horticultural oil, wilt pruf- couldnt hurt or dont bother?

[joe lajeunesse]

Well I have my second grove of what I believe to be aurosulcata planted from my freebies from one of my customers. We wound up getting about 40 plants from that removal! so now I have a full 70' row to the left of my entrance to my shop and a good 30' row to the right. Next year its going to be like pulling into a bamboo forest! I really need to take a post some pictures to show you guys. Anyway, I have some horticultural oil that I used this past week when planting leyland cypresses at a site, and I was wondering if it would be benefitial to spray the bamboo or is it not even worth it? It seems like bamboo looses alot of moisture through the leaves so it seems like it would be worth it. Thoughts? I have about 100 plants I've planted in the last month and I want to do what I can to keep them strong and healthy over the winter.

[Alan_L]

Joe -- it sounds like you've got the makings of a great experimental setup there: plenty of plants from the same parent, roughly the same size, planted at the same time. Why not experiment? If you've got 40 plants in a row, spray the end 10 with wilt-pruf, leave the next 10 alone, spray the next 10 with hort. oil (although I'm not sure how effective it is on bamboo), and leave the last 10 alone. (Or if you have other things you want to try too, take one of the unsprayed groups for that. Need to leave some plants unsprayed though for comparison.)

Then in the Spring you can report back on any differences.

Most of us only have a single plant of each species so can't do these types of tests, unless it's on a smaller scale, so your results could be quite useful to everybody in colder areas.

[moriphen]

I second Alan's suggestion

[joe lajeunesse]

that is an amazing idea. In fact, I already started an experiment- I added PHC mychorizae organic root fertilizer to half the grove. So now I can split it even further with the wilt pruf and hort oil. I am going to take pics soon to show you all. Since this is my first bamboo experience, when can I start seeing new growth next year? I have a feeling I am going to be like a kid on christmas morning when I see all those little baby shoots popping up...

[stevelau1911]

If your are in at least a zone 6, especially in the northeast, I think yellow groove will get little or no leaf burn. It was one of the worst winters here last year and the (yellow groove) I dug from looked almost completely green with only about 8% leaf tip burn. With wilt-pruf, you might be able to prevent any leaf burn all together, but won't it be pretty expensive with so many plants?

I'm not exactly sure on when it shoots, but I think it starts shooting here on the first week of May.


Here's a picture taken late May or early June to show how cold hardy this bamboo is here.


Heres the results from the 80lb root ball I dug this spring.

[Alan_L]

when can I start seeing new growth next year? I have a feeling I am going to be like a kid on christmas morning when I see all those little baby shoots popping up...

Check the "2009 Boo Shooting Diary" thread, and find somebody in a similar zone to yours who lists Phy. aureosulcata (Yellow Groove).

Or if you're like the rest of us, you'll start checking a couple times every day starting in March. My Yellow Grooves started shooting in the second week of April in z6 this year.

[moriphen]

April 15th to the 19th, perhaps a bit earlier if march was warm. I had my yellow groove in the ground by April the 10th and they started shooting the 15th of April. All where 20 lb field divisions.

M

[lrss]

Mine started shooting in the last week of April

[joe lajeunesse]

Steve, thanks for those pics- they look great! as far as the antidesicant goes, I have alot in inventory at my shop (the groves are at my yard/shop/office of my landscape design company). True, I dont want to waste alot of material if I dont have to, and the Wilt Pruf is much more expensive than the horticultural oil but my research has shown they basically do the same thing. I can get a gallon of hort oil concentrate for about $40 from my dealer, and it mixes at 1-5 ounces per gallon of water, so its not that bad. Plus, if you add a surfactant to the mixture it will break down the droplets and reduce water tension, making it virtually the same as WiltPruf.

i just found a couple pics on my blackberry and loaded them up. The first pic is the aureosulcata grove that I purchased back in November that started it all (thats not me in the pic. its one of my guys). The second pic is the grove I just dug up from the customers house. I think its aureosulcata but not too sure. Ill have to get some close ups so i can have some help identifying. I will get some pics of that grove planted at my shop tomorrow plus a pic of the Pseudosasa Japonica I dug up last month from another customers house and have that planted in another area. It seems the Japonica is a much more sensitive plant as it suffered pretty bad discoloration and wilting, although it was in a very difficult to dig area, so i didnt get as large of root balls as I would have liked.

[joe lajeunesse]

it seems the pics loaded opposite but im sure you can figure it out. I know in the second pic it looks like they are planted up against the fence, but theres about 5' of space in there. Thats my tightest area that I will have to keep under control. they have to be that close to the fence because we park our trailers to the right and the space is limited. The rest of the areas are wide open so I can let them be a little more wild.

[foxd]

Mine has put up shoots late March to middle April here.