Woot! Ch. Tumidinoda seeds sprouting

[ghmerrill]

I have a friend who retired at 29.... he and his wife raised thier 4 kids together- the youngest was 2 when he stopped working the daily grind.... sure makes ME jelous! neatest family you could ever meet, the kids are great- oldest in college now. I can imagien the honey-do lists you get Roy!

if she is anything like my wife, it probalbly looks like this:

1) roundup bamboo, plant flowers
2) remove all bambo nursery contact numbers from cell phone, websites from computer....

[Booboy]

John.

Would you mind sharing your seed sources and what types available to me.
Im looking to start some new varieties.

Morris'

Nanoose Bay

[JohnC]

John.

Would you mind sharing your seed sources and what types available to me.
Im looking to start some new varieties.

Morris'

Nanoose Bay

Hey Morris, I get my seeds from here:
http://www.exotic-plants.de/bamboo.php

It's a business in Germany. Surprisingly after spending a lot of time on this I can still find no better source for the seeds although some U.S. sites seem to have them from time to time and *once* a Canadian seller on Ebay had some Phyllostachys Heteroclada seeds which I bought and successfully germinated this spring.

I'm pretty certain the ultimate source for a lot of these seeds is this place in China:
http://www.chinabamboocentre.com/bamboo%20seed.htm

However they have never replied to me when I emailed to inquire about the seeds which is odd and unfortunate.

She also sells on Ebay but I find it easier just to buy the seeds directly from her site rather than bidding on them on Ebay and waiting for the auction to end and possibly not getting them.

They're only fresh for so long and the sooner the better. As far as I can tell and I've spent a lot of time on it there are no import restrictions for bamboo seeds in Canada like there are in the U.S. and I've had no problems at all, she ships promptly airmail and it will land in your mailbox in a week or so.

She can correspond in english and it pays to ask her what fresh seeds she has though generally all the seeds she sells I've found to be viable with a couple of exceptions which might have been my fault.

Just watch out as she has both temperate and tropical bamboo seeds and many of the tropicals would be an adventure here to grow though I've been tempted to raise some indoors and see if they can be grown as perrenials that die back in the winter and come back in the spring here just for the heck of it.

If you have any questions about germinating them I've posted a detailed guide on the Ebay seeds thread here just today of what works for me through trial and error.

[Roy]

]

.............

I'm pretty certain the ultimate source for a lot of these seeds is this place in China:
http://www.chinabamboocentre.com/bamboo%20seed.htm

However they have never replied to me when I emailed to inquire about the seeds which is odd and unfortunate.

..............

JohnC.

Susan Chou is the president of the company. When I sent an email asking to use some of the pictures at China Bamboo Centre on Bambooweb.info, Susan is the one who corresponded with me on the use of the pictures. The email address was the same as you probably used, but if you would direct the email to her and explain that you not gotten an answer to your email about bamboo seeds for sale, then perhaps that might help you get the information you desire.

Susan Chou <bamboo@chinabamboocentre.com>

I did look at the link you gave. Quite an impressive list of bamboo seeds available.

Photo from www.chinabamboocentre.com Used with permission from Susan Chou, President @ China Bamboo Centre.

[Roy]

I have a friend who retired at 29.... he and his wife raised thier 4 kids together- the youngest was 2 when he stopped working the daily grind.... sure makes ME jelous! neatest family you could ever meet, the kids are great- oldest in college now. I can imagien the honey-do lists you get Roy!

if she is anything like my wife, it probalbly looks like this:

1) roundup bamboo, plant flowers
2) remove all bambo nursery contact numbers from cell phone, websites from computer....

That would have been nice, but at 29 I was still chasing the opposite sex and also chasing my fortune. I would have had to come into a huge inheritance or something else to retire at 29.

[ghmerrill]

naw, he started chasing his fortune at something like 19... when most of us WERE chasing the opposite sex! Guess that makes some difference!

One thing on the boo seed source in china... I know that many wholesale companies do not deal with the individual... if she got the impression that you were just the average person who had stumbled upon thier site, she may not answer for that reason. I would agree with Roy, you probalby should bug her again. Tempting to order some Tumi seed to try myself... just dont want the boys in grey out here.... maybe I should sprout some lawn grass at the same time, and turn that over when they come out to confinscate.....

[Roy]

naw, he started chasing his fortune at something like 19... when most of us WERE chasing the opposite sex! Guess that makes some difference!

I guess I must have started early and finished up late.

They were all wanting a long term "commitment" of my time and that was something I couldn't do. I had to many places, things, and people to do before I committed myself to an "institution".

One thing on the boo seed source in china... I know that many wholesale companies do not deal with the individual... if she got the impression that you were just the average person who had stumbled upon thier site, she may not answer for that reason. I would agree with Roy, you probalby should bug her again. Tempting to order some Tumi seed to try myself... just dont want the boys in grey out here.... maybe I should sprout some lawn grass at the same time, and turn that over when they come out to confinscate.....

Perhaps if several people, who wanted seed, got together for a large order, then that might also help.

[JohnC]

One thing on the boo seed source in china... I know that many wholesale companies do not deal with the individual... if she got the impression that you were just the average person who had stumbled upon thier site, she may not answer for that reason. I would agree with Roy, you probalby should bug her again. Tempting to order some Tumi seed to try myself... just dont want the boys in grey out here.... maybe I should sprout some lawn grass at the same time, and turn that over when they come out to confinscate.....

Yeah I thought of that which is why I asked them what the minimum quantities they sell in are and if they ship to Canada. If they said the minimum was a 50 pound bag I might have ordered and ebayed the extra ones.

I emailed them again yesterday.

It's a real shame you guys in the U.S. can't import bamboo seeds, it's senseless from everything I can determine and it's fun to grow them. Bound to discover something interesting. I had a variagated H. Falconeri that I unfortunately killed by putting outside too early in the year, still kicking myself over that one.

[JohnC]

Well they sprouted but nothing came up so I dug around and they had all rotted away.

I think I handled the mold all wrong. I used anti fungal treatment and should have used bleach or peroxide solution as is common with other rare tropical seeds such as palms etc.

So I'm getting 20 new seeds at a discount (the bamboo seed lady was very good about that) and I'm going to get all scientific on this and pre-treat the seeds with a variety of solutions and I'm going to try growing them in seedling mix but also sitting on top of perlite in a small container that has enough water in it to come up almost to the surface.

I'm going by what I've seen after surfing around a lot and checking out methods used for other rare seeds that are difficult to get going.

I'm also going to try this with MOSO seeds and Ch. Yunanensis seeds as well.

Also the seed lady says she is expecting to get in some Chusquea seeds soon which I'm definitely going to take a whack at.

Judging by what I've been reading about other hard to germinate seeds it sounds like the peroxide sterilization is very promising.