New planted phyllostachys in pots (photo). Future?

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iban
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Location: España

New planted phyllostachys in pots (photo). Future?

Post by iban »

Hi everyone.

My first post. I want to introduce myself first. I´m from the north of Spain and I´m doing my first steps with bamboo in my garden.

First I planted 1x Phyllostachys aurea, 1x P. Bisetti and 1x P. Nigra Henonis (the small one in the image and I hope it become the biggest) in the ground. That was before learning things about running bamboo. The plan is to make a tall screen above the concrete wall.



Then I decided to plant them in big pots (500L, 132 us gallons, water containers actually) to be safer about being invaded.

I share with you what I think to do in the future and would be great if you tell me your opinion and what would you do.

When the pot is full of bounded roots and surrounding rhyzomes I will try to rise the plant with the help of a chain block or hoist. I´m not sure if I bound the canes and lift from there the plant will break.

If that does not work I will divide the plant inside the pot removing part fo the roots and culms little by little and get rid of them. Then when there is enough room I can reposition the main plant and refill the pot with fresh compost and substrate.

If nothing of this work I always can cut the pot, divide and replant in a new pot. Containers ar not very expensive but it is a lot of soil to move...

I´m open for your comments.
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Alan_L
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Location: St. Louis area

Re: New planted phyllostachys in pots (photo). Future?

Post by Alan_L »

That is not a bad plan. It won't be easy, but it's not bad. :)

The rootball will be quite heavy when it's ready to divide so lifting will be difficult. (I wonder if you could topple the pot and slide the plant out horizontally?)
Digging in a small space like that might be very difficult too...

Definitely sounds like something I would have tried a few years back. I like the look of the pots too!
Tarzanus
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Re: New planted phyllostachys in pots (photo). Future?

Post by Tarzanus »

I tried similar a while ago. Bamboo ripped through the plastic, it's just too soft. It needs to be HDPE.
iban
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Re: New planted phyllostachys in pots (photo). Future?

Post by iban »

Did it break the pot before get root bound? I'll try to divide before reaching a deformed pot point. And I hope the pot resist the first rhyzome attacks
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needmore
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Re: New planted phyllostachys in pots (photo). Future?

Post by needmore »

I know you've made an investment already but you could build a long mound (think wooden raised bed without the wood, using the concrete wall as one barrier) or series of mounds (one for each bamboo) on top of the soil and use that concrete wall as one barrier. I often grow my bamboo in mounds and with very few exception you'll see the rhizomes escaping out the side of the mound and can snip those off. A few may dive down into the native soil and pop up in your yard but those would be pretty easy to maintain.

The largest running bamboo I ever grew was placed on top of a concrete slab, and I grew several in California on top of HARD soil this way. I take the bamboo out of the pot and place it on the ground - you could dig down 3-4" to create a spot for them, dump lots of soil over the rootball, then make a mulch ring around this area, and then fill in with more soil until full. Over time you can just add more mulch to the outside/top.

My new place here in Hawai'i is on top of a solid lava flow. I can not dig at all, there is maybe 2-3 inches of fern roots and a bit of rich fern compost on top of a solid lava flow so everything I plant is placed upon the lava and I build a mound around them or for smaller plants am dumping crushed lava to build the mounds.

I'm just getting started but you can see below what I'm doing.
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Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
http://www.needmorebamboo.com
Tarzanus
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Re: New planted phyllostachys in pots (photo). Future?

Post by Tarzanus »

iban wrote:Did it break the pot before get root bound? I'll try to divide before reaching a deformed pot point. And I hope the pot resist the first rhyzome attacks
It was getting root bound, but it happened in less than 2 years. Not yet densely packed root mass, just strategically pointed and fixed ( by two previous rhizomes that circled around) towards the edge. As it couldn't deflect, it started pushing ferociously. Plastic just cracked and when I noticed the escape, there were like 10 rhizomes already going through. They can smell the possible escape point, i swear. :)
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