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Anybody interested in giant bamboo seeds directly from China

Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 3:38 pm
by alfred
Hello,

I and a colleague of mine will be buying some Dendrocalamus latiflorus (hardy to -4°C/24.8°F) seeds directly from China from a renowned nursery specialized in bamboo. They were harvested in February 2016.
Given that the minimum order quantity is a bit too much for the average garden or two (almost 1000 seeds), is anybody interested in buying the excess seeds?

Thank you

Re: Anybody interested in giant bamboo seeds directly from C

Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 7:23 pm
by Tarzanus
Not hardy enough for most of the Europe and US. Are you sure it's going to work? Where will you plant those? If temperature gets to the freezing or even below each winter, then you should reconsider and buy a more hardy temperate bamboo. I guess you could try growing it somewhere in southern Spain or in the Mediterranean parts of Northern Africa. The warmest parts of Greece, Italy and France are not warm enough or hardly. At least I think so, perhaps it's more cold hardy..

Re: Anybody interested in giant bamboo seeds directly from C

Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 8:39 pm
by alfred
Tarzanus wrote:Not hardy enough for most of the Europe and US. Are you sure it's going to work? Where will you plant those? If temperature gets to the freezing or even below each winter, then you should reconsider and buy a more hardy temperate bamboo. I guess you could try growing it somewhere in southern Spain or in the Mediterranean parts of Northern Africa. The warmest parts of Greece, Italy and France are not warm enough or hardly. At least I think so, perhaps it's more cold hardy..
I see, thank you. I saw that said chinese nursery is in hardiness zone 9b (-3.9°C/25°F) and since I'm in zone 9b too, I guessed it should work.

Re: Anybody interested in giant bamboo seeds directly from C

Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 9:28 pm
by Tarzanus
Where in Europe do you live? I'm not sure if I'd be brave enough to try growing tropical clumper anywhere in Europe. Could work, but I kind of doubt it.

PS: you can always try growing a couple of them and if they do well, you can give it a try. I'm sure they offer smaller packs as well.
... and one more thing... be cautious. Chinese sellers will sell you anything labeled as, well, something else. :mrgreen:

Re: Anybody interested in giant bamboo seeds directly from C

Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 10:16 pm
by alfred
Tarzanus wrote:Where in Europe do you live? I'm not sure if I'd be brave enough to try growing tropical clumper anywhere in Europe. Could work, but I kind of doubt it.

PS: you can always try growing a couple of them and if they do well, you can give it a try. I'm sure they offer smaller packs as well.
... and one more thing... be cautious. Chinese sellers will sell you anything labeled as, well, something else. :mrgreen:
They're reliable and wholesale to most of the smaller sellers you see around the net, hence the "large" minimum quantity (for individuals but obviously not for nurseries or resellers), so not like most unpopular sellers from that country :)

Re: Anybody interested in giant bamboo seeds directly from C

Posted: Wed May 25, 2016 1:34 pm
by needmore
You have to ignore their hardiness ratings they are famously incorrect. Heat will be a challenge with that species for you, it will flounder w/o high heat/humidity. One can not grow Dendrocalamus here in California where I live in zone 9, you have to go a few hundred miles south/warmer.

Re: Anybody interested in giant bamboo seeds directly from C

Posted: Wed May 25, 2016 2:57 pm
by alfred
needmore wrote:You have to ignore their hardiness ratings they are famously incorrect. Heat will be a challenge with that species for you, it will flounder w/o high heat/humidity. One can not grow Dendrocalamus here in California where I live in zone 9, you have to go a few hundred miles south/warmer.
That hardiness data comes straight from USDA gov website, so that should be fairly accurate.
Maybe it's the rainfall that's lacking and should be topped with well water?
Did anybody have any success?

Re: Anybody interested in giant bamboo seeds directly from C

Posted: Wed May 25, 2016 4:25 pm
by needmore
alfred wrote:
needmore wrote:You have to ignore their hardiness ratings they are famously incorrect. Heat will be a challenge with that species for you, it will flounder w/o high heat/humidity. One can not grow Dendrocalamus here in California where I live in zone 9, you have to go a few hundred miles south/warmer.
That hardiness data comes straight from USDA gov website, so that should be fairly accurate.
Maybe it's the rainfall that's lacking and should be topped with well water?
Did anybody have any success?
I'm pretty sure that the USDA did not provide a hardiness rating for Dendrocalamus. Anything below freezing or frosty will make that a sad bamboo regardless of any temp reading you may find. If you get to 0C every winter then it would be dodgy.

Re: Anybody interested in giant bamboo seeds directly from C

Posted: Wed May 25, 2016 5:26 pm
by alfred
needmore wrote:
alfred wrote:
needmore wrote:You have to ignore their hardiness ratings they are famously incorrect. Heat will be a challenge with that species for you, it will flounder w/o high heat/humidity. One can not grow Dendrocalamus here in California where I live in zone 9, you have to go a few hundred miles south/warmer.
That hardiness data comes straight from USDA gov website, so that should be fairly accurate.
Maybe it's the rainfall that's lacking and should be topped with well water?
Did anybody have any success?
I'm pretty sure that the USDA did not provide a hardiness rating for Dendrocalamus. Anything below freezing or frosty will make that a sad bamboo regardless of any temp reading you may find. If you get to 0C every winter then it would be dodgy.
Right, they didn't provide a rating for the genus but some regions where it's cultivated in China are classified as 9b and even 8b by USDA, so that allows to indirectly draw conclusions.