Bamboo at the Auburn University Research Plots, Camden Alabama USA

[Strider_1952]

See Photos: Auburn University Bamboo Research Plots (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showgallery.php?cat=793) - Camden, Alabama USA

The pictures were taken August 2001.

The Phyllostachys bambusoides 'Castillon' looks like it has reverted to the regular Phyllostachys bambusoides, which happened to most other Castillon groves when it flowered around the 1970's-ish.
It would be interesting if any vestiges of Castillon remain.
From what I've read ... purportedly all currently grown Castillon came from a plant (if I remember right) from Germany.

It also looks like the Phyllostachys flexuosa is well on the road to recovery from it's flowering cycle that began in the mid-ish 1990's.


We could not find a trace of the old P. b. ‘Castillon’ and we figured flowering too. It was interesting to see several (and maybe all) of the inside of the groves were dead. I know in the P. nigra and the P. nidularia inside half or more was dead. We thought some one may have sprayed it or that the cold wiped it out. It had to have happen in the late 90s from the growth we saw in 01. I looked on google map and you can see the groves in the hay field. Pretty cool!! This is where we took all of the pictures except the P. v. ‘Robert Young’. The P. v. ‘Robert Young’ is in another spot and is a very large grove. There is also several unidentified large green mixed with the grove and the large greens have a grove of their own across the drive down through the grove(s). Our best guess is that the large greens consist of at least P. vivax, P. viridis and P. rubromarginata.

Also the groves in the hay field (the test site referred to in the text) and not the biggest and one might even say that on the average they are smaller than normal. This is because of their location and no additional water or fertilizer supplied.

On another note: I always think of this place when they talk about how running bamboo will take over. It has been in the hay field for at least 35 years (from what I can remember on what I read about the place) and maybe more. Here it is neatly kept in check with a mower. But the stuff down by the river went wild and is contained by the water mostly. ‘Acres’ is not a bad description for the bamboo grove down by the river. You can go far enough into the grove that every direction looks the same – large bamboos with the occasional tree. Almost scary!!

Michael

[Mark Meckes]

Great pics Michael! I enjoyed the virtual tour!

It was interesting to see several (and maybe all) of the inside of the groves were dead

I'll guess ... though I've not seen these groves first hand, but having seen other decades old, wild, unmanaged groves, that this is a natural die back that can occur. Also if a bamboo grove is being contained by mowing the perimeter, (and also when rhizome barriers are used), and little interior maintenance is employed.
The mowing method does still allow the rhizomes to draw in nutrients from a distance away from the planting, enabling it to attain a decent stature, while a rhizome barrier will cause an eventual reduction in plant size if amendments aren't annually applied.

One thing I've noticed is that older mature standing dead culms can take a much longer period of time to naturally break down in a grove and turn into humus, in comparison to the actual life span of a living culm.
Of course young immature culms that failed to rise up through the canopy of growth and died prematurely will decompose much faster.

As like other perennial plants that tend to spread about by way of rhizomes, or stolons etc, they will often move away from their original planting spot after they have used up the nutritional resources, and return at a later year when the old plant materials has broken down.

So when evaluating the life cycle of bamboo in a completely natural state, (excluding their flowering cycle), one would need to consider the span from the time the shoot first emerged till it returned back to earth in the form of humus to become food for future culm generations.

I've often seen the rise of super culms of large diameter bamboos in the interior of larger groves where the old dead culms have decomposed. They are usually more widely spaced, probably also due to less light reaching the ground in these areas.

As the rate of decomposition varies with species, climate and weather conditions (rainfall and humidity), observing and comparing the dead culms in these wild groves of different species can provide useful indications of the natural durability of the bamboo.

Interestingly, our usually fairly dry climate here in central Texas takes longer for chopped up old bamboo and other organic matter that we layer in parts of our grove to break down, but the unusually wet spring and summer season we've had this year has really accelerated the decomposition of these compost piles.

Mark

[Bamabamboo]

GREAT Pictures!!!!.....Thanks for posting them. Now I know what to expect when we go there in October.

Thanks again for posting the PICs...
Cyrus

[Bamabamboo]

Well, its been a LONG weekend!!!!!!.........I'm Very sore from all the hard work....lol.....CAMDEN PICs HERE:

October 13th, 2007:

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It was funny...while we were at the hay field (Nursery), the guy who leases the land said that he wanted to bulldoze all the bamboo down so he can have more room for hay.........I told him that if he gets permission to bulldoze the bamboo to CALL ME!!!!!!.......What a nightmare that would be.....why someone would want to do that is beyond me......oh well.

We didn't go to the river-bottoms which is where most of the bamboo is.....we were just too tired. I'll take some pictures of the river-bottoms on the next trip.

It took me ALL DAY SUNDAY to get all the bamboo planted.....Most of it went in the ground and I potted some.
The bamboo went through a severe shock on the way home (70-75 mph on the Interstate - 3 hour drive).....we didn't have it wrapped either.
The boo looked PITIFUL when we got home......after I got it all in the ground and watered in, the leaves started to show life.....they looked even better this morning when I watered again. Hopefully next week, after LOTS of water, they should be alright.

All in all, we had a good trip and got LOTS of robert young, gray henon, and some black.
We are going back in Jan/Feb and getting mostly black and a few more species....

Cyrus

[Mark Meckes]

Wow Cyrus! What an excursion, and great pics!
Hopefully the weather is beginning to cool down in your area which will ease transplant shock)
Begads! :eek: that would be a crying shame to bulldoze the boo ... idle threats I hope.

(I'll move the pics into the gallery as soon as I get a chance for easier viewing)

Mark

[Bamabamboo]

sorry I didn't put the PICS in the gallery......I'm at work when I log onto this site and my time is limited......thanks for moving the PICs to the gallery....

Yeah, I hope they are idle threats about the bulldozer....that would be terrible.......and it would force me to rent an eighteen-wheeler.....lol....j/k..

I took several pictures of the forest floor to show all the dead boo.....the leaves on the forest floor is approx. 6" deep......I guess thats to be expected when the boo has been growing since 1950.....

That place has sooo much potential......I just wish they would make something out of that place....like a walking trail or nature trail and open it to the public.

Later,
cyrus

[Bamabamboo]

......mmmmmmmmmmmm...........I'll miss you Mark......very much....:(