I was able to germinate well over 500 seedlings last July (2012) and now have just over 500 potted up in Anderson 5.25 x 3.5 Band pots (potted out of the germinating flats in June). They range in size and vigor but in general have 4-10 culms 8-12 inches tall. Twenty were doing so well I decided to go straight to one gallon and these are now rooting out of the bottoms and the culms are reaching 18 inches! They have blown my expectations into outer space and now I need to start getting them out into the world. They seem to tolerate bare-rooting well and given they are only 10-12 inches with 4-10 culms, they can ship inexpensively.

I'm interested in any exchanges that can be easily shipped or local trades for nearly anything - try me. Anyone intrested in large quantities are very attractive .

Cheers!
Brian

Funny, I was just thinking earlier this week that I should consider getting a large supply of nitida or denudata but shipping does not seem easy!

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Brad Salmon, zone 9 Esparto, CA
www.needmorebamboo.com

I thought that many nitida seedlings would be very easy to transport since you can stuff lots of them tightly without culm breakage. The ones I have problems with shipping is the culms that are too large and not flexible enough to bend into a bamboo box. When you get into the 3/4 inch culm size, you just can't ship them without making at least 1 break, so that it can be splinted back together, even in the 5 foot long bamboo boxes.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

I have 100 bare-root right now and they fit nicely into an 18×11×9.25 box. Not sure on the shipping charge but they don't weigh much once the soil is removed.

Cheers!

Can you post a picture of those potted nitida seedlings? Don't have or want to sign up for a google account and you must sign in.

Rather low humidity for shipping bareroot now isn't it?

Brad - I thought you had no luck with nitida?

johnw

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

I can trade 5 gal. potted Japonica or Pleo. Gauntlettii bamboos. I also have some variegated 1 gal. grasses, and several potted blueberries, Alaskan cedar, and Japanese maples in 5 gallon pots to trade. I am just east of Portland and I can take a few dozen of them.

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Happy trails...

I've tried to upload pictures all day with no luck - I'll email you some. Not sure about the effects of humidity on the plants and I've not heard anyone talking about humidity of the environment outside of the packaging as an issue as long as the root system is kept moist and they don't over heat or freeze (proper packing seems to be key). I'm not sure what the concern over low ambiant humidity would be unless the plants desicate - do you have some experience with this issue?.

I am planning on packing plants in bundles with damp peat and sealing them up in Glad Press ‘n Seal - shipping a test batch to some friends in northern Washington this week and will update the post with info on how it went.

Thanks for the input!

Looks like the email link in this site doesn't have the ability to add attachements . Maybe you could email me your address and I can send them via my email account?

It is in the 90's here so not very good for shipping Fargesia, I've had trouble with plants ordered from bamboo Garden in weather like this so closer to home is better for your plants.

John, I'm having better results and am curious if they are any type of screening option here so I thought I'd plant out a ton of them and see. They don't grow like they do elsewhere but we really seem to have no clumping screening options if these don't work. I'd prefer to try out a bunch of F robusta 'Campbell' but too pricey to try a bunch. When the weather cools and these nitida are still around I'd like to try them.

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Brad Salmon, zone 9 Esparto, CA
www.needmorebamboo.com

Brad / R'n'S - That's what I meant about low humidity, this is the worst time of year here to deal with bareroot Fargesias. Potted no problem.

That's a good idea trying a bunch of nitidas in various positions too. From what we've seen here the seedlings of nitida are remarkably uniform aside from culm colour. Of course here we were not testing them for adaptibility. What I'd like to see is earlier shooting than the usual August which is our dry period, on our old generation plant if it shot in a dry summer some culms would abort or matured well under 10ft.but somehow it always managed to grow. Of course my soil is mineral and it grew better inland where soil is soil and better. In mineral it was easier to dig for friends and find dormant buds though.

re: Campbell I think seed would be a better option if and when. I watch this one closely in the south here and it is right on the edge. This year down there it stayed colder than usual, no ground frost as a bit of snow was down, the low was around 7F (a low spot so could have been 5F) and a few top leaves were crispy.

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

Thanks for the input stevelau1911. Getting lots of new shoots now that are going to size these plants up substantialy. I realized that tubes would be perfect for these shipments. I just shipped an order to CT and manufactured an 18" triangular prism box, worked perfect, didn't need to bend the culms at all. This was great because there are some 2-4 inch new shoots that I didn't have to risk breaking. I'm assuming I'll be able to bend them easily into smaller boxes next spring.

Cheers!

Sent you an email Shmu, not sure if you got it. Just get in touch with me and we'll work something out. I'm interested in the blueberries and other fruits and maybe some ornamentials, yum!

Thanks!

Had a sale off ebay get shipped to CT last week. Took 4 days (USPS 2-day) which worried me but the plants arived in good shape.

Cheers!

See Brian's pix of his nitidas at the top of the page. They look great.

Brian can you tell us what your mix is? That's great growth given their age!

johnw

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

So good looking seedlings! I'm tempted, too bad I live in zone 10a-Socal. Hot as an oven here in summer....