Running Bamboo with gold culms

[Alan_L]

Dried molasses? Interesting. Is it sold as a soil amendment/fertilizer, or somewhere else (as food ingredient)? I've used regular molasses when brewing compost tea, so know the beneficials love it.

[kudzu9]

For my money, Ph. aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis' has the most striking gold culms. I've got Allgold and Robert Young, and they are great..but both get beaten out by my Aureocaulis which has a deeper, richer color.

[Mackel in DFW]

Dried molasses is generally composed of soy meal coated with molasses, then dried. I like our vivax aureocalis best this year, it went from six foot to twelve foot and spread twelve foot.. I'm actually managing twenty two species on three different properties here in the Dallas area.. .One of the culms is green, wtf?

People who treat their bamboo like a cornfield, do any one of them do side by side tests? No, they generally do what they've always done....They tell you boo is tough. But forget about the boo for one minute and think about what is delivering many of the limiting reagents into the boo... fungal hyphae that are attached to the roots, working together in a symbiotic relationship, in a carbohydrate for nutrient exchange agreement. The fungal hyphae are not so tough, and it's very easy to swing a microherd population with different types of fertilizers...

Gday Everybody.

[rickw]

OK, looks like Ph. aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis' is maybe a little bolder gold and Ph Bambusoids 'Allgold' appears to get a little bigger. To avoid second guessing myself, I ordered both.

Where does one get dried molasses, feed store?

[kudzu9]

Rick-
Sounds like you are a suspenders and belts guy!

You're right about the size differences, but my experience is that the Aureocaulis -- although it can be quite the runner -- also puts up denser growth. I've got mine planted in a mound and don't know if that has helped:

[dependable]

My P A aureocaulis looks exactly the same, sending out some rhizomes, but mainly staying close in. Of the 5 P aurosulcata types I have, it is the only one that stays closer to home.

[bamboothew]

My aureosulcata aureocaulis runs like mad: 2 1gal divisions planted in spring 2010 have pretty much filled in an 18' diameter circle

In contrast, my 1 gal 'Allgold' planted the same day has only made a few new culms and it's total spread is about 3 feet so far.

[needmore]

My personal observations with the aureosulcata flavors formed my opinion that harbin is a very weak bamboo, very slow to gain size, and notably less hardy than the rest of the clan - as an aside, I've been watching it for 2 years now and have not seen a single new leaf sprout on a culm, but surely this is not the case, I watch none the less.

My other observation was that aureocaulis also seems a bit weak, slow to size up, not vigorous, and the least hardy of the yellow family members. I may change my mind in the next couple of weeks but this year I have to say this bamboo has been the most impressive one for me this year. I have it in 4 different sites and the older two have seriously surprised me by how much they have sized up, one is in a barrier the other not and it has amazed me how far out it is pushing new fat culms. I had considered really culling it back and am now planning on vastly reducing the space neighboring groves have. I have several 1.25 inch culms this year, many more an inch plus and the entire grove will likely be thinned to inch plusssers', really changing my opinion of it as it is now larger and spread farther than harbin inversa, but it is a few years older than HI. With reasonable winters I should have a really nice big grove of fat yellow canes in 1-2 more years.

[dependable]

I agree that the P a harbin is not very robust. Is P a harbin is a offshoot of P aureosulcata aureocaulis? The P a aureocaulis I have seems healthy and is getting bigger, but has less of a tendency to run.

[rickw]

Kudzu, thanks for posting the picture. That's more of the bright gold that I want, not pale yellow like the Robert Young. I'll probably let both set in a large pot until I can judge if one out performs the other, but with my growing conditions they should both do great.

[RazinCane]

Vivax Aureocaulis, a beauty I acquired last year that's shooting for the first time, up-sizing nicely from pencil diameter culms 3' tall to thumb sized culms already 6' tall. Not the rich orange/gold of Golden Crookstem and Allgold but stunning to behold with it's variable green striping on butter yellow culms. My plant is young so I have yet to learn it's mature coloration as my golden crookstem comes up butter yellow, then blushes red, then turns orange/gold. Another gold beauty is Golden Fishpole which initially comes up lime green quickly turning gold. Mine's been slow to establish and remained inconsequential for the first couple years bushing up 4-5' tall but this year are pushing 3/4" culms and finally getting some stature and spread.

[stevelau1911]

I gave/ sold away 14 vivax aureocaulus divisions after splitting it, up, but I still have a 2 culm division that I'm keeping for myself which will always be pot grown, and split every couple years. It's finally putting out a small 1/3 inch shoot, but I'm almost certain it has something bigger lurking right below the surface. It's not hardy at all in zone 6, and culms aren't flexible either due to thin walled culms, so I can't tarp to the ground if they are grown directly in the ground, but it can still look impressive as a potted specimen. I've actually think I have a way of growing this giant in zone 6 and still protect it. I believe that wrapping up all the culms in the clump in an over-wintering blanket and tying them tightly, then attaching christmas lights should be able to keep it from defoliating. I tried it on atrovaginata, but the only problem was that this species wouldn't have gotten leaf burned anyways with a zone 7a winter so I can't really tell if the blanket did anything, but this is what I would probably do if I ever wanted to grow vivax in the ground again.



I personally prefer the furry dull look of phyllostachys edulis bicolor over the glossy types. Mine is really leafing out a lot now, but it looks like all my efforts to heat up the soil in the area is failing to get me shoots until it decides it is ready to shoot. The soil temperature around this boo is already about 4-5F warmer than the surrounding soil, but if anyone has any ideas to warm it up even more, please let me know because I'm trying to make this bamboo available. It's growing in almost pure worm castings & organic matter, and will get the sprinkler once it's warm enough to start drying out the soil.




My 3rd bamboo with gold culms is spectabilis, and it has some 1/2-5/8 inch shoots currently between 1-2ft tall which should start dropping sheaths in a few days, and this one should look really nice. I think they look their best when they are just starting to leaf out, and still have the fresh appearance.

[rickw]

Got my new bamboo in, the Allgold appears to have the richer color at this time. We'll see what they look like as they mature. I also got a Ph Aurea Koi, thought it looked pretty neat with the colors and compressed nodes.

[Samajax]

This was taken in the spring. Not a great picture- this is a long, slender grove and phone pictures don't do it justice.

Very easy to see the color difference between the fresh culms and what they age into..

[Samajax]

I forgot to identify the bamboo in my last post- That is p. vivax 'aureocaulis'- year four.

RickW- I see you're in the deep south..The vivax 'aureocaulis' should run a huge amount by year three and you don't have the snow culm breakage issue like folks up north. I'm zone 8 like you and am really looking forward to seeing those culms in the 4" zone (maybe two more years?)

My neighbor has 'allgold'- maybe 7 years old, and it's just now sizing to around 1.5" as a common culm diameter. It's a bit brighter than my vivax- more yellow gold....? The vivax is already bigger, and the huge leaves on the vivax are definitely my personal preference.