Opinions Please...

[mr.mike]

I've got this G. pseudo max that keeps putting out new shoots above ground and year after year they all abort. My question is: do you think they might grow if I buried all of those shoots with dirt, compost and/or mulch?

G. pseudoarundenacea Maxima:

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Your opinions, which I value immensely, will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance to all,

mike

[Roy]

Mike,

All my D. asper new shoots come out above ground. None from below ground. I do have a lot of the new shoots to abort, but I don't think it has anything to do with coming out above ground. The ones that don't abort just grow roots to the ground and root in as in the picture below. Don't know about putting dirt on them and having success, but you could experiment for us.

D. asper

[Steve in France]

I guess you have nothing to lose by mulching deep if they are all aborting anyway, so go for it. If I was in the same boat I'd mulch a foot or two and keep it piled up. I keep covering the rhizomes here as they break the surface. I suspect in my new beds it's more the mulch dropping down below the rhizome than the rhizome growing above the mulch. Perhaps this has happened with your plants. I'd add some Ironite on top of the Mulch , love that stuff , thanks David for the Ironite advise.
All the Best
Steve

[boonut]

With my Parker Giant, I did put lots of compost and then mulch on top of that to cover the above ground shoots and most lived.

[mr.mike]

If you noticed, and I'm sure you did, that the shoots are stacked one on top of the other. I think that in those instances I will add some soil mix and mulch and bury them, however, where there is a single shoot coming out I'll just let it go and see what happens.
I'm not to sure about adding ironite here in Fla. Roy, you may be helpful in that area. I've never used it and don't know if it will help or not in this area. Any ideas on that Roy???

Thanks to Allen, Steve & Roy for your advice. Time to head out to the 'free' mulch pile the city has up at one of the local parks. Giddyup!

mike

[Roy]

I really don't use fertilizers or compost on my in-ground bamboos. Florida Viagra Water is the best.

Mike, I would like to see if adding compost around the new shoots will give you any more culms.

Roy

[mr.mike]

Roy,
I'm going to get the mulch tomorrow and lay it down. Time will tell if it helps or not. I'll let you know.

As I said previously, I'm going to also pack some of my "special" soil mix around the shoots then pile on the mulch.

Thanks again!

mike

[mr.mike]

Photos of the "experiment:

Front side w/ mulch & soil/compost.

Back side w/ mulch only, no other amendments.

We'll see what happens over the next few months I suppose.

Thanks

mike

[Roy]

Mike,

You even made it look good. Nice work. Very pleasing to eye.

[mr.mike]

Well thank you sir. I put the stone edging in front to hold the soil in place. I was concerned that it would wash out w/ the next heavy rain.

mike.

[Joseph Clemens]

mr.mike,

When you mentioned covering the above ground new shoots with soil and mulch I had a different mental image than that which you describe and show in your photos.

First, I am guessing that species which exhibit this, "reverse-tillering", (tillers are lateral branches that form from below ground buds), probably originate in tropical areas where seasonal monsoon flooding annually bury the bases of these plants in layers of silt and detritis.

I visualized how I deal with my own Bambusa and Dendrocalamus species, I keep the bases buried in a six to twelve inch layer of straw, horse manure, and leaves. The new shoots easily push their way through this layer of mulch. I have yet to have any of my tropical clumping species behave with this reverse-tillering type of growth. Quite possibly this is a result of our local climate, where relative humidity remains mostly in the teens or single digits and temperatures are regularly well over 100F.

[mr.mike]

Well, here they are 5 weeks later & not one shoot has aborted as of today.

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I don't know if the addition of soil and amendments made the difference or the fact that I watered twice a day for the last 5 weeks.
I think the soil + mulch + fertilizer + water did the trick, (or treat)!!

The biggest shoot (front left) is now @ 18' and 3". The biggest culm in the clump is @ 3.25" and about 35'.

G. pseudo max is one of my favorite boos. A friend of mine named it "Bar code" bamboo and I'm sure you can see why. I hope the name sticks because it's a pain in the butt to say Gigantochloa pseudoarundinacea Maxima every time someone says "What's that one"!

Giddyup,

mike

[mr.mike]

I forgot to post one more pic of the clump.

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Thanks,

mike

[mantis]

G. pseudo max is one of my favorite boos. A friend of mine named it "Bar code" bamboo and I'm sure you can see why. I hope the name sticks because it's a pain in the butt to say Gigantochloa pseudoarundinacea Maxima every time someone says "What's that one"!

Giddyup,

mike

Nice job!

And I just call it Maxima.

[Steve in France]

I guess you could call that a successful experiment . I think it's pretty hard to go wrong with good mulch and watering practice. I keep topping up the mulch levels here, as the level drops with the breakdown of organic material I add Lawn clippings or some bagged organic Mulch/manure. If I had mature Bamboo I'd be topping up less as the Bamboo in time becomes almost self mulching.
It's looking good for you, keep it up
All the Best
Steve