We got down to eight below zero last winter and my Rubro is the only thing that thrived. I'm in a completely different zone of course, but it's 30' tall and will eat dogs if they stray too close.

Wind in the leaves man - wind in the leaves.

You're caught between a rock and a hard place, and you want to start making fake giant rocks?!?

This is hilarious whether you have your funny hat on or not!

I'm slow in seeing this thread, and it's too late now - but if you want a fast-growing impenetrable hedge Rubro is hard to beat. The only downside is in trying to keep it confined to a hedge. See here for how long it took mine to fill in: http://www.bambooweb.info/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3609

Matt in TN, what zone are you in? what is your average winter low? I hadn't seen this thread and i was SHOCKED by that incredible growth on your madake from that small beaten down plant. WOW!! I had not idea it had that sort of potential. I'm in zone 7a (just barely!). I guess that means average wi...

terrabamboo wrote:While studying in China, I observed that they would bore a small hole in each culm and then inject certain fertilizers in the culm and then mud the hole up. Trade secret?

Interesting - can you elaborate on this? Which node, how much and what kind of fertilizers?

It IS relatively protected from the wind in this location, with a barn on one side and woods on the other. Of course this past winter none of that mattered and the whole thing topkilled, but at least it's trying to come back again this year. I see no hint of the bluish culms of makinoi, and compared...

I'm sticking with Madake unless someone here thinks different. Here's one of this year's shoots next to one of last year's sectioned culms:

Matt W wrote:Oobmab, you may be speaking to a different Matt. The only Bambusoides (Tanake) I have got totally top killed. So far no shoots and no releafing.

Total topkill here too. I'm starting to see some new leaves on old culms, but we'll see. That was a pretty hard winter - it may be done.

That sounds great to me - I hope you can find a way to make it work!

It's the baling/transport that would be difficult. Bamboo is hard on shredders, so I can't see making a shredded substance (similar to corn stalk feed) for bulk feeding. I have no idea how you'd strip or bale the leaves alone. However, I feed it to my goats all the time and they love it. I thin my g...

I have nothing to compare it to, but I do know fresh/raw rubro shoots taste a lot like sweet carrots.

Those shoots don't look like bambusoides. I'm afraid that's all I know though -

Very strange - I'm no help, but my 5 year old bambusoides hasn't shown any spots yet.

Rubro thinning time here again, and I thought of this thread. The goats came running like kids to an ice cream truck: