky bamboo disease. This can happen if you try to move a soil-grown plant to a water medium(more...) The roots have rotten and nothing much can be done except cutting the damaged lower portion and getting a cuttingout of the healthy upper stalk.

Dull, rustly roots
Healthy roots of water based plant are cream or yellow in color and that of soil potted is orange(more...)

But if the color is rustly and dull then its a sigh of root burning. Lucky Bamboo needs very little fertilizer. Its root can gets burned by strong dose of fertilizer. You should always dilute the fertilizer. Change the water and do not feed for few months.

Lower part of stalk turning yellow.
If the upper portion is healthy green but lower part is yellow

, the culprit is again too much fertilizer. Just change the water and don't feed for some time. If this sounds like too much repetation then see point 9.

Insects infection.
Lucky bamboo is very resistant to insects.

But sometimes spider-webs can be seen on the luck bamboo leaves and talks which can be cured very easily. Add few drop of liquid soap to water and spray it on the plant. Don't forget to change water weekly on regular basis.

Algae in water.
You can ignore it if you want.

This is not really a bamboo disease and it can even give your lucky bamboo some character. But if you are not happy with it then change the water, wash the pot and move the plant to a darker corner. Choosing a dark color pot in place of usual glass pot reduces the algae formation.

Broken Stalk.
If you broke your lucky bamboo stalk by accident

then just cut the stalk and the broken piece and place the broken piece back in water. It should root in two month's time and you will have a new plant to share with your friends. See my article on getting lucky bamboo stem cutting.

Slow plant growth.
Lucky Bamboo have very slow growth.

This is not actually a problem with the plant but I am including for your piece of mind. If you have not noticed any significant growth in your plant then don't worry. Lucky plant grows very slowly, only 1 to 3 inches in a year. So don't give into the temptation of fertilizing it. As a matter fact lucky bamboo will be happy without any fertilizers.

No curls on the plant.
This is again not a problem with the plant.

If you are worried that your lucky plant is going straight up and not curlying up as seen on internet then please remember that the curls don't come naturally, you have to train the plant to get the curls. ~~Maybe I would cover this in one of my next articles.~~Check my new tutorial on training Lucky Bamboo stalks.

So if you have a lucky bamboo then just chant this mantra "leave it alone" leave it alone" and you will have a healthy plant for years.

posted in Lucky Bamboo category.

posted by RM

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