atrovaginata splint

Document your results with different mulches, seeds, mutations, TC or other experiments.

Moderators: needmore, David

Post Reply
Alan
Posts: 125
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:18 am
Location info: 0
Location: north seattle, wa

atrovaginata splint

Post by Alan »

This was one of two new shoots that snapped or got knocked over so I put a splint on it to see if it would keep growing. It did! as you can see less than half is still connected. I doubt it will survive the winter. The splint is an old cylinder head cleaning brush.
Attachments
DSC_0002res.jpg
-alan in seattle
zone8
stevelau1911
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm
Location info: 42
Location: upstate NY zone 6B
Contact:

Re: atrovaginata splint

Post by stevelau1911 »

I find that atrovaginata culms tend to break pretty easily. I had a few break that I had to splint over last winter which I have since culled out after the new shoots that were 3X bigger leafed out. I have also had to temporarily splint some of this year's new shoots as they were rising as they became bent down sometimes near the point of snapping. Is this one of the species with the weakest culms? This is the only species I've seen several culm breakages from.

Here's one of them that got hit by an ice storm last winter.
Image
dependable
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:28 am
Location info: 0
Location: Island off Cape Cod Massacusetts
Contact:

Re: atrovaginata splint

Post by dependable »

Some times it is best just to get out the lopping shears.
stevelau1911
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm
Location info: 42
Location: upstate NY zone 6B
Contact:

Re: atrovaginata splint

Post by stevelau1911 »

The only purpose of splinting it up was so it doesn't get further damaged and so the energy being produced from the snapped culm can contribute some photosynthesis during shooting season. It looked tiny after the new shoots leafed out so I lopped it by around July. I found the simplest solution to preventing this from ever happening again is to just tie all the atrovaginata culms together from bottom to top, not allowing them to try bending down due to the weight of the icy foliage.
Alan
Posts: 125
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:18 am
Location info: 0
Location: north seattle, wa

Re: atrovaginata splint

Post by Alan »

i just wanted to see if it could sruvive with less than half of the circumference left. it did. it grew into a nice fully leafed out culm but the splint failed last week and it just bent over. my weakest bamboo in the snow is definitely vivax.
-alan in seattle
zone8
User avatar
needmore
Posts: 5008
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2005 9:14 pm
Location info: 0
Bamboo Society Membership: ABS - America
Location: Kea'au, HI

Re: atrovaginata splint

Post by needmore »

dependable wrote:Some times it is best just to get out the lopping shears.
...and sometimes it can be very helpful to splint...
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
http://www.needmorebamboo.com
User avatar
David
Posts: 1495
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:42 pm
Location info: 30
Location: Middle Tennessee (Murfreesboro) USDA Zone 6b/7a Record low Jan 1966 -14*F Frost free April 21-Oct.21
Contact:

Re: atrovaginata splint

Post by David »

Splinting broken culms is a way of life for me since I seem to very good at breaking singular culm rare plants! But sometimes I just cut it off because I get tired looking at it. Depends on value of plant, time of year, how many total culms there are, and my mood at the time.
David Arnold
Middle Tennessee Bamboo Farm
USDA zone 6b
Post Reply