What's the earliest I can dig up a new culm as a division?

[Alan_L]

I've got some Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis' shoots that I let grow with the idea of digging them up later this summer. Last year I did the same thing with straight YG and dug the plant on July 1. I don't want to wait that long this year, so my question is: what's the earliest I can dig a division and expect the culms to survive? I know it's still too early as they're just branching out with no leaves yet, but can I do it once there are a good number of leaves? The culms are around 7' tall or so.

[needmore]

I wont dig again until late August so July 1 is way early for me...

[stevelau1911]

One of the ways to dig them out a bit earlier without stressing them out too much at one time is to sever the rhizome once the culm is well hardened and leafed out, then let it stabilize for, maybe a week or more, keeping it well watered, and then digging it up once it no longer shows signs of stress. This way, you don't shock it too much at once, and give the division the opportunity to survive independently from the mother grove.

Once you dig them out, they should probably go to a more shaded spot for a few days or I've also heard of putting plastic over them to prevent leaf dessication, but I haven't tried that yet.

I think Aureosulcatas are pretty easy to propagate. The fall divisions that I took last year are starting to shoot despite having very little root or rhizome mass, and being taken in November. I know it is probably way too early for me to be digging from my bamboos but I've done it anyways on many of them last year.

[Alan_L]

Brad -- July 1 made me feel uncomfortable too, but it was on the property line and I didn't want rhizomes getting any further. I wouldn't be able to rip up a 6' rhizome that went into my neighbor's lawn, so I dug early.

The culms in question now aren't on a property line, so I guess I can wait even longer. I was just curious at what point are the culms "safe". I know that the culms produced by a newly-dug bare rhizome are pretty weak and stunted, but since these culms are "normal", I thought maybe I could dig them soon and end up with something that although wouldn't be ideal, would be better than a floppy rhizome-only culm.

So I'm wondering if anybody has ever done this -- dug when the culms were not quite "ripe" yet.

[needmore]

I've done it early and also done the sever the rhizome but leave it for awhile thing too, the culm may still fail if dug too soon - dig a fingernail in and see if it leaves a scar, if yes too early I'd say.

Mainly I worry about the overall viability of the division, even if the new culm hangs in there the rhizome may be in a weakened state yet and you'll have a weak division. Waiting until late August or so give it much more time to build up some vigor and perhaps new rhizome growth as well.

[jd.]

Phyllostachys aureosulcata can be remarkably resilient and vigorous.

If the divided plant loses too many roots and the leaves start to curl from water stress, the plant can be moved to a location with more hours in the shade. If shade isn't convenient or sufficient, leaves can be removed to reduce water loss and compensate for the weakened root system.

Losing too many roots before leaf growth completes will tend to yield smaller stunted leaves, but such a culm can still survive if not afflicted by drought.

My guess is that your success rate will relate to your soil and how easily you can pull out a well rooted rhizome without losing roots.

[stevelau1911]

Phyllostachys aureosulcata can be remarkably resilient and vigorous.

The species of bamboo definitely makes a huge difference on success rates.

I took a 1 culm parvifolia field division in July which was from a shoot that came up in the same year, it happened to show leaf curl for only a few days, but no leaf loss at all, but I also cheated a bit by using juicy roots, and a root stimulator as well as prepared soil. I didn't want to take the division, but a neighbor insisted that they needed it in their yard so I couldn't be stingy especially when there are over 30 culms in the grove, but I kept it over a season just to make sure it's good and shoots. Hopefully with an up-size this year, there's not a huge drop in the # of culms.

This year the same division has put out 5 shoots that are around the 1/3 inch mark, similar to that of the original division size however 3 of them are coming up along the side of the pot which means the division was strong enough to generate at least 1 rhizome in about 3 months left of a growing season.

This is definitely better than the tiny bare rhizome whip shoot parvifolia divisions that I took 5 of, and the remaining 2 I'm keeping to see how they do. So far I'm only getting some leaf re-growth. I'll be lucky if either of them generate a shoot this year.

Both bissetii and aureosulcata spectabilis rhizomes also seem to put out shoots with ease.

If I was to try the same thing with moso or other hard to propagate species, I would probably fail, even sometimes with large field divisions of established culms, and even if it made it, it probably woudn't become established in about 3 months. I've tried taking rhizome divisions from moso which have failed every time which may be one cause of the reduced shoot count this year on my grove.

[David]

I go by the thumb nail hardness test as the earliest time that I would take it as a division.

[Alan_L]

So is the thumbnail test to press as hard as possible, and if it leaves a dent it's too early? Or is it just to use reasonable pressure to see if it marks?

[jd.]

So is the thumbnail test to press as hard as possible,

I think the idea is to probe whether the culm is still tender, not to exercise your deadly Shaolin Kung Fu attack of thumbnail artery press on unsuspecting bamboo.

[BooManChu]

[stevelau1911]

It looks like almost every aureosulcata division I took last year has made at least 1 shoot so far, and they were taken in November and I try to get 2-3 culms in each division if I can. What I'm finding is that the new culm divisions generated from spring of 2010 were the strongest divisions which tend to generate multiple shoots after getting over-wintered. Older culms tended to lose their leaves and produced survival growth or nothing.

Here's an example of one of the succesful YG divisions


I noticed that my F Nitida was starting to show it's first shoots, and I don't want it to start crowding out the apple tree so I took about 50 divisions off that, and I've always had high success rates with fargesias, so I'm trusting that most of them will make it especially being as energized as I think it is. Some of the divisions don't even show leaf curl under full shade.



I also plan on digging out my entire moso grove, making around 50 divisions since the size they are at (5-8ft) is about perfect for shipping them off in large flat rate boxes without having to top them. I might wait until August or later, but I also have a gallon of wilt pruf which I usually use just for this purpose.

[stevelau1911]

I know this is completely against common sense to try taking them early, but since my moso grove has nicely spaced culms this year, it was very tempting so I went ahead and took 6 (1 culm) divisions. I already know that it works great to take divisions in November, but because of curiosity, I wanted to find out how they would do as newly formed culms.

I did it as carefully as possible by watering the grove, then spraying the leaves with wilt pruf beforehand, and when I took the divisions, I did it with all my stuff prepared, and tried to disturb the root balls as little as possible in extracting these divisions. These are 6ft + culms so I had to use 5 gallon pots with bricks to weigh them down or else they will blow over very easily.

Here's how it looks. They were surprisingly easy to dig out since the worms have probably kept the soil loose all this time, and lots of organic matter gets added regularly .


If I wait until late July, rhizomes will start running, and then it becomes a bit more difficult to dig each individual division out since I don't like to sever rhizomes and waste plant material. Some of the nitida divisions that I took last week are already showing signs of getting established as leaves are getting unrolled. I probably won't get 100% success with nitida, but with enough numbers, many of them will turn into good divisions.

[RazinCane]

Last year I had a couple of 3 year aureosulcata aureocaulis that were being over run by spectabilis so I dug them up right after they shot and leafed out in early to mid June. I put them in 5, 7 and 10 gal. pots, moved to shade and watered regularly. They settled right in, never leaf curled or showed any stress. I've found aureosulcata's to be bulletproof by the third year, able to withstand wind, drought, flood and cold, at least here in zone 7.

[needmore]

I tend to think in terms of the vigor of the division, rather than whether or not it survives the dividing, so that is why I generally wait longer, in hopes of a more energetic rhizome. Shortly after producing new culms they are at their weakest.