Bananas for bamboo

needmore · **Posted:** Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:33 am

I'm looking to plant lots of bananas this year but already have all the basjoo and zebrina that I want. I have some flexibility of bamboo species to dig in return trade. Would also trade for colocasia/allocasia except for the couple I already have - got anything of interest?

stevelau1911 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 13, 2013 8:03 am

I happen to have 3 ensete maurelii which are not true bananas, but do make nice plants to take indoors since they aren't frost tolerant at all. I also have musa "mekong giant" itinerans which is known as the running banana however I just took pups off for someone last fall so it might take a bit of time for them to grow pups again that are big enough to divide and establish. One thing I have found out is that mekong giant appears to establish itself just as quickly as basjoo so they aren't hard to divide.

The one thing I'm interested in finding out is if we happen to have a different cultivator of shanghai III, and I'm also kind of interested in your super dark leafed prominens since it looks nothing like the ones I have sitting in my greenhouse. If your Anderson moso is also getting hardier, I might think about that too. Also your unidentified variagated phyllostachys may be attractive.

I'm always looking forward to getting species which are mysterious and have potential to turn into something impressive.

needmore · **Posted:** Wed Feb 13, 2013 2:21 pm

The ensete are of interest, I have the giant already to go into the ground this spring at about 2m tall. We have the same S3, I am positive of that. What prominens are you talking about, I don't recall having a dark leaf one? The only one I have is still small in a pot so you are thinking of something else? I'm willing to trade anything that has grown far enough out of the original planting circle that I can dig a piece, the unknown Phy is still to tight this spring at only 10 months in the ground. Don't have any reason to suspect my moso is any hardier but I can dig some for sure, I mixed an Anderson w/non-Anderson so I don't know what I would be digging but is has moved into peony beds and beyond so I must move some, am thinking about a sunnier location to test as well. Hispida is diggable but rare enough to hold for nice trade...

stevelau1911 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:16 pm

Do you have anything dividable on the bambusoides crookstem? I know that species is supposed to be hardier than the regular bambusoides, and might have a chance, but it's hardiness is still really untested in a true zone 6 winter. I'm guessing that it might be hardier than your moso. If it is hardier than dulcis, then it may be pretty rewarding, and the glossy culms will be fairly unique.

I won't be able to send my ensete until I know that night time lows will not dip below freezing because I know that it could leaf burn on the trip so that would have to be on the next heat wave which may not happen in 1-2 months. One thing to not is that ensete typically don't make pups on their own however there are ways to force pups once they get large enough or ways to take the entire corm, cut away the meristem, and make lots of pups.

This is my prominens again which looks nothing like what you had on your old website. I do remember you had a mid-identified prominens which looked kind of unique with its super dark small leaves.

needmore · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:20 am

Ah, yes, my old prominens is bissetii - want a trade? No, the crookstem is too small to divide and this is not the shiny crookstem form you are thinking of.

needmore · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:23 am

Also open to trading for other proven deer unappealing plants, I am able to dig 2 rare and short growing Phyllostachys, hispida, which looks like a sun tolerant running fargesia, and varioauriculata which looks like a mini-phyllostachys, ideal for short screens...real short screens.

stevelau1911 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 1:30 am

I think I'll take the moso if you can grab some sections near the culms that appear the hardiest in your grove.

I would prefer to get them right before you think they are set to start shooting since moso is reputed to be very hard to grow from rhizomes. I'm guessing you must have a pretty massive grove of moso by now based on how far the culms are spaced. I find it to have good potential since you are still able to get 1-2 inch culms even after annual top kill on most years. Another reason why I want to grow moso is because I want to see if it really behaves just like moso bicolor.

My ensete maurelii plants now have 1 inch diameter pseudostems at about 1ft tall, but I know they are still growing, and should explode in growth once they get bigger pots & better light.

needmore · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:58 am

I think you have the wrong impression of my moso patch, there are not many culms, they are not very big and it is pretty boring to look at. I don't know what you mean by the hardiest as they either all top kill or none do such as last year but I can dig some that are very well spaced and moving too far, they are well under an inch as are most culms. This bamboo has gotten smaller each of the last 3 years including last year when it wintered over for the 1st time.

stevelau1911 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 3:30 am

Here's where I got the impression that your moso is very impressive.

I'm not sure if the pictures of it happen to make your moso look very big, but they are looking more impressive than any moso that I have ever grown, or any of my other bamboos as of last year. If your moso over-wintered last winter, and this winter, it may be trying to cover more ground and build up more rhizome mass before it puts on some serious up-size. The droughts might also play a part of it.

If your summers are the limiting factor in the growth of moso, then it may have a better chance of reaching great proportions here.

needmore · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 4:06 am

I think the 1st photo is a few years old maybe, I'd have to check the file but the bottom picture is current and is almost the entire grove - boring to look at really, I prefer the S chinensis in front of it.

foxd · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 1:56 pm

Brad, how is the Moso looking this year?

needmore · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 4:07 pm

Dan, it has less burn than parvifolia thus far...

needmore · **Posted:** Fri Feb 15, 2013 12:25 am

Also looking for Iris...

stevelau1911 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 15, 2013 9:54 am

needmore wrote:

Dan, it has less burn than parvifolia thus far...

One thing that may be making your moso exceptionally hardy in comparison to parvifolia which should clearly be the hardier species is that you probably have a lot of culms in a small area for parvifolia making it much easier for them to use up the soil moisture beneath them as there are too many leaves transpiring water in a small area. I think the ability to intake water is pretty important. Juvenile bamboos don't have enough root mass to intake enough water, but I think it can work the other way around where if there is too much root above ground growth over a limited area, that area right under the bamboo can run out of water and dehydrated the bamboo.

Your moso looks very well spaced so each one of those culms should have really spread out their culm roots and are probably drawing water from several meters away, especially if there is already a good network of rhizomes under there.

Based on my observation of the 2 species, parvifolia has been much hardier than any of my mosos every winter including this one.

needmore · **Posted:** Fri Feb 15, 2013 2:20 pm

In no way would I suggest that as you wrote 'my moso is exceptionally hardy in comparison to parvifolia'...right now it has less leaf burn and all I think that suggests is that parvifolia burns lightly fairly easily. If the temperature drops 3F below the low thus far this year I would expect the parvifolia to look about the same but the moso to be close to 100% burned. Some species tend to burn lightly at 'warmer' temps, I do not think this correlates to actual hardiness. My native A gigantea is usually the 1st to show burn but will be one of the last to go down if severe cold hits.

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Bananas for bamboo

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