My Borinda seedlings

[cannamaniac]

Back in the spring I started these seeds . I'm happy with their progress.


P5280180 by smifter2012, on Flickr

P6230217 by smifter2012, on Flickr

Frogs like them

P6230219 by smifter2012, on Flickr

P9150250 by smifter2012, on Flickr

P9150252 by smifter2012, on Flickr

P9150257 by smifter2012, on Flickr

I heard they weren't very hardy so when the time comes into the greenhouse they'll go.

[Tarzanus]

At their current size, they won't tolerate any freezing temperatures. Perhaps if you cover them completely, to prevent light reaching it while still frozen, it may have a chance for a minimal freeze. Just a warning, been there a few years ago. Lost the nicest and most vigorous seedling that way.

I have it planted outside now, and it tolerates temperatures down to -8°C for shorter periods of time, as long as the sun shows mercy and hides while it's frozen solid. Even when it completely defoliates, it tends to restart in the spring. It does have a nasty habit of shooting in late summer or fall. Considering that it's extremely lazy when it comes to shoot maturing (Phyllostachys will branch out in 2 months or so, Borinda [at least for me] takes whole summer to set the branches on spring shoots in early fall), you can expect it to loose a lot of young shoots. If shoots are small, you can see them restart in the spring, if they get too tall for your mulch and snow cover protection, they will be lost. New shoots that fail to branch out before the early fall will usually get fried on top all the way down to the first dormant bud. Culms will be alive, but with branches fried, it will look crappy, not happy.

You have milder climate in England, I'm sure you will have less issues growing it than me... And mine got huge (with some effort).

[cannamaniac]

Thanks for the advice Tarzanus. I have read your blog and your experience with these Borindas. If we have another mild winter then they should be ok in my cold greenhouse. If it looks like it will get really cold, I may have to bring them into the house.
By the way how has your Borinda done this year?

[needmore]

They look great, which Borinda is that? Did you direct seed those pots?

[Tarzanus]

Thanks for the advice Tarzanus. I have read your blog and your experience with these Borindas. If we have another mild winter then they should be ok in my cold greenhouse. If it looks like it will get really cold, I may have to bring them into the house.
By the way how has your Borinda done this year?

I'll take a couple of photos and write an update. Short story, about same size or just a bit thicker, many shoots, but they came late, perhaps too late. Like 3 branched out so far, others are still growing. Below, new and new shoots are emerging, every last of them will become completely fried during winter, except if we get 1m of snow early on, that will stay as long as winter lasts, which is - not gonna happen. Perhaps climate change and el nino/la nina deviations will make the winter extremely wet and warm, which would most likely save it. Usually we are somewhere between Continental and Mediterranean climate. We'll see I guess. Photos will come as soon as rain stops - we received first autumn rain that will last for days. Only need a minute to snap a photo though.

[cannamaniac]

They were sold as fargesia albocerea,papyrifera and yunnan. From the French graines de bambou website.I checked up on these and apparently they are a type of borinda ( Chris Stapleton discusses this internet seed on the bamboo indentification website).I sowed these into small pots in a propagator back in Feb I think. I posted about them under 'germinating seeds'.The chusquea and phyllostachys sulphur era seeds never germinated by the way.

[Tarzanus]

No text tonight, I'm lazy. Stopped raining for a minute and I snapped a couple of photos, blury and not the best, but delivered extremely fast.

[cannamaniac]

Thanks for the update Tarzanus.How tall is your plant now,are those this years unbranched shoots at the top? And the colour on the culm sheath is very attractive.

[Tarzanus]

Thanks for the update Tarzanus.How tall is your plant now,are those this years unbranched shoots at the top? And the colour on the culm sheath is very attractive.

I'm not sure how tall it is, it's still growing upwards. Yes those are new shoots, but you could see a couple of old culms that were fried last winter. They can hardly be seen because of shitty pic quality though. The tall ones with leaves are still going upwards, and will become taller than last year. I'll try to measure it's height.

[cannamaniac]

Those young shoots seem strangely blunt.But interesting.
The older culms also are a nice shade of green with a light and a dark ring at the nodes.
Is it possible to see some pictures of the mature culms and also the way the branches are arranged?
What's it like there at the moment?Any freezes yet?
Here it is cooling down a bit as Autumn progresses.A strong cool wind off of the sea today and yesterday and about 12c.
By the way,who else is experimenting with these seeds? Anybody out there?

No text tonight, I'm lazy. Stopped raining for a minute and I snapped a couple of photos, blury and not the best, but delivered extremely fast.

[cannamaniac]

By the way,does anyone know the final size at maturity of these borindas and their culm width?

[Tarzanus]

http://cold-hardy.com/borinda-fungosa-update-2016/

Here's a couple more photos and a short 2016 report.

Regarding diameter, I've read it's somewhere around 2 inches. Mine are around soda bottle cap for the second year. A bit more perhaps, I didn't measure them yet.
They are blunt. Actually they are hollow in the beginning, and when they hit an obstacle, they look like the shoot is going to get cut into two or more pieces.. Top of the young shoot is just a bunch of XXL culm sheaths, actual bamboo culm is growing nicely a few inches below.
Sun exposed culms/branches turn dark brown and when they mature, they turn into yellowish brown, like peanut, perhaps a bit darker. They still have the dark brown nodal rings.
I have yet to see (large) culms get to the mature stage, only saw small diameter culms and branches. I have to say the lower parts of the culms is in pitch dark under dense canopy.

I'll snap some more photos of branches and leaves. I think I have posted them already, you can check the blog for borinda fungosa, there are tons of pictures there.
We've had 3 light freezes already. No effects on bamboos yet, no yellowing or leaf drop on Borinda. We will have more rain now again and warmer wet weather, which means, explosive Borinda growth. Temps will be from 5°C in the morning, up to 15°C during the day.

I'm not the only one growing it. It seems there are many people in France that also grow it, and I know that at least one have similar sized Borinda. I call mine fungosa, because I bought a fungosa. He bought gaolinensis, some have bought black culm,... All all practically the same. We will have one name in the end someday,..

PS: I thought I'll find mature colours on any of my existing photos. It looks I didn't publish them on blog or here. I've lost quite some photos from earlier dates that were published - and gone.
Check these two posts for branches, color and shoot images: http://cold-hardy.com/borinda-fungosa/ http://cold-hardy.com/borinda-fungosa-2015-upsize/

[Tarzanus]

I measured the tallest shoot, it's 5 meters tall at the moment.

[Tarzanus]

Just an update... after 2 weeks of temperatures around 0°C, sunny weather with no wind and night temperatures from -5°C down to -8°C a couple of times, the autumn shoots seem to be killed. Some have broken tops, some seem to be completely dried out, all of 2016 shoots have been defoliated (their tops at least..).
Overall, bamboo looks quite good actually. Despite the full sun, leaves don't curl and seem to be in good condition, without white or brown spots on them, that would indicate cold damage. There is some damage (roughly estimated to 5 to 10%) on branches that grow out of the congested clump of healthy foliage. Those, young branches are completely defoliated. There are not many, because the bamboo growth has highly weeping habit and all the branches soon manage to get bunched up together.

So far, it's doing great. The only problem are new shoots from this fall and some of the youngest branches (quite possibly the same shoots...).