And on the fourth year, it leaps!

[Matt in TN]

Late 2008 I bought two p.bambusoides (madake) plants, knowing I'm on the edge of where they will grow well but wanting to take a chance anyway:


It completely topkilled that winter, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a little new growth in the spring of 2009:


It completely topkilled again in the winter of 2009-10, and to be honest I gave up on it. In addition to the topkilling every winter I was fighting some rampant moles/voles who were tunneling all around the rhizome system of both plants. This is as good as it got in 2010:


However, in 2011 in started to come back a little on its own. The smaller plant is the one that was more mole ravaged of the two:


I've been blown away this year by the growth! I'm not sure if it's just luck of the mild winter, or if its finally getting enough rhizome mass to do well. For a reference, the smaller plant is in the foreground in this picture and the larger plant (from above) is in the background. The real test will be if we have a normal winter this year, but here's to hoping!

[Jeff: Igor's Apprentice]

I'd be happy with that!
Good luck!

[Matt W]

Nice outcome Matt!

I'm hoping for a normal winter next year as well, several I have will be on their 4th shooting next spring. No more late freezes please!

Matt

[pokenei]

Very nice leap...
I just hope my bamboo peeps...at all.

[Matt in TN]

Just an update - it's filled in very nicely this year! I'm very curious to see how it does this winter...

[stevelau1911]

It looks like bambusoides can put on size regardless of top kill, and it might even have good potential up here in zone 6. It looks like your bambusoides is upsizing at about the same rate as most of all my bamboos, except it is spreading faster. What would you say is the temperature in which it starts to leaf burn? I'm guessing it to be around 5-7F, but it can probably hold buds well below that. One thing that would be interesting is if you tarped all the culms on one plant, and left the other one to fend on its own to see if there is a difference in performace next spring.

With tarping, I'm pretty sure it can probably grow in my climate as well. My guess is that its cold hardiness is comparable to that of vivax, except with culms that are less susceptible to breakage from snow loading.

[Matt in TN]

I'm not sure what the exact temperature was for topkill. I think it was much higher than 5-7°F.

I do know David grows both Vivax and Bambusoides not far from me in a very similar climate, and his Vivax has always done MUCH better than his Bambusoides. I haven't seen him in awhile so I'm not sure how his did over this mild winter we had - hopefully his looks even better than mine!

[Matt in TN]

Looking up the weather data - in January of 2010 (I took the snow pic on Jan 30th) the low was 8.2°F, and the average temp for the month was 32.1°F. We had lows below 20°F for about the first two weeks of the month, with the second two weeks being warmer.

[stevelau1911]

Wow, top kill at 8.2F is pretty cold sensitive, but it has been a few years so it can probably hold green at that temperature now. Almost none of my bamboos with the exception of maybe the ventricosas would take leaf burn at that temperature.


Do you have any plans on how to make it really leap for the fifth year?

[Matt in TN]

Yep - I plan to leave it alone and let it do its thing.

[canadianplant]

Thats a nice surprise I hope they do well this winter.

Looks like the fence kept out the pandas

[stevelau1911]

Yep - I plan to leave it alone and let it do its thing.

According to the January, February, and March climate predictions, you should be getting around average temperatures through this winter so you might get away with it as long as temperatures never plunge towards 0F. Based on these maps, it really doesn't look like my hardier bamboos have much of any threat for this upcoming winter. If a subzero night happens to be in the forecast, it won't take very long for me to tie some culms together, and wrap them with shrink wrap.

It does look like the tropical guys down in southern Texas and Florida might be in for a harsh winter.

[Matt in TN]

That'd be great, but those maps are wrong at least half the time!

[Matt in TN]

Thats a nice surprise I hope they do well this winter.

Looks like the fence kept out the pandas

I learned the hard way the horses LOVE bamboo - especially tender new shoots. I won't make that mistake again!

[ghmerrill]

Very, very nice Matt! How are the other boos doing?