2007 Boo Shooting Season! : Not just for tropicals anymore!

[mr.mike]

Only have a few left that haven't shooted yet. Guadua chacoensis, Guadua auerocaulis, a couple of the B. vulgaris wamins & wamin striatas, Indo asper, and B. edulis. Most everything else has pushed something up through the ground. We are still getting stiffed by the rain gods so far this summer as you well know!
Mike.

[Roy]

Only have a few left that haven't shooted yet. Guadua chacoensis, Guadua auerocaulis, a couple of the B. vulgaris wamins & wamin striatas, Indo asper, and B. edulis. Most everything else has pushed something up through the ground. We are still getting stiffed by the rain gods so far this summer as you well know!
Mike.

Mr. Mike,

I may have asked you before, but is your B. edulis the same as this Bambusa Odashimae:


Bambusa Odashimae @ Caldwell Nursery
http://www.caldwellhort.com/

[boonut]

I can tell you for sure that is the plant I purchased at Maas Nursery in Houston as B. Oldhamii. I have two of them. They are really putting up shoots after all the rain.

I planted those next to a real B. Oldhamii to see how they grow. Mine are a little larger than the ones in the pics. Are we agreeing that this is B. Odashimae or B. Edulis?

That one has thicker culm walls than B. Oldhamii. Very tough boo.

[Roy]

I can tell you for sure that is the plant I purchased at Maas Nursery in Houston as B. Oldhamii. I have two of them. They are really putting up shoots after all the rain.

I planted those next to a real B. Oldhamii to see how they grow. Mine are a little larger than the ones in the pics. Are we agreeing that this is B. Odashimae or B. Edulis?

That one was thicker culm walls than B. Oldhamii. Very tough boo.

Boonut,

That's the one that has me puzzled also. Bambusa edulis (now called Bambusa odashimae) is supposed to get 3 inches by 65 feet, but people are only getting about 35 feet by 2 to 2.25 inches. Bamboo Outlaw and I have been discussing this and we are also puzzled.

To add more confusion to this, I have one that is called Bambusa cornigera and it is very, very much like this one. Now where did I get the name Bambusa cornigera?

Dr. Soejatmi Dransfield, of Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, England, was nice enough to respond to my request to help identify a bamboo I had dubbed Taiwan-Z (T-1-Z). I sent her detailed pictures and culm sheaths of T-1-Z to the Gardens in England. She identified it as Bambusa cornigera; not with 100 percent certainty but she said it matched up with the collection samples she had at the Gardens of Bambusa cornigera.

[mr.mike]

Roy wrote:I may have asked you before, but is your B. edulis the same as this Bambusa Odashimae?

Roy, My edulis (Odashimae) is so small that the culms aren't even the size of a pencil yet. I got it in a two gallon pot this winter and it's only put up a couple of tiny (1/4") shoots so far and it's only 2' tall. So, to answer your question, I can't! Sorry.

Mike

[foxd]

More shoots from the Fargesia nitida and the outside "Buddha Belly" has put up two shoots.

[foxd]

The Phyllostachys aurea 'Holochrysa' has put up a 6 foot shoot. I hadn't checked it in several days so the almost full grown shoot was a complete surprise. It may not get to be big in the Indiana climate, but it does attract compliments as to its beauty.

[foxd]

The "Probably Robert Young" has put up a new shoot.

The supposedly cold hardy "Buddha Belly" has put up several shoots, including one that is approaching 12 foot tall.

If the "Buddha Belly" does indeed prove to be cold hardy, I plan to start distributing a limited number of them next year.

If it does not prove to be cold hardy and flowers due to the stress, I plan to distribute "Buddha Belly" seeds and seedlings next year. Perhaps one of them will prove to be cold hardy.

[Roy]

The "Probably Robert Young" has put up a new shoot.

The supposedly cold hardy "Buddha Belly" has put up several shoots, including one that is approaching 12 foot tall.

If the "Buddha Belly" does indeed prove to be cold hardy, I plan to start distributing a limited number of them next year.

If it does not prove to be cold hardy and flowers due to the stress, I plan to distribute "Buddha Belly" seeds and seedlings next year. Perhaps one of them will prove to be cold hardy.

Cold hardy is a relative term. Relative to the area you live in. B. v. "Buddha Belly" is cold hardy for Central Florida, but I think you are expecting too much of it to be cold hardy for Indiana.

[Bamboo Conne'isseur]

My lako just started shooting.

[foxd]

Cold hardy is a relative term. Relative to the area you live in. B. v. "Buddha Belly" is cold hardy for Central Florida, but I think you are expecting too much of it to be cold hardy for Indiana.

Perhaps, but the street vendor I got it from seemed really sure it would survive the Indiana winters and went into considerable detail on the subject.

I have hedged my bets on this in a number of ways. I traded some bamboo I had (vendors choice) in exchange for a single culm of the "Buddha Belly" which I immediately potted. It has grown over the past two years to the point I could comfortably divide it and plant half outside and keep the rest inside for the winter. If the outside one dies I have the inside one for a backup.

I figure the worst that will happen is it gets top killed and becomes so stressed out that it flowers next year and I get bamboo seed to play with.

[foxd]

After looking distinctly unhappy with life for so long, my P. parvifolia has put up a shoot. It was cheering to see since the past couple of weeks had been particularly crappy.

[foxd]

Today I noticed my Phyllostachys aurea 'Koi' is putting up a shoot.
(Update: Make that two shoots.)

I've begun moving my Phyllostachys heteroclada seedlings into larger pots. I decided to do this when I noticed the soil in one pot was bone dry despite having been thoroughly soaked to overflowing the day before yesterday. So far every one I've moved has had lots of healthy roots.

[foxd]

I noticed yesterday that the F. rufa, H.t. 'Shiroshima' and P.a. 'Holochrysa' each have several new shoots. It has certainly been an odd growing season this year. I don't normally see this much shooting in the Fall.

I have been plotting data from a local weather station and computing things like Growing Degree Days and Rain to Date. We are way low on rain for the year, but not the lowest in the data. However, the Growing Degree Days this year are abnormally high in comparison to other years and will be even higher by the end of the year.

I am betting this means that the rhizomes have much higher than normal energy stores, providing they got enough water. So we could see some major sized shoots next year.

I am also betting the winter is going to be milder than we have ever seen it before.

[mantis]

I am also betting the winter is going to be milder than we have ever seen it before.

I hope you are right. In the last week I've gotten new shoots on my D. minor 'Amoenus', all my different B. vulgaris varieties, B. tuldoides, and my B. doli. 'Greenstripe'. I should still have 2 months before any chance of a freeze, so I should be ok, but I'd love to have a mild winter after last year being the coldest in more than 10 years.