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I want to suggest that a column be added to the source list to indicate the depth that the rhizomes of a particular species run. Maybe just a shallow/deep/omg indication would be enough. It would be useful to know when planning the installation of rhizome barrier.

Hmmmm....I think this could be problematic in that most will run shallow but CAN run deep. Therefore a too shallow of a barrier will cause them to go deep. If you say Bissetii usually runs about 4 inches deep and someone puts in a 12 inch barrier, it would go under it for sure.

needmore wrote:Hmmmm....I think this could be problematic in that most will run shallow but CAN run deep. Therefore a too shallow of a barrier will cause them to go deep. If you say Bissetii usually runs about 4 inches deep and someone puts in a 12 inch barrier, it would go under it for sure.

True, allowance is going to have to be made for rhizomes diving deeper when a barrier is installed, but it would be nice to know if the rhizomes might dive deep enough to go under a three foot barrier.

I got to thinking about this a couple of days ago after digging some divisions and noticing just how shallow some of the rhizomes were. Shibatea kumasaka divisions had the rhizome in the first inch of soil and the Rufa had rhizome buds sometimes growing on top of the soil.

foxd wrote:Shibatea kumasaka divisions had the rhizome in the first inch of soil...

D'oh! No wonder my potted kumasaca died this winter -- I didn't bury the pot nearly deep enough! Wish I would have known this last fall.

(Although it may be different in a pot and go deeper, I need to have some sort of logical explanation for this plant's demise.)

I think that local conditions vary so much and are a major factor in how deep a rhizome runs that it would be more accurate to say that barriers need to be a minimum on 30" to be effective. Nearly all of my bamboo run within the shovel depth unless they surface or hit obstacles that make them go deeper. There can be lots of variance within a grove.

Would it not be better to point out species that are observed to run deeper than typical?

For me the deepest I've ever tried to dig was Sinobambusa tootsik. It was growing in a very well cultivated garden in Hawai'i - outstanding soil yet I was amazed at how deep the rhizomes were and I destroyed most of the divisions because I kept severing the rhizomes as I had underestimated the depth. I eventually gave up as it was like digging a deep hole, they seemed to go straight down. A quarter mile away in the rain forest they were all over the surface so quite a bit of variance there. Pl shibuyanis Tsuboi is the deepest I've dug here, same thing, killed lots of divisions as they almost went straight down - do they do that elsewhere?

needmore wrote:A quarter mile away in the rain forest they were all over the surface so quite a bit of variance there.

Now that's what I call a runner!!

The deepest running rhizome that I have seen was P. nigra. It was a root bound planting next to a pond and most rhizomes were in a mass in the upper 9 inches but one rhizome hit the pond liner and went down 4 feet deep under the pond then up the other side and had a large culm.

Bill

My deepest runners have been atrovaginata and dulcis which both produce near hose sized rhizomes and I've measured them around the 6-8 inch depth before. By bissetii is acting like a weed and putting out tons of 1/4 inch rhizomes that seem to crawl on top of the soil, or just barely under. Moso is the strangest runner as rhizomes have never gone more than 1-2ft in distance and there seems to be very few rhizomes in proportion to the # of culms.

Another thing I've noticed is that rhizomes tend to run in the direction that most culms are leaning and that the largest diameter rhizomes tend to run the longest distances kind of like how shoots grow. Rhizomes also tend to originate from a general spot usually on the few rhizomes that are closest to the center of the largest concentration of culms on in the grove.

Rhizomes also seem to grow in spurts, just like culms. Some of them will come come straight up off the old rhizome and turn into whip shoots. Rhizome growth also seems kind of stagnant through July and August probably due to too much heat, not enough water or other factors, but by September and October when temperatures drop and the soil is consistently wet, rhizomes can run like crazy.

Steve, once again you are commenting on juvenile bamboo behavior and I suspect your observations will change as your bamboo gets more mature.

The deepest running rhizome I've seen was Ps. viridula, which sent a rhizome down three feet and under a barrier.