ID this please

[bigone5500]

I have some shoots coming up and want to know if they are moso or henon. These are shooting right at the clump of moso I planted 2 or 3 years ago.

[JWH]

Looks like an immature moso shoot to me.

[stevelau1911]

Due to the hair and dark spots on the sheaths, that is definitely moso. Another way to confirm is the shooting time since henon should shoot much later than mid March. It should also be normal for the shoots to come a few feet away from the main clump for a 3-4 year old moso seedling.

How big are the leaves now? I'm guessing that if shoots are starting to break the 2cm mark, the leaves should be well less than the typical 6-9 inch leaves with 1st year seedlings.

[bigone5500]

Yes, the leaves are only about 4" long and about 1/2" wide. I can only hope we don't have a dry Summer...worse yet a drought!

[bigone5500]

LOL! Just realized this should have been posted in the bamboo id forum...

[Alan_L]

I actually was going to say Henon. They look just like the shoots on my nigra. Aren't moso shoots hairier? (I don't grow it)

[stevelau1911]

It is definitely making good progress towards maturity if the leaves are already getting smaller. Smaller leaves should mean better drought resistance as they transpire less water, and if shoots are already coming from the rhizomes, not the main mass, that should also increase their ability to go longer without water.

Are any of them breaking the 1 inch mark yet?

Here's my moso bicolor which doesn't look like it has a chance of getting to the 1 inch mark this year when shooting season starts in about 2 months.
http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2 ... -moso.html

[bigone5500]

Got a couple shots of my Moso which has started to branch out. The tallest one is about 9' high. I have a couple other culms which are larger but will wait to get photos of those when they get taller.

You can see in these two photos the shoots which are located in the center.

[stevelau1911]

It looks like one of the mosos has grown right up next to the henon this year with the new shoots. Do you plan on putting down a trench to keep them separated or just let it become a mixed grove? Those shoots look like they have about 1-2ft of growth left in them.

After a while, it may be possible to co-exist since these species have about the same height potential, but if henon is on the south side, then it may take over.


Hopefully the a gigantea is well away from these guys since that species is not supposed to get much more than 20ft at maturity which is less than 1/3 the potential of the giants.

[bigone5500]

It looks like one of the mosos has grown right up next to the henon this year with the new shoots. Do you plan on putting down a trench to keep them separated or just let it become a mixed grove? Those shoots look like they have about 1-2ft of growth left in them.

After a while, it may be possible to co-exist since these species have about the same height potential, but if henon is on the south side, then it may take over.


Hopefully the a gigantea is well away from these guys since that species is not supposed to get much more than 20ft at maturity which is less than 1/3 the potential of the giants.

It is already becoming a mixed grove. I figure in a few years I will take some divisions of the Moso and start another somewhere else.

[stevelau1911]

Another way to keep them apart is to simply harvest shoots that grow onto the other side. They shoot a few weeks apart so it should be be pretty easy to keep them away from each other even when they are both up to mature sizes.

[bigone5500]

They are planted very close to each other. I regret planting them so close to each other. I guess I only did that because I didn't have a good place to plant them otherwise. I also didn't want my wife to get mad as the bamboo would be running everywhere and possibly one day shooting up through our mobile home....wait! That would be cool!