Mass propagation of bamboo with little to work with.

[stevelau1911]

The problem I have is that there is very limited plant mass to start with for all my species, such as P Atrovaginata, but I'd like to get as many plants out of it as possible and here are some of my options.

1. Run every rhizome tip there is into a pot which will result in a limited number of very good divisions.

2. Select a few rhizomes to cut into 8-12 inch sections with viable buds which will result in more divisions, but they'll take a little longer to fill up their pots.

3. Order a tissue culture kit for 60$ which if successful will result in many small plants that take about 2 years to fill out their pots. All that's needed is a tiny section of a shoot bud from the plant.

4. Take a section with a small culm and viable bud, & lots of roots, put them in a moist soil mix, allow them to shoot, cut down the large shoot and allow the plant to downsize and end up make lots of tiny shoots, then divide those up into their individual pots. It worked with F rufa, but might not work with runners.

I'm really interested in TC, but I'm not even sure that kits off of ebay are dependable and work on bamboo. If TC doesn't work, I'll try #4, and I know #2 works.

[Iowaboo]

I guess it depends on specific purpose of why you are mass producing it.

[stevelau1911]

It's so I can sell them in my area, therefore it would make sense to have a big supply especially when someone wants to have an entire screen. I also know a person in my neighborhood who owns a landscaping company so there's another reason.

Not a lot of people grow bamboo around here, but a lot of people I've talked to don't know it can grow in this climate and wouldn't mind trying it.

If a TC kit is going to work, that would equate to a lot of plants.

[mantis]

Every TC bamboo I have ever seen has been an under performing, slow growing, lackluster, piece of crap. If given the option of buying the real McCoy or a TC plant, I will buy the real thing every time, even if it costs 2x more.

[Iowaboo]

hmm, yeah, on this forum hasn't been the much appreciation for the tc bamboo. I would advise to search tissue culture topics on here. If I recall, it was said tc'ing bamboo isn't easy( )

[Alan_L]

What about:

5) Let your plants mature for a couple years, and then take several good-sized divisions every year

Plus, don't you want to have mature plants to show customers?

I agree with previous replies about TC. Have you Googled "bamboo tissue culture"? It's apparently not easy to do, and there's some question as to the vigor of TC bamboo compared to division-propagated. (Well, according to Mantis, there's no question)

[Jerry Hamilton]

I also want as many plants that I can get. I plant many rootballs in my area and want some different kinds than what is growing here. But I think that I will let my plants upsize before I start dividing them up. Want to make sure they will grow here to start with first, also.

[mantis]

(Well, according to Mantis, there's no question)

I'm not saying that ALL tc bamboos suck; I'm just saying that I, personally, have not been impressed with the ones that I have seen.



/end of legal disclaimer.

[stevelau1911]

Sounds like TC plants don't grow well according to people's experiences with it in this forum so it would be a waste of time and effort especially since I don't want to produce inferior plants.

Even with rhizome divisions next spring, or culm divisions the following spring it's going to take a few years before I'm able to generate a decent crop of plants. Might as well leave them alone next year, fertilize them very well and let their rhizomes sprawl over a huge area, then start taking divisions when I have decent sized groves.

If I'm selling locally, I shouldn't have to worry about the culms getting too big since there's no longer a limit on shipping size. Plus, a 15-20ft tall established division in a 15-30 gallon pot looks more appealing.

[tallgrass]

Steve,

Most bigger commercial nurseries grow from Rhizomes for shippable plants. For local sales of bigger plants they use mostly divisions. I like growing from Rhizome mainly because they are easier to deal with as far as watering, moving etc. and they are easier to grow than most people think. My success rate so far is more than 90 percent. it only takes 1 year to have a healthy saleable plant. I do all my root pruning late winter early spring because timing is very important with Rhizomes. If I have enough I will put several pieces in one pot. Starting from seed is slower and the only advantage that I see is maybe having more plants but smaller and maybe getting lucky and having one mutate into a brand new plant.

[stevelau1911]

I'm actually more of a bamboo collector, but I've gained interest in selling bamboo because a lot of people around here seem to be interested in it except they are hesitant to buy from online commercial growers because their plants cost a lot along with their shipping fees. I have an advantage over commercial growers here especially because the garden centers in my area don't sell bamboo , hope it stays that way. The only problem I have to deal with is it takes a few years for bamboos to be big enough to propagate.

Anyways I think it's important to have a good mix of sizes, perhaps 3, 5, 15, and 30 gallon sized plants. I've also been successful with rhizome propagations since I always make sure I take them in the spring making sure they have lots of roots and viable buds. It's amazing how an 8 inch section of rhizome can make an established plant with rhizomes wrapping around the side of a pot, or exiting drainage holes within a growing season, especially when I put the inside a greenhouse so they can continue growing.
As far as growing them by seed, I find that seedlings tend to multiply quicker than divisions and shoot all season which results in a bushier plant. It's also very rewarding. The only drawback is that they start out at a much smaller culm size and it may take them longer to get to mature sizes.
If I'm going to take larger plant divisions, I think it might be more efficient to run large rhizomes into a pot, or put a pot over a whip shoot and fill it with soil. This way should be better than digging out a culm since the division won't be set back by root damage so it helps the mother plant as well as the division.

Another option is to start a few groves with rhizome sections for the sole purpose of propagation.

[needmore]

Given the age/maturity of your plants I think that ANY of your options will result in both you and customers having runty plants for a few years - not a good product to sell an energy starved bamboo and folks will be disappointed. Look at your own Vivax, you divided a small plant and it got smaller, I bet those divisions are not much to look at either.

You cant rush the process unless you don't care about quality. My rule of thumb is to leave everything alone for the first 4 years then to carefully dig a few off the perimeter. You can cull some rhizome in that time if you are careful but you'll not get tons of plants. I've been growing inventory stock for for 5+ years and am STILL buying most of my inventory from another nursery and growing it out as I can not yet propagate enough to last me a year.

Unless you are willing to sell small, energy compromised plants and have folks be disappointed you should wait another 3-5 years. In cold climates it is best to start with the largest, best rooted stock you can get and with your 1-2 year old parent stock that is a tough nut to try and crack.

[stevelau1911]

I am planning on re-visiting the Bissetii grove that I took rhizome divisions off of in 2008, next spring where I can take as much as I want since the grove occupies a pretty big area. It will be a couple years before my cold hardy boos can propagate without worrying about setting back the plant.

I wished I could find more bamboo groves in this area so I can offer to rhizome prune in exchange for the divisions. I didn't know bamboos could grow here until someone told me about them so I'm assuming that most people think of bamboo as the lucky bamboo. I also never knew there was such a demand for it until I started getting calls just from a simple posting on craigslist.

[spiros]

stevelau1911,
I also used craiglist to try and get some 1 gal. plants - one person I was in contact with told me he only sold large plants. He purchased small plants from bamboogarden, let them grow up and then sold 15+ gallon plants. This guy was in New York (Long Island), so with shipping and some years he was able to sell.

[stevelau1911]

My idea is to get several large 5-15 gallon divisions off my neighbor's Bissetii and some long rhizome divisions too right before shooting season so therefore they can quickly get established once they shoot. The culm height on the divisions might be a problem if they can't bend down so I might have to cut them down partially after the new shoots leaf out. I'm pretty sure he's not too stingy about his boo since his neighbor is already being rewarded with it.

I'm just glad I can get a lot of pots at a decent price at this website
http://www.mortonproducts.com/page.cfm/1480