Jumpers

[boonut]

I am guessing zones 9 and 10, but I believe it can go down to 24F with minimum damage according to Chuck at Bountiful Earth. I don't know if it would do well with extended time around 24F or anything else in that range. Time will tell. Chuck had a major freeze last year and the temps got down to 24F. He has one planted in his yard... it is a little protected. Hope this helps.

[stevelau1911]

I wished I could put plant some giant tropical bamboos here with those results people are getting, but this is the best I have to show for as far as fall shoots.

3/16inch after 4 1/2 months. (All 5 rising shoots are larger than the largest existing culm.)

[needmore]

Although your mileage may vary, I am quite skeptical that any of the tropical species will get any real size to them in zone 6 - Clone X or anything else. I think your efforts are better spent trying to grow Phyllostachys that won't get large here either.

Two issues that I have seen with the tropicals grown 'out of climate', one is obviously the cold, these guys can not take the frequent and deep cold that you'll get in zone 6; the other is the late shooting of the cold protected ones. My in-ground ones are top killed by Thanksgiving and at that point we have probably been into the mid teens at worst. And I don't think that tents or heaters will work over an entire winter.

This year I am only keeping my Gigatochloa pseudoarundinaria alive, I've killed off the others and the BvV is bound for a slow, cold death unless rescued by a more patient soul. After 6 years of container growing and providing warm, sunny conditions in winter; full sun, food, and water in summer they seem to have stabilized at around 1-1.25 inch culms that crawl to 18 feet plus before I trim them back. These protected ones STILL start shooting in mid to late September and their shoots grow more slowly than the temperate species so they must try and finish the new culms indoors. I find that despite the good light I can give them it is not enough to properly finish these shoots and they end up being very, weak floppy things.

So if you can keep them from being killed back by cold temps, the late shooting issue will create problems that I believe will also vastly limit the size. I can get a container grown Phyllostachys to the same size in less than half the time.

[stevelau1911]

I won't plant my 27F hardy D Sinicus outside until I'm able to overwinter the less hardy phyllostachys with little or no winter damage. Just like your tropicals, my Sinicus didn't shoot until the middle of August with shoots still rising.

Due to the limited space in the greenhouse I set up today, I'll be using my other plants that won't fit to hopefully learn what the actual cause of dessication is by experimenting with plastic covers, wilt pruf, freeze pruf, watering, & ect. I might never find a way to get a 12inch 100ft giant clumper to grow to full potential here, but it doesn't hurt to try. There might be a physiological factor with clumpers in which the bigger they can get, the less hardy they can be.

For the time being, I'll stick with the phyllostachys bamboos.

[needmore]

12-13 months ago I received a small section of rhizome from a forum member - maybe 6-8 inches - of a 'green' Phyllostachys that had a pencil diameter culm topped about 6 inches up above the first couple of branches. It quickly produced the short bushy culm down low in the pot. Now, about a year later I have a rhizome directed into another pot on the immediate left that is already larger than the original, plus the new taller culms in the main pot. I've already up-potted this year and it is again out of the drainage holes. Good upsizing for a temperate bamboo.

[ghmerrill]

thats not the "mystery" boo I sent you, is it?

[needmore]

thats not the "mystery" boo I sent you, is it?

No, your mystery bamboo is doing nicely and has grown to about a foot tall but has filled up the pot. I had it next to a 'fall red' Semiarundinaria? from Bamboo Garden. They are not sure of the genus but are guessing Semiarundinaria, they get nice red culms apparently and named it thusly - mine has never shown any red at all but does have a unique form. Your looks similar but is too small to say yet, but I think you are right that yours is an Arundinaria or SemiA. The one from BG has very narrow leaves and very short branches dense with foliage making it look a bit like cannibas flowers or bottle brushes.

The one in my picture is of known origin but has never been formally ID'd, it is a Phyllostachys that has been cultivated in China, Europe and now the US. As far as I know the leading species candidate is currently Dulcis but that is not certain.

[needmore]

Gene, I stand corrected, your plant now has a culm approaching 3 feet tall. Was that last year or the year before you sent me those plants?

[ghmerrill]

Time flys when you are having fun! I THINK it was last year.

Seeing some of the larger ones that grew out from the divisions I took from that grove, Im and comparing it to the ONE example of Arundinaria I have, I would bet its some form of Semiarundinaria. The divisions I planted here have never colored, and the leaves are smaller than fastuosa and the form and growth a little different. the original grove however, did have some some culms that were burgandy on the sun side, and for an extremely old grove, I would guestimate by the spread, 20+ years, or so, the largest cane I could find was a bit bigger than an inch, but no larger than 1.5". I wish they had not destroyed it all, I would have loved to have had a chance to get some photos of shoots and the whole thing as a mature grove, but alas, progress......

whoever owned the property was a definite plant nut, there were tons of non native, ornamental type plants growing rampant over the area, some of them pretty impressive sizes- the cherry trees there were larger than the native Ash trees. Im not sure how long the semiarundinaria species have been in cultivation in the USA, but maybe someone brought home a plant from a trip to overseas, or in coming home from a war, and planted it on the old homestead, and it took off and grew... know way of telling now, since its solid suburbia now, but it makes a fun speculation!

anyway, glad to hear its doing well Brad... hopefully one day I can get a positive ID on it!

[stevelau1911]

Here's a couple bamboos showing a good upsize.

Dendrocalamus Sinicus


Heteroclada. I've never seen anything close to this size so I hope the other ones start making some of these too.

[stevelau1911]

I like how d sinicus puts out an even larger shoot near the 1 inch mark right after the upsized shoot is fully branched out. I might need some rocks or something to put around this shoot to make it grow faster because there are not that many days left of summer. This is so far only the 4th culm produced by this plant.

[stevelau1911]

Talking about jumpers, I think phyllostachys atrovaginata may be the best jumper for temperate bamboos. Mine probably quadrupled in size jumping from 1/3 inch up to well over 1 inch. I caliper measured it at 1.85 but I know from experience that it will only be around 1.3 when it drops off its sheaths. I think this means the plant should more than double its height, and I might not be expecting too many shoots. The shocking part about it is that I've taken some rhizome divisions off of it, and the bamboo still manages to make such a huge leap on its 3rd growing season. This is also a bamboo that did nothing on its 1st year, and only made a few slightly upsized culms for its second. It kind of surprised me that it would go up by this much.


Propinqua beijing is nearly tripling in diameter this year as this pictures shows the difference in diameter of the new shoots.


Parvifolia might be my 3rd fastest grower, just about doubling its diameter this year however it looks like the culms are still under 1 inch maybe because I took way too many divisions last year. Alan, this is the same parv shoot that you said is not 1 inch, and without the sheaths, I think it is just a few hairs under 1 inch, maybe at 0.8 or so.

[Arkansas]

I set out some 1 gallon vivax Aureocaulis two years ago and this Spring the best plant has a shoot bigger than a broom handle and 12 or maybe 14 feet tall. I'm surprised.

I have an old grove of Madake that the loggers got into while harvesting pines and there are new shoots 2.5 to 3" diameter that zoomed back up to 20 - 25 feet already, where it was bare dirt.