bambooweb.info

Picture caption: Picture shows the use of patio stones as a tropical bamboo rhizome control barrier. Tropical bamboo rhizome control barrier design by Roy Rogers, Florida's SunCoast, Tampa, Florida, USA. Patent pending.

Roy-
Looks great! You're getting pretty upscale there....

kudzu9 wrote:Roy-
Looks great! You're getting pretty upscale there....

Kudzu9,

I've been using 12 inch X 12 inch X 2 inch patio stones (coral colored ones in the background) for about 7 years to keep the B. textilis (bamboo culms in the right side area) from growing into the chain link and wood fence. That part has been successful.

I wanted to try to see what it would take to control a tropical blue (Bambusa chungii), so I increased the size of the patio stones to 16 inch X 16 inch X 2 inch (blonde stones in front). The B. chungii rhizomes tend to grow from deeper down in the soil and at more of an angle than does B. texilis and the B. chungii is more of an open clumper with wider spacing of the culms (picture showing spacing of B. chungii below).

<img src="http://www.bambooweb.info/images/bamboo/SSChungii5.jpg" alt="BAMBUSA chungii ">

Roy
I love your bamboo photos.
They give my hope to practice on mine, pictures that is.(':o')

Bill Howard wrote:Roy
I love your bamboo photos.
They give my hope to practice on mine, pictures that is.(':o')

Bill,

One of the keys for amateur photographers, myself included, is to buy a digital camera and take as many pictures as possible. Then select the best images for uploading or display.

There has been some question, in Florida circles, about how to limit B. chungii to a certain area. I have experience limiting B. textilis a certain area or controlling the direct of the clump's growth or spread. I'm not sure a 16 inch patio stone is going to control B. chungii's rhizomes/culms to a certain area. Since it seems to grow from deep down in the ground, and I think that when it hits the patio stone, from down under, then the rhizome will "slide" and come up on the other side of the stone. Time will tell....

BTW, is that San Antonio, TX or San Antonio, FL?

Roy, excuse me - I didn't know there was a San Antonio in Fl.
I'm in Texas.....but Fla. is nice too. I lived in Palm Beach County for 5 years. Great place.
Loved the winters.

Bill Howard wrote:Roy, excuse me - I didn't know there was a San Antonio in Fl. --snip--
.

It's about an hour north of Tampa. I believe they do have a rattlesnake roundup and barbecue each year.

Yeah we got that stuff too. HA HA

I like mine with a little bit of honey basted on it.

I looked at their website to see if perhaps they were using the rattlesnakes as some type of bamboo barrier control, but I didn't find any info:

http://www.sanantoniofla.com/index.php


Point your mouse arrow to the upper left hand picture and see the biggest rattlesnake there probably has every lived in Florida:

http://www.sanantoniofla.com/hist_photos/photos1.htm

Now that is a real rattlesnake. I bet it took them a couple of weeks to eat that one.

Beside taking tons of pictures, another way to get more out of a (consumer) digital camera is to realize most images benefit enormously from a little manipulation, usually:

darken (many are overexposed)

increase contrast (or Paint Shop Pro's "clarify" )

increase saturation

and white balance (ambient light is not balanced white light but too blue (cloudy or in skylighted shade ) or too red (early/late in the day)

Thanks I'll try those suggestions.

After "cheating" on my digital camera photos, I get some comments like "wow, you must have a really expensive camera".

It's a 5-year old Sony Mavica CD300, which was expensive new, but can't produce original pictures any were near as good as the "prosumer" SLR Nikons and Canons of the past year or so.

My old Sony's quality is probably about the same as under $300 cameras are now.

Sometimes you get an image that just can't be fixed up for a number of reasons, but nearly all pics look a lot better with adjustments.

I installed this tropical bamboo barrier about a month ago. In a year or so I should be able to tell if the barrier has enough depth to stop this open clumper. 17 inch aluminum flashing (left over from a re-roofing job) laid flat on the ground with old partially broken building blocks laid on top of the flashing.