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View Full Version : Phyllostachys heteroclada - New planting from Seeds - PA USA


cngodles
6th June 2006, 09:16 AM
I had these seeds sitting on a wet paper towel inside a zip lock bag for about two weeks as per another bamboo growers advice. Well, when I got home from vacation, many of them had sprouted roots and three of them even started their stem. This morning I transfered the 12 seedlings to one of the humidity dome trays and we will see what happens next.

Pictures also coming too, as soon as they get their necks out of the soil.

Update: After I planted these seeds and went to work, I came home and snooped around the 2 large pots of 6 seeds that I planted. 27 days after planting in soil, one finally popped up.



2006

June

06 - First one to rise from being planted in soil.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_02.jpg



07 - Two of my sprouted paper towel seeds that I planted finally broke the surface.



09 - Picture of those two sprouts

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada01.jpg



10 - Picture of two of my three new sprouts in my large black pots. The first picture is an updated picture of the first sprout.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada02.jpg

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada03.jpg

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada04.jpg



14 - I have a ton of Hetroclada coming up from the wet paper towel start. You might not see them all, but there are 11 seedlings here.

O X | X X | X X
O O | X X | X X
O O | X X | O O

If you can userstand that... X is growing, O is not yet broken the soil.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada05.jpg



22 - I have lots and lots of Hetroclada now. 29 total. I know I'm not officailly supposed to plant these until next year, I planted one outside to give it a try. I wonder if it will be able to take the bright sun and winds.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada06.jpg



July



13 - Here is an update. I am slowly moving them into larger pots, as I have to water this one almost daily.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada07.jpg

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada08.jpg

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada09.jpg



19 - I am going to move lots of the seedlings into 4 pots I have. The seedlings that I have that are in pots already are growing alot faster than the tray seedlings.

30 - On my original large pot plants, one of the larger seedlings has broken a third shoot. The cool part is that it's farther away from the original shoot and coming up at an angle.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada10.jpg

August

25 - The largest of the hetroclada shoots now has four healthy shoots. The large thrid shoot that was in the previous picture is not very tall, has huge leaves, and has 2 branches off it is as well. It is very impressive, certainly the freak of all my seedlings. It gets good light in the window sill I guess. I've been using a bottle of maricle grow indoor plant food on them sparsley. I watered most of my plants using the blue/green powder that they also sell. This Saturday I'll give them all another round.

September

14 - Huge shoot (well, 1/8" huge) is shooting up the side of the window sill pot. This makes me think that it's going to now stretch it's legs and start to take over the pot. Its really neat to see it on a miniture level, where there is one grouping of 2 shoots, then a culm traveled over 2-4 inches and put up another. This will turn into a root and this create a new one, etc. You can clearly see the shoot on the left side of this picture.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada11.jpg

Leaf Close Up

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada12.jpg

Various Hetroclada in different containers out on the desk. The yellow pot on the top left is a moso.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada13.jpg

18 - These plants continue to surprise me. I love it when things grow. The pot next to the one I took the picture of above (The single black pot) has a little smaller growth. Only 3 plants came up in that pot. However, I just noticed 2 shoots coming up the side of the pot similar to the new shoot above. One is red, the other green. I'm not sure yet what the difference is, I have been noticing this color difference. Why are some shoots red tipped and others green? This is certainly the same species.

25 - The side of pot shoot on the pot with more growth has now outgrown all previous shoots. It's opened up 3 leaves on the rop, just like a large shoot does. The larger of the two shoots (the purple/red one) on the pot with less growth looks like it has a larger diameter, thus appears it will outdistace this one. I have not kept height measurement, yet...

October

04 - Noticed some ground roots for the first time. I removed some of the soft soil and found this particular root to be quite large, and it has a side shoot headed towards the top as well. Looks like lots of activity underground. I have a glass pot that I am going to plant one of my outside hetrocladas in when I move them inside in a couple of weeks. All the leaves will be off the trees soon.

It seems these seeds start with the littlest root bud. It sends up 2 or 3 shoots, then procedes to finally start rooting later. I've got roots coming out of the bottom of these pots, indicating that the go as deep as 8-9 inches underground. I'm not sure if it's due to fall or what, but the rhyzomes have kicked in and are now rooting around the pot. This is the first I noticed it. I've never directly dug up one of my 5 month or older seedlings.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/library/7_bambooshoot_hetroclada_upload_01.jpg

This image actually shows two roots. You really can't see it, but there is one directly below the tip that is heading to cross this one. It belongs to the group of bamboo that is down and left of the root tip.

19 - 2 large visible roots in the middle with one climbing up the side in the top leftish part of the image. I have two pots like this. The other pot is not showing it's roots like this one, but it put up two 20" shoots as compared to the single one this one put up. One of these gets planted outside this spring, the other is going into a very large pot in an attempt to grow it in the house. Judging by the size of these rhyromes, the next shoots to come up whenever are going to be larger.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/library/12_hetroclada_01_image_01.jpg

24 - Yesterday I first noticed another root breaking ground right below the tip of the above root. This pot now has 4 roots/shoots breaking ground. I can't figure out if they are turning into shoots or what. The 3rd one looked like a root, but it's still going up and it's looking like a shoot. I'm going to have to replant this soon, it's out of control.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/library/14_20061024_boo_06.jpg

November

06 - Pictures of my first plantings.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/library/41_bamboo_0001.jpg

http://www.15656.com/media/images/library/42_bamboo_0002.jpg

December

06 - Over the past few weeks I've been tracking a new shoot that emerged between the two that came up (the green one, red one dilemma earlier). It was noticably larger than any previous shoot, so I expected a winner. And win it did. As of today it is over 27 inches tall, the tallest shoot since planting this back in May of this year. It's going to need a larger pot soon enough I believe. Being 3/32nds in diameter was also a record. It's got 5 branches coming off as well, slowly breaking through their small culm sheafs. The top itself actualy cleared the top of the window, and I'm not sure if it's done growing yet. You can see it in the middle of this picture, as it has yet to open it's branches.

In other news, the outside planting is doing well, resisting the cold like it's not even there. In the background you can see my yellow-groove outside, again not minding the cold much. Can't wait till April/May!

http://www.15656.com/media/images/library/58_tall_shoot.jpg

2007

February

25- Repotted one of the original two.

March

09- These seeds really took off in the past 3 months. Some of the smallest shoots are starting to die off and ore and more larger ones are popping up. I can't say there was more than 2 weeks of time between seeing new shoots. The picture I'm including is a repeat from a previous post. I repotted one of my two originals on February 25th, 2007. This is a picture showing the rhyzomes that you just can't see when hidden in the pot. The new pot contained about 4 times the dirt volume of the previous pot.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/2007/20070225_transplant_03.jpg

April

11- The thickness of new shoots is certainly increasing. Lots of little root nubs on the bottom half. This particular bamboo pictured below has reached a maximum height of 36 inches.

http://www.15656.com/media/images/forum/bambooshoot_hetroclada77.jpg

20- I placed most of my plants outside today. We are going to have warm sunny weather over the weekend, and faily mild weather afterwards. I am planning on planting 4 - 5 of my exisiting pots this Spring. I may place one of my window plants outside as well. They have been on the North side of the house foralmost a year now, yet they are my largest plant. I think they may have 3 weeks of a head start on the others, but it definatly doesn't look 3 weeks worth. I might try it reguardless.


2009

April

27- Death is confirmed. Here are some intersting shots of the root systems. I would say the cause might have been lack of growing room.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3395/3481871600_63e496cfef_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cngodles/3481871600/

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3639/3481072411_bda9c6d3a1_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cngodles/3481072411/

TexasGrower
24th August 2006, 09:50 PM
Water bamboo loves the paper towel. They germinate super quick.

Mark Meckes
18th September 2006, 09:57 AM
... I just noticed 2 shoots coming up the side of the pot similar to the new shoot above. One is red, the other green. I'm not sure yet what the difference is, I have been noticing this color difference. Why are some shoots red tipped and others green? This is certainly the same species.

P. heteroclada species were formerly called P. purpurata species because of the reddish purplish tinged culm sheath of emerging shoots.
As they grow and become exposed to sunlight this coloration can fade and change to green before eventually fading to beige when the sheath detaches and drops off.

Also, shoots, especially small sprouts can vary considerably in appearance or intensity of color. They can look quite unlike their mature counterparts.

Phyllostachys heteroclada ... used to be P. purpurata 'Straightstem'
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/515/thumbs/PhetE9BGA930601-6.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2038)

Phyllostachys heteroclada 'Purpurata' ... use to be P. purpurata (Typical)
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/613/thumbs/PhetPurF6BGA930304-6.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2032)

cngodles
18th September 2006, 10:51 AM
There is no off position on Mark's genius switch. Thanks!

I'll upload pictures of the red and green babies soon.

cngodles
11th April 2007, 03:32 PM
Ah Mark, bring me some wisdom after looking at the bases of my Heteroclada after 11 months in a pot.

Mark Meckes
12th April 2007, 10:26 AM
Well Clint you're the wise one here as I still haven't tried growing bamboo from seed.
All I can say is you must have a neon green thumb because your results are very impressive!

This has got me thinking ...
Do Phyllostachys heteroclada seedlings come 'true' from seed? (http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2453)

Because juvenile bamboo plants exhibit different growth characteristics to mature plants, and immature culm sheaths look different to sheaths on mature culms, it may take some time to determine what species form that you have.
Your pics will be a great help as we pick straws :)

Mark

cngodles
12th April 2007, 01:16 PM
I can grow them, but I was more curious about some of the featured. Such as:

Are the nubs about the bottom transition (proper word?) normal? Do these look like they are going to extend to the soil?

What's up with the shoots of the bottoms as well? Is that normal for bamboo to do?

You can totally see a purple shoot in the foreground.

I do tear off most of the culm sheafs once they dry up. The thing looks terrible with culm sheaves hanging off everywhere.

The one on the right looks to have those nubs on two transitions.

Also, the largest shoot pictured here is what I think is my largest diameter shoot of all my heteroclada seedlings. It's also worth noting that this shoot is starting to show the D shape (flat on one side) most shoots take when starting to get bigger, before having an actual groove.

I'm getting a new camera soon, and it can do super macro shots all the way up to 0cm (aka right against the lens), so I'll have even better pictures.

I currently use a Canon Powershot S1 IS, I'm getting the S3 IS. Also goes from 3.2 MP images to 6 MP. Super large image details coming!

cngodles
27th April 2009, 07:45 PM
Last post on this one, unless anyone has questions. Some pictures of the root systems after death.

stevelau1911
27th April 2009, 09:11 PM
I got a few questions because I will be trying heteroclada seeds soon.

How tolerant to full sun are newly emerged seedlings?

Will seedlings thrive in the cool ground temperature if directly sowed in to the ground?

How well do the seedlings take the cold if put in to the ground if grown now?



I would expect my growing experience to be similar to yours due to the same climate zone, but I'll definitely go with bigger pots, or straight in to the ground to start with after seeing how root bound your plants got in a year. I'm already seeing the growth on my moso seedlings in 2 gallon pots surpass the ones grown in a seed tray.

cngodles
27th April 2009, 09:25 PM
The root boundness is after 2 1/2 years really.

I've planted two in the ground. They usually top kill and then reshoot, however after last Winter they might not be back. I have one at my parents house, and it's got a metal collar around it to cut back on wind, and a little bit of the top survived.

I used to put the seedlings straight outside once they got a few leaves on them.

I've got two moso that I believe are done as well. I'll have to dump those pots and photograph them. I'm guessing maybe pot size, or over/under watering.