Zone 6 bamboo

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Cichlidius
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Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Cichlidius »

Hello, I'm fairly new to bamboo, right now I just have a small grove of incense bamboo that is slowly taking off. I'm looking for the tallest bamboo with the thickest culms that I can reliably grow here in outside of Cleveland ohio. The patch I would like to cover is in full sun, something to simply block out my one visible neighbor. I have heard rubromarginata is a good choice but would like some other ideas. Thanks for any help.
oobmab
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by oobmab »

Do you want thick culms for the look, or for screening effect?
stevelau1911
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by stevelau1911 »

After the harsh winter, it seems like phyllostachys parvifolia has definitely come out as the winner in terms of maintaining size even though it was about 95% leaf burned after 13 nights of sub zero temperatures which could be a record. Anyways, parvifolia seems to have the ability to gain size on normal winters, and maintain its size on the coldest winters for zone 6.
Cichlidius
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Cichlidius »

Thanks for the suggestion. How tall and thick does Parvifolia get when mature? The area I would eventually like to cover is a little over an acre so even if the bamboo does not get very bushy it should still be a large enough area that it will block out the view I hope. I mainly want the size for how it looks.
Cichlidius
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Cichlidius »

Also, is parvifolia a running or clumping bamboo, I looked it up and I see it referenced as both.
richr
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by richr »

Hi Steve - I guess this is year 3 since I planted the parvifolia you sent me. All three plantings sent up a single 'shoot' which seems to be a healthy half inch by 3 feet tall, and still growing. What is growing like gangbusters is Vivax and Bessetii - the Vivax sent up numerous shoots about 1 inch in diameter and still growing. The Bessetii is up to 18 feet tall and still growing and spreading. I had to lop off a number of Bessetii culms. The one disappointment are the 10 plants of Rubromarginata that I got from the place in Alabama. I expected them to spread, but they look like clumpers instead. I'm thinking of taking them down and planting Bessetii instead.
Rich in NJ
pokenei
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by pokenei »

I find that my young Rubro grove also tend to stay together, but do send out a few exploratory shoots here and there. Part of the reason could be that the spot where it was originally planted has richer soil than its surroundings (of course, I put compose there). I think they'll spread out more when they mature though. One thing I like about Rubro is that it has nice long, uniform-size internodes and shoots also tend to grow straight up.

My bissetii fair the worst this winter. It was planted two winters ago in a rather dry location and never took off. I did not protect it though so it got the worst of Winter, and worst of hot the Summer sun, and this year it only put up 4 twigs around two feet tall.

I think Parvifolia loves water. The wetter it is, the more shoots it will put up. I am making sure mine gets enough water, but not overly much because I'd rather get fewer decent-sized shoots then numerous mediocre ones. Mine is also season 3 with two original whip shoots planted side by side and now they're all intermixed. The reason I planted two there was so that I could select the better one and remove the weaker one later, but after just one season, they have already criss-crossed one another and I could not remove one without damaging the other. There's a photo of it in the "photographing bamboo" board.

My Atrovaginata shoots were about the same size as last season's, but most were destroyed a by raccoon the other night.

Propingua Beijing surprized me with 3 upsized shoots that are about quarter inch thick. Shoots are also straight.

My spectabilis - so far it's still a living stick...with branches.
Mackel in DFW
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Mackel in DFW »

Cichlidius-

You ought to grow at least three species of phyllostachys, eventually, and let them compete for your microclimate's favor. They are running bamboos (i.e. Phyllostachys parvifolia).

Mackel
Last edited by Mackel in DFW on Tue Jun 10, 2014 11:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cichlidius
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Cichlidius »

Thanks for all the help, I will be planting a couple different kinds just to see which one takes off. I'm still a little confused about the parvifolia though. I have seen it listed as running, clumping, and also a "running clumper". Could anybody clear that up? Thanks
Alan_L
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Alan_L »

Running!
stevelau1911
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by stevelau1911 »

1/2 inch parvifolia should be able to have a huge upsize in the following year given that the winter is not too bad. I believe it has the potential to get to the 2-3 inch range, and up to at least 30ft in zone 6.

Here's my parvifolia coming back with no downsize at all with even more shoots than before. Many are over the 1 inch mark however the top kill does seem to be getting them shorter internodes so the height may be reduced a bit.
Image
Alan_L
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Alan_L »

stevelau1911 wrote:...however the top kill does seem to be getting them shorter internodes so the height may be reduced a bit.
How do you know that this is not due to temperatures, or water availability? It's possible that it's due to topkill, but you can't be certain.
Cichlidius
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Cichlidius »

Thanks for the help everybody, I'm going to try parvifolia and dulcis. Hope it gets big!
Mackel in DFW
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Mackel in DFW »

Hello Cichlidius-


Check this out on cold hardiness.


http://needmorebamboo.com/?page_id=772


Mackel


P.S.- Did you mean P. decora rather than P. dulcis? I grow both and dulcis does get large culms quickly, but that might be more of a wildcard in your zone. P. decora is very pretty, as well.
Tarzanus
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Re: Zone 6 bamboo

Post by Tarzanus »

I seriously doubt short internode can be topkill related. I'd guess that cold weather at the time when shoots emerged caused that. I've seen similar thing this year and many culms that are like 1/3 thicker than last year only slightly surpassed the height of last year's growth. For a week or two, all shoots except a couple of largest shoots (that were also slowed down considerably) ceased to grow. Aurea compressed and Spectabilis zigged and zagged. On Spectabilis you can actually measure the internodes and see how temperature dropped at one time and then rose again, only by checking the length of individual internodes.

Top kill of Aurea a couple of years ago caused it to grow smaller shoots but in larger numbers. There were practically no compressed internodes that year, because we've had late but warm start of the spring. Spectabilis, if I make the same comparison as above, showed no genuflecting and grew internodes with all having practically the same length.


Oh- must not forget to mention, only Aurea got top killed, Spectabilis had no issues so far.
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