Boo Shoots for 2014

[needmore]

Several more Phy shooting today, parvifolia, aurita, iridescens, megurochiku, kwangsiensis, Shanghai 3, arcana, Beijing, Glauca 'Yunzhu'.

[stevelau1911]

Is this early shooting due to the top kill where lots of smaller shoots are produced as a survival response?

The soil temperature here is hanging around 38F which was enough to get fargesia rufa started, and some warm days have resulted in leaf bud elongation, but it appears that none of the phyllostachys are anywhere close to shooting here.

[mountainbamboonut]

Two more megurochiku shoots emerging this AM, about double the size of last year's culms (which were really just turned up rhizomes since it was its first year in mother earth.) This year is looking good though.

[mountainbamboonut]

Also, coming out of the ground is this large boulder (well presently a pile of garbage, tires, an old water tank and some books.) I wrapped it with chicken wire today and will put on my first coat of concrete tomorrow. I figured that my two megurochiku plantings and my vivax auero here needed a large rock in between them to zen the space out a bit more. I will post the finished product once it actually looks like a large rock. It will probably take 5 years for my plantings to close in on this space but when they do it will be fun! If for nothing else it will be a good perch for chickens or a good platform for my cats to hunt voles from. Cheers from the Sierra Nevada mountains in CA.

[needmore]

Is this early shooting due to the top kill where lots of smaller shoots are produced as a survival response?

The soil temperature here is hanging around 38F which was enough to get fargesia rufa started, and some warm days have resulted in leaf bud elongation, but it appears that none of the phyllostachys are anywhere close to shooting here.

This is not early shooting here, late on most by 10-14 days and no, these are not tiny survival shoots I have not seen much of that. Most species are downsizing as expected with no shoots as big as previous biggest but most shoots are the size of previous years smallest. Too early to say yet,but a couple seem to be similar size as last year, parvifolia surprised me with some fatter shoots and moso as well. I kind of expect those to stall out though but time will tell.

[stevelau1911]

If that is the case, my guess is that your groves are so developed so that the culms have not top-killed even though they are completely blonde eh. Even if there is quite a bit of top kill, they is probably enough stored energy in the roots and rhizomes to make a pretty good recovery, but even if you get decent diameter shoots, they will probably taper pretty quickly.

Since I'm getting bad leaf burn, but no top kill on a lot of mine, I would assume that it should be possible for them to regenerate shoots about the same size as last year on species like parvifolia and atrovaginata.

I would like to see just how bad your winter damage was.

[foxd]

Shoots seem to be holding back here. Aside from the F.d. "Rufa", S. veitchii and P.v."Chrysophyllus I am not seeing any other shoots. Even the Moso has been quiet.

Dan, given that town is warmer than out here I'm surprised that we are on different shooting schedules, we should have similar sun exposure, groves older than young for each of us as well. I've seen shoots on several Phy - spectabilis, aureocaulis, yellow groove, harbin inversa, praecox, bissetii, moso, hispida, fimbriligula, nuda, nuda localis. Both forms bashania and of course the sasa, indocalamus, ground cover pleioblastus, etc

Brad, you do seem to get more rain than we do.

[JWH]

Nigra, Vivax Aureocaulis, and C. Quadrangularis 'Suow' are putting up shoots.

Edit- found a small-ish rock being pushed out of the ground....by a Nidularia shoot underneath it.

[JWH]

Borinda Angustissima and my older clump of B.Macclureana are starting to shoot.

[stevelau1911]

It looks like fargesia robusta has finally broken the mulch.




I believe they shoot at about the same time as the rufa. I just noticed the rufa shoots a lot earlier due to less soil over the shoots. Normally fargesia rufa shoots by late March, but this year they have started about a month late.

The rufa shoots look almost identical to robusta.

[rickw]

Ph. Bambusoides is putting up shoots Zone 8b. I believe this is the earliest I've seen shoots on this one.

[johnw]

Steve - Are you certain that is robusta? The shoot don't look like those of Campbell or Wulong. Here's Campbell's shoots?

[dependable]

Also, coming out of the ground is this large boulder (well presently a pile of garbage, tires, an old water tank and some books.) I wrapped it with chicken wire today and will put on my first coat of concrete tomorrow. I figured that my two megurochiku plantings and my vivax auero here needed a large rock in between them to zen the space out a bit more. I will post the finished product once it actually looks like a large rock.

Do you make a lot of 'rocks' out of garbage? I guess if you seal it well, it is almost a time capsule, if a junky one. If not sealed, might make a habitat for wanted or un wanted critters. Interesting approach to disposal.

[needmore]

Steve - Are you certain that is robusta? The shoot don't look like those of Campbell or Wulong. Here's Campbell's shoots?

I had the same thought John...

[Tarzanus]

Steve, like posts above mine already said, those might be shoots of some hairless Fargesia, not robusta. Well, I assume you just dug them out of the mulch, which means they might still be bald and will grow some hair soon, now that they got exposed.

Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Spectabilis' is shooting. I hope none of the shoots will abort. No upsize, but there's A LOT of shoots.