Chusquea in heat

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Cooper12
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by Cooper12 »

ShmuBamboo wrote:
Cooper12 wrote: My Fargesia Green Panda are burning this year in the sun. the ones in morning sun afternoon shade look great.
Interesting. I am at about 1200 ft. ele. and my Rufas (Gold Stem and Green Panda) do just fine in full sun here. The ones in the shade are not doing as well. We had a full sunny and hot California summer up here this year as well with near zero rainfall. My Far. scabrida and Far. robusta are also doing great in full afternoon sun. My new generation Far. natidas did not do well in any sun, so I moved them to full shade. Same with the Far. jiuzhaigous (type II).

My Chusqueas did the best with morning sun here. I never have to water my aureas that are in the ground here at all. Often times stressed boos in CA are just lacking either nitrogen or iron.
im in the Sierra's Red Dirt capital of the world with lots of Iron. probably to much Nitrogen as well since there next to my Chicken breeder runs. its probably a lot drier humidity wise as well.
I have one on each side of Yushania anceps and that one holds the best color green of any bamboo I have so dark with a slight blue tint. it curls in the sun some but never burns , I planted Vivax in there too soooooooo I don't think it will be in the sun in a few years. My Vivax was just planted my Fargesia and Yushania where planted 2 1/2 years ago. I will probably divide my Fargesia up a bunch once it cools and rains ( big if there ) and keep some there and move the rest under some huge pines on my hill. Here Green Panda is very nice in the shade. I want to try my Anceps up the hill in the shade as well as Chusquea c. Cana Prieta regular culeou maybe andina as well.
I doubt it would grow here but i want Himalayacalamus f. Damarapa as well. Maybe i could tie it up in plastic on colder nights or something . hmmmm
oh want some Thamnocalamus as well.
Jason Floyd
Hangtown Farms

Emmett Idaho
Zone 7A
Potato country
ShmuBamboo
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by ShmuBamboo »

We have the same red dirt in a lot of the Cascade and Coast Range slopes here. I do not have any here on my property though. Humidity is actually rather low here and the Fargesias prefer that. The Cascades are very dry pretty much year round. We get more rain here (I get 80 inches a year on average), but not more humidity. I have averaged 15% humidity this summer in the days. It rises to about 40% at night. In the winter it can get even lower to 10% humidity between storms. It rarely gets over 60% humidity here.

The soil can have a ton of iron in it, but if it is alkaline it will be bound by the soul and not be available to plants. You have to use chelated iron to get iron into plants in alkaline soils. If it is acidic soil, the iron will be available to the plants growing in it. Most soils in California were alkaline, from my experience. Plant a hydrangea as a soil tester, and if it blooms purple, the soil is alkaline. If they bloom blue, the soil is acidic. Same plant and flowers, the blooms act like litmus paper.

I would think that it is the greater solar intensity at your lower latitude (I am above the 45th parallel here), and the fact that you are at higher elevation could be the difference. Do not worry about rain there this year, that guy Al Nino is rearing its head in the Pacific again. True story: when I was living in the SF Bay area during the 1997 El Nino, there as a guy in the east bay named Al Nino and people were calling him and complaining about the flooding, and saying that it was his fault! ;)

I had a candy striped bamboo that survived here and that should do OK in Hangtown. I sold mine to a lady that just "had to have it." I had it in a large pot and moved it next to the house in winter and it did just fine. They are nice clumpers. Thamnocalamus should grow great there. I have Thamnocalamus tessellatus growing here. Impervious to the cold that I get, I have mine under some shore pines.
Happy trails...
Cooper12
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by Cooper12 »

ShmuBamboo wrote:We have the same red dirt in a lot of the Cascade and Coast Range slopes here. I do not have any here on my property though. Humidity is actually rather low here and the Fargesias prefer that. The Cascades are very dry pretty much year round. We get more rain here (I get 80 inches a year on average), but not more humidity. I have averaged 15% humidity this summer in the days. It rises to about 40% at night. In the winter it can get even lower to 10% humidity between storms. It rarely gets over 60% humidity here.

The soil can have a ton of iron in it, but if it is alkaline it will be bound by the soul and not be available to plants. You have to use chelated iron to get iron into plants in alkaline soils. If it is acidic soil, the iron will be available to the plants growing in it. Most soils in California were alkaline, from my experience. Plant a hydrangea as a soil tester, and if it blooms purple, the soil is alkaline. If they bloom blue, the soil is acidic. Same plant and flowers, the blooms act like litmus paper.

I would think that it is the greater solar intensity at your lower latitude (I am above the 45th parallel here), and the fact that you are at higher elevation could be the difference. Do not worry about rain there this year, that guy Al Nino is rearing its head in the Pacific again. True story: when I was living in the SF Bay area during the 1997 El Nino, there as a guy in the east bay named Al Nino and people were calling him and complaining about the flooding, and saying that it was his fault! ;)

I had a candy striped bamboo that survived here and that should do OK in Hangtown. I sold mine to a lady that just "had to have it." I had it in a large pot and moved it next to the house in winter and it did just fine. They are nice clumpers. Thamnocalamus should grow great there. I have Thamnocalamus tessellatus growing here. Impervious to the cold that I get, I have mine under some shore pines.

Im really wanting to try that Candy Stripe. Darn Bamboos keep tempting me.
My soils are acidic for sure. Before I started my burn piles a few years back there was about 3 inches of pine needles on the ground and calocedrus thatch ( incense cedar mess) Azalea , Hydrangea , Camellia , Pieris , rhodies and Acer's love it here. So does most of the Bamboo . We are in the Pine belt at 3400 ft. Down the hill west of Placerville where there are less pines and more oaks the soils get less acidic
Jason Floyd
Hangtown Farms

Emmett Idaho
Zone 7A
Potato country
Cooper12
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by Cooper12 »

ShmuBamboo wrote:We have the same red dirt in a lot of the Cascade and Coast Range slopes here. I do not have any here on my property though. Humidity is actually rather low here and the Fargesias prefer that. The Cascades are very dry pretty much year round. We get more rain here (I get 80 inches a year on average), but not more humidity. I have averaged 15% humidity this summer in the days. It rises to about 40% at night. In the winter it can get even lower to 10% humidity between storms. It rarely gets over 60% humidity here.

The soil can have a ton of iron in it, but if it is alkaline it will be bound by the soul and not be available to plants. You have to use chelated iron to get iron into plants in alkaline soils. If it is acidic soil, the iron will be available to the plants growing in it. Most soils in California were alkaline, from my experience. Plant a hydrangea as a soil tester, and if it blooms purple, the soil is alkaline. If they bloom blue, the soil is acidic. Same plant and flowers, the blooms act like litmus paper.

I would think that it is the greater solar intensity at your lower latitude (I am above the 45th parallel here), and the fact that you are at higher elevation could be the difference. Do not worry about rain there this year, that guy Al Nino is rearing its head in the Pacific again. True story: when I was living in the SF Bay area during the 1997 El Nino, there as a guy in the east bay named Al Nino and people were calling him and complaining about the flooding, and saying that it was his fault! ;)

I had a candy striped bamboo that survived here and that should do OK in Hangtown. I sold mine to a lady that just "had to have it." I had it in a large pot and moved it next to the house in winter and it did just fine. They are nice clumpers. Thamnocalamus should grow great there. I have Thamnocalamus tessellatus growing here. Impervious to the cold that I get, I have mine under some shore pines.
on another note I'm ordering Borinda White Cloud today... really hoping it does well here.
its been raining off and on all night as well so Al Nino is starting to do his job :wink:
Jason Floyd
Hangtown Farms

Emmett Idaho
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Potato country
ShmuBamboo
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by ShmuBamboo »

If you can grow Borindas outside there, you can grow any of this stuff we have talked about on this thread. Beware the random wild low winter temps there though. Every 20 years or so you can get down to 10-15 degrees F. there in Hangtown a few days in December or January. And there are random years when you guys get a good snow dump, like we do up here. Not that snow affects bamboos, except Phy. vivax. The thin culms tend to break with any snow loading here. I am down to one good size vivax here for that reason (I sold the rest off); the culms tend to break off in wind and snow. My surviving vivax was originally a vivax Aureocaulis that I got from BG that completely reverted to green type form in a cold snap at 12 deg. F., grew green for a few years, and now is morphing into the chimera Huang. inversa. Maybe if it morphs into Huang. non-inversa, it will have gone through the entire vivax chimera cycle?
Happy trails...
Cooper12
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by Cooper12 »

ShmuBamboo wrote:If you can grow Borindas outside there, you can grow any of this stuff we have talked about on this thread. Beware the random wild low winter temps there though. Every 20 years or so you can get down to 10-15 degrees F. there in Hangtown a few days in December or January. And there are random years when you guys get a good snow dump, like we do up here. Not that snow affects bamboos, except Phy. vivax. The thin culms tend to break with any snow loading here. I am down to one good size vivax here for that reason (I sold the rest off); the culms tend to break off in wind and snow. My surviving vivax was originally a vivax Aureocaulis that I got from BG that completely reverted to green type form in a cold snap at 12 deg. F., grew green for a few years, and now is morphing into the chimera Huang. inversa. Maybe if it morphs into Huang. non-inversa, it will have gone through the entire vivax chimera cycle?
We are even colder than Placerville here though i am in a Placerville Zip Code Placerville sits at 1850-2000 ft elevation. Im at 3400. my Borinda ( Yushania boliana ) have taken 6 degrees with snow cover in December of 09 in a pot now in the ground, That and Yushania anceps have taken 12 degrees once and 14 on a few occasions with no snow. so hopefully the Borinda fungosa also Borinda fungosa white cloud and Borinda angustissima can take whatever temps we get
Jason Floyd
Hangtown Farms

Emmett Idaho
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Potato country
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wind-borne
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by wind-borne »

A little off topic(as it’s not dry) but as hot a Chusquea as you will probably find here being butt up against a long block wall that faces due West with full sun all afternoon all year round. Took the original pic(9/2015) when this thread started ~6 months after plant was installed. Had a sun break yesterday when I was at the shopping center so I took a couple pics, will be interesting to follow its progress against such a stark backdrop. :wink:
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by needmore »

Well it is sizing up and filling in isn't it? How hot would you estimate its been exposed to?
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
http://www.needmorebamboo.com
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by wind-borne »

needmore wrote:Well it is sizing up and filling in isn't it? How hot would you estimate its been exposed to?
I did refrain from commenting earlier in thread because of how cool we were as I do see other clumps/groves of gigantea around town in full sun. :happy3:

We did have 2 days in the 90's last year… :alien:
I wonder about the microclimate created by radiant heat off the wall in plant shown.
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Re: Chusquea in heat

Post by needmore »

I'll be having some in full shade with multiple days > 100F and weeks of 90's! Time will tell...
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