The Bamboo Thread

[akaranus]

Hi Mcpollo and wellcome. There is just few growers of tropical clumping bamboos in Europe so nice to find you here. I am from Croatia. You have nice climate if you can grow bambusa lako outside.

[Hillizard]

  On 9/8/2024 at 3:12 AM, Hillizard said:

My potted xThrysocalamus "Liang" has now leafed out fully this summer and has a new shoot erupting near this one.  The high-nitrogen lawn fertilizer I gave it helped, since it's a grass.

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[Hillizard]

The addition of lawn fertilizer (high N content) apparently helped my  xThrysocalamus "Liang"  to grow well and put out a new wonky-looking shoot in the big pot I have it in. I plan to trim the culms to roof height to keep them contained in my small yard. 

[Merlyn]

Here's a few spring updates on my bamboo crop!  Just before Hurricane Milton last fall, I cut down my Bambusa "New Guinea Black" that I had planted about 8 feet from the house.  This turned out to be a bad idea, because the tops are flexible enough to whip around and get underneath and rip up the fascia/soffit area.  Fortunately I figured this out when Hurricane Helene went through, and it only caused minor damage.  Here's before:

Those 15' tall tips whipped around and got caught under the edge of the roof in Helene, so down it goes:

I also removed the second cluster of Bambusa Tuldoides "Swollen Internode" that was in a drier area of the yard.  If you put it in a wet area and fertilize it, it reverts to the full 50' tall monster.  If you put it in a dry area and limit fertilizer, it bellies but the leaves look bad.  So out it goes too...

I'd much rather have Bambusa Vulgaris "Wamin" that bellies much nicer, loves water and fertilizer, and only loses leaves on heavy frosts below 30F.  Speaking of that...my Dendrocalamus Latiflorus on the left and Maroochy on the right got the proverbial axe.  They lost 75% of the leaves in Hurricane Milton and about 50% of the upper culms due to ~80-100mph wind peaks.  With them at 40-50ft tall now I wasn't going to wait for them to get 60-80 feet.  There's Bambusa Cerosissima on the left and a transplanted "Tiger Grass" Thysanolaena Maxima on the bottom right.

[Merlyn]

Here's the cut Latiflorus trunks, it is a semi-open clumper for sure:

Maroochy is much, much tighter:

In the back corner I took some culm divisions and planted them about 5' from the fenceline.  Bambusa Glaucophylla / Heterostachya green type (not variegated) is a ~15-20' bushy type on each side of half of a cluster of Bambusa Textilis "Albostriata."  The Albostriata used to be two clusters on the West side, but I planted them too close to the house (see above house damage risks):

And the other three Albostriata halves ended up along the same fenceline about 20 feet to the West, with a Boniopsis in the background:

[Merlyn]

And these just arrived today...Bambusa Emeiensis (regular green culm), Oldhamii "Shoot Production," Eutuldoides Viridi-Vittata Inversa "Asian Lime," Pervariabilis x Daii #8, and Pachinensis.

I had the Oldhamii Shoot Production strain before, but trashed it because it was outgrowing the spot and I didn't have another place I wanted a 30' 2-4" boo.  So I got to buy it a second time...sigh...  I also had the Pervariabilis x Daii but the #3 type that they think is 35' 2+ inch culms.  This one is supposed to be smaller at maybe 25 foot and 1 inch culms, but who knows.  This evening I finished up the SE corner with Emeiensis Viridiflavus "Yin Yang," Musa "Zebrina," Pervariabilis x Daii #8, and Oldhamii "Shoot Production."  This is just to the left of the above photos, so this whole corner is a big mess of boos!