Care to nominate your most aggressive runner?

[kudzu9]

I've got about 60 different runners planted around my yard. Now that I've been here for 6 years, I have to admit that the rhizome pruning is getting a little more challenging. About 5 years ago I posted in this forum nominating my Ph. vivax 'Aureocaulis,' for most aggressive runner, but I now have a new nominee. Today I went out to check on a nice little 7' tall Ph. nigra 'Shimadake' that has been in the ground for about 3-4 years. It's close to my property line, so I didn't want it invading the neighbor's lawn. It's a very compact clump and hasn't shown signs of soil disturbance from rhizomes or of putting up shoots anywhere else, so I haven't been checking it much. I figured the rhizome growth was modest...wrong! After two hours with my pickaxe, I had removed about 8 rhizomes, all at least 10'-15' long and radiating in a star pattern in all directions. Not a one had broken the surface or revealed itself previously. But I'm sure next year would have been spectacular.

Here's the link to my old thread on this topic: http://www.bambooweb.info/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=694 Please feel free to chime in if you have anymore info you'd like to share.

[bamboothew]

I am still a newbie to bamboo growing but of the about 40 species I planted in-ground mostly in spring 2010 (still have several in pots to size up some and for me to find ground space for and several more hopefully coming to me before fall) the one that has stood out so far is Ph. aureosulcata aureocaulis. I planted 2 one gallon divisions in spring 2010 about 8 feet or so apart and this spring there were about 2 dozen shoots, some as far as 6 feet or so away from their mothers I think that is some pretty impressive "creep year" growth However vivax aureocaulis, though only producing one new culm this year, seems to be running impressively under its mulch. Can't wait to see what it does next spring!

[GrowingHabit]

Semiarundinaria kagamiana. If indeed that's the one I have- its a Semiarundinaria of some sort, and he from whom I acquired this foul beast is more knowledgable than I am by far, and its his ID I go by. But hands down, bar none, this thing is The Most Aggressive of Them All.

[bamboothew]

I may have to nominate bambusoides 'Allgold'--I am finding rhizomes all over the place around it, radiating in a star pattern, and from the size of them there will be a huge upsize next year. Not bad for a plant that almost totally defoliated last winter and has only recently sprouted new leaves

[serenityinbamboo]

For me, I would have to say my phyllostachys Rubromarginata...I am getting shoots as far as twenty feet from established boo...

[meadowyck]

serenityinbamboo

where abouts are you? I'm on the west cost in Bradenton, are you anywere close? If so and would welcome a visit I would love to come see your boo groves.

Jan

[Alan]

s. f. viridis. sometimes the rhizomes dive straight down! thought i got rid of it 3 years ago, but small peices left in the ground are still popping up here and there.

[stevelau1911]

Rubromarginata has spread about the same amount as parvifolia, which is approximantely 2ft per year being among my fastest spreaders however rubromarginata does not upsize nearly as fast.

Most of my running bamboos run less than 1ft per year, or not at all.

[bamboothew]

I wonder where yellowgroove falls into the ranks of the aggressive runners. I have seen mature stands of it run about 20 feet here, so if there are others much more aggressive than it, I will be in for lots of fun in a year or two

[stevelau1911]

Phyllostachys parvifolia seems to be on par with rubro and bissetii as far as spread however it also upsizes among the fastest among the bamboos I have so I would have to nominate it to be my most aggressive runner. It's also among the hardiest and easiest to propagate so I've taken over 2 dozen divisions off this grove & counting, and it looks like it's still on track to upsize more than some of the non spreading phyllostachys which I haven't taken divisions off of. As shown here rhizomes have already broken the 2ft length mark, and still have nearly 2 months to grow and I have trained about half of them into pots for divisions.

I think if I left this guy alone, in a few years, it would take over the whole bamboo garden


Kind of hard to imagine that this was under a 1ft shrub 2 years ago.


Yellow groove along with many other phyllostachys don't run up here maybe because they require warmer soil temperatures to spread their rhizomes.

Here's my ranking;
1. Parvifolia
2. Rubromarginata
3. Bissetii
4. P nigra henon
5. heteroclada
6. vivax
7. nuda
The rest of them show little or no signs of running.

[Alan_L]

Steve: it will be interesting to see how/if this list changes after your plants are more than a few years old.

[zxylene]

I wonder if when a grove gets larger if it sends out many more rhizome but still only spreads two feet per year or if it spreads faster. 2 ft per year is enough for me in 20 year that will be 40 ft in all directions I think I will be doing about 2 foot per year of pruning well before then.

[kudzu9]

zxylene-
I don't think you can rely on that as a rule of thumb. It varies by species and by location. I have had some runners spread out only 15' in 30 years, and others that have gone 12' in one year.

[stevelau1911]

For me, I would prefer a bamboo to be more aggressive since it would be easier to get divisions and fill out the area I want, and I don't think it matters how aggressive they get since one easy way to stop them in their tracks is to dig in a circle and turn the unwanted rhizomes upwards to either let them turn into whip shoots or continue roaming on the ground, making sure it never dives back into the soil. Those can be snipped right after shooting season if the don't get killed by the winter.

I've never seen a rhizome get deeper than 1 dig of a shovel so no matter how aggressive a runner is, it doesn't seem that hard to maintain a bamboo grove as long as it is not neglected for several decades and allowed to turn into a forest.

[bamboothew]

I wonder if when a grove gets larger if it sends out many more rhizome but still only spreads two feet per year or if it spreads faster. 2 ft per year is enough for me in 20 year that will be 40 ft in all directions I think I will be doing about 2 foot per year of pruning well before then.

From what I gather, the rate of spread has much to do with the length and intensity of the heat of the growing season. Steve Lau's growing season is very short and cool relative to mine. He sees very little spread, whereas I have plantings of aureosulcatas less than 2 years old that are already running 6-8 feet and it hasn't even rained much this summer and I know that mature yellowgroove and vivax can both run at least 20 feet per year here. My guess would be that your climate is somewhere betwixt Steve's and mine? Anyway, I would think you could expect much more than 2 feet per year there eventually, especially with the more aggressive runners. Just guessing, though

Since my climate is pretty near perfect for most of the phyllostachys, it will be interesting to see what the different species do here in terms of rate of spread. I suspect that in a few years I will be wishing they would run more like Steve's