Search found 3080 matches

by stevelau1911
Sun May 29, 2016 7:51 pm
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Boo-Shoots 2016
Replies: 145
Views: 72955

Re: Boo-Shoots 2016

The moso bicolor is looking to recover a bit this year as its attempting to push two 2/3 inch shoots plus a tiny one. I'll need to make sure this guy never gets flooded again. These 2 shoots should end up in the 7-8 ft range. They are also a couple feet apart so I'll be happy if they can both make i...
by stevelau1911
Sun May 29, 2016 9:08 am
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Boo-Shoots 2016
Replies: 145
Views: 72955

Re: Boo-Shoots 2016

Shooting season is not all that impressive this year especially because a lot of bamboos ended up getting damaged bad enough to fry the leaves but not the leaf buds which results in a lot of old culms holding their energy to releafing, but allocating little energy for new shoots. Dulcis has the bigg...
by stevelau1911
Tue May 24, 2016 11:46 pm
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Phyllostachys parvifolia
Replies: 6
Views: 4519

Re: Phyllostachys parvifolia

If it makes you feel any better, my parvifolia which has been in the ground for 7 years is not shooting, but badly damaged culms are trying to leaf out. I believe when this happens, there's a delay in the shooting season as a survival mechanism since the bamboo wants to have foliage a sap. It should...
by stevelau1911
Mon May 23, 2016 2:50 am
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Newcomer to Bamboo
Replies: 31
Views: 15762

Re: Newcomer to Bamboo

Vivax culms start getting thin walled when they exceed 2/3 of an inch by 8ft, but they seem pretty flexible when they are still under that, especially when you still have culm branching nearly to the bottom node. I think a tarp would be fine. Even with culm breakage, it wouldn't effect the energy of...
by stevelau1911
Sun May 22, 2016 11:51 pm
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Newcomer to Bamboo
Replies: 31
Views: 15762

Re: Newcomer to Bamboo

Now that you have a little bit of size on your boos, it may help to start loading on the chicken manure, or anything comparable so they can make lots of growth through the summer underground. Based on how badly your plants got damaged last winter, it would be a good idea to bend them down to the gro...
by stevelau1911
Sun May 22, 2016 1:49 am
Forum: Bamboo Identification
Topic: Is this Phyllostachys nigra or another black bamboo species?
Replies: 5
Views: 4414

Re: Is this Phyllostachys nigra or another black bamboo spec

Do you have any pictures of the shoots? If they are brownish, it could be atrovaginata, and if shoots are reddish, that would make it parvifolia. That shape and overall structure looks similar to those, but having pictures of new shoots gives a better identification.
by stevelau1911
Tue May 03, 2016 3:40 am
Forum: Other Plants & Landscaping
Topic: Germinating some seeds indoors
Replies: 32
Views: 27437

Re: Germinating some seeds indoors

The a konjac produced a flower again this year pretty much the same exact size as the one from last year, but that has since wilted, and the petiole should be up in another year. I wa hoping for it to charge up more energy and produce an even larger bloom, but I guess it will keep splitting and max ...
by stevelau1911
Fri Apr 29, 2016 4:21 am
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Boo-Shoots 2016
Replies: 145
Views: 72955

Re: Boo-Shoots 2016

Tarzanus, I really doubt that your shoot damage will matter all that much in the big scheme of things. In upstate NY, there are cold winters, but there will also be winters where bamboos don't get much damage. Even on a winter like last winter, the overall energy in the groves is likely trending upw...
by stevelau1911
Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:57 pm
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Boo-Shoots 2016
Replies: 145
Views: 72955

Re: Boo-Shoots 2016

You could probably do what Mshaffer does and bury in a bunch of logs, mulch, or other organic materials into your ground after taking out all the weeds, as well as removing a lot of the smaller culms to reduce too much transpiration. If you look at his picture carefully, you will see a large rotting...
by stevelau1911
Sat Apr 02, 2016 6:18 pm
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: WINTER 2015/2016
Replies: 95
Views: 46531

Re: WINTER 2015/2016

I think those moso culms are just sun burnt. This winter has been a bit out of the usual in terms of winter damage. All the unprotected bamboos have had nearly complete leaf defoliation with some branches being fried however I don't seem to see any culm damage on any of my hardier ones like parvifol...
by stevelau1911
Wed Jan 13, 2016 4:13 am
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Scaffold for tarp/snow/ice load support
Replies: 18
Views: 10931

Re: Scaffold for tarp/snow/ice load support

Cool, I never thought of putting the old culms underneath and burying them in leaves. I have a lot of old culms I could use. I looked back at the Dulles temperature data since 1983 and counted the days of single digit temperatures. I figured out how many single digit days each week of January, Febr...
by stevelau1911
Sun Jan 10, 2016 9:29 pm
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Scaffold for tarp/snow/ice load support
Replies: 18
Views: 10931

Re: Scaffold for tarp/snow/ice load support

When winter protection is no longer feasible, protecting the base of the rhizome/root mass can at least keep the soil underneath from freezing as easily. The only way I can think of fully protecting the foliage of a bamboo at this size or larger is by getting 2 flag poles, attaching a strong tarp to...
by stevelau1911
Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:59 pm
Forum: Bamboo Discussions
Topic: Winter cold damage for winter of 2015/2016
Replies: 1
Views: 2961

Winter cold damage for winter of 2015/2016

We haven't had very cold temperatures until the morning of January 4th when it got down to 10F. This temperature usually isn't cold enough to cause damage on bamboos, but the one difference this time around is that there was hardly any snow on the ground for insulation, and it was also quite windy w...
by stevelau1911
Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:53 pm
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: WINTER 2015/2016
Replies: 95
Views: 46531

Re: WINTER 2015/2016

It looks like 1 full week of cold temperatures, but at least it's not entire winters of being below to being way below average like the past 2 winters. I can live with a bit of cold temperatures when it's not even forecasting single digits. http://content.screencast.com/users/stevelau1911/folders/Ji...
by stevelau1911
Mon Jan 04, 2016 2:35 am
Forum: Growing Bamboo
Topic: Transplanting small division before leafing out?
Replies: 21
Views: 13800

Re: Transplanting small division before leafing out?

I'm finding that fargesia divisions take at least 2 full seasons to fill out a pot from a 1 culm division most likely because it cannot handle stronger sun and warmer temperatures in the summer here which cause the leaves to really curl up, but at least it doesn't kill them. It seems to be the same ...