Q: G'day Bob, I've got two questions:
1. Can you pile up mulch around the stems of clumping bamboo without any effects from collar rot?
2. I've got some low growing ginger - 30cm high with a strong cardamom smell - but I’ve never seen any seed pods. Also photos I've seen of cardamom plants are much taller - is this true cardamom and if yes how do I encourage it too seed? Thanks very much, James – Stafford
A: 1. It is never a good idea to ‘pile up mulch around the stems’ of ANY plant…whether they are bamboos or anything else. As long as weather conditions remain dry, and the mulch too remains dry, there is generally no problem. In prolonged rainy or irrigation conditions, however, the mulch does soak up moisture and this then produces wet, humid conditions favourable to various forms of fungi. It is these fungi that often then attack the base of the plant and cause rot and other problems.
2. You are right, in that true Cardamom (Ellataria cardamomum) is a tall plant and grows up to three metres or so in height. It is in the ginger ‘family’; hence the plant looks much like the many ginger-related plants which are common in Queensland. True cardamom requires plenty of shade to grow well and produce seed. Dappled conditions are best. You may find that the true cardamom will not bear fruit in the Brisbane region, however, because cardamom is a very tropical plant and requires warm, very humid conditions year round to be at its best and set flowers and fruit.
I grew cardamoms once in the highlands of Sri Lanka, on a plantation scale. My problem there was not weather – it was a troop of monkeys. The blighters loved the unripe cardamom berries!
