Find Your Ask the Expert: Lucky Bamboo Dying
I have had it for 6 years. It has been great until the past week. The leaves and turning yellow and are “falling over” and there are some green crystals forming. I have not made any changes to sunlight or watering. What are the crystals? What can I do? Jen
Jen,
Do the green crystals look like the green scale in this picture from the University of Florida? 
If so, you have an infestation of scale (an insect) and will need to use an insecticide to get rid of it. You may want to propagate your lucky bamboo and create new plants in an effort to remove some of the damage plant. Our Caring for Lucky Bamboo page has all the information you need to do this.
HI. We recently recieved a lucky bamboo plant. my question is do we remove the foam base it came in or just leave it. ??? thanks
Harry,
What type of foam base – floral foam or something else? Are the roots entwined in the foam?
Lucky bamboo does best in a vase filled with water. However, if the roots are well established in the foam removing the lucky bamboo could be a problem. If you can easily remove the lucky bamboo, I would place it in a vase. Be sure to use distilled water in the vase. You might want to read Caring for Lucky Bamboo; it contains a lot of handy information about lucky bamboo.
get the lucky bamboo to start the lucky things in life.