Belief about the growth of Bamboo

[nsdbeliever]

I am looking for the source that shares something about a Bamboo plant not doing anything for a long period of time and then shooting up almost over night (?) to many many feet. HELP please.

[ShmuBamboo]

Well, I do not know about a source reference to this. However, it is common knowledge that bamboo will grow in a pattern when they are dug up or divided, in annual order of: sleep... creep.. and then LEAP!

In other words, they tend to go partly dormant the first year and regroup, then they grow rhizomes the next year, spreading underground (if they are leptomorph types, they may spread for many feet outward), then the following year they send up tons of shoots.

There are also types of bamboo that shoot lightly for a few years, then shoot en masse, then shoot lightly again for a few more years. Phy. nigra types tend to do this, as opposed to Phy. aurea types tend to constantly send up a few new shoots all the time.

[sasa fool]

The only 'source' of this that I've come across is an Ebay vendor who claims that Phyllostachys edulis 'Moso' will do this - suddenly grow to 65 feet or some incredible size, after doing nothing preceeding this spurt. I think this vendor generally has these magic plants for sale and you can learn the details on Ebay if they have a current listing.

Caveat emptor!

[nsdbeliever]

The information you have supplied me is helpful. Thank you.

[Mark Meckes]

Great! Here's a chance to dispell a few myths about bamboo or add to the culmfusion. ;)

All bamboos have a grand period or season of shoot growth in which the largest sized and highest number of shoots will emerge.
Many species can also send up shoots outside of their normal shooting period but these are generally much fewer shoots and smaller in size.

The general period of time that shoots emerge can vary from 6 weeks to 3 months.
Usually temperate (cool season bamboos) have a shorter season of shoot emergence (a month to six weeks), as their shooting period seems to be tied to temperature, whereas sub/tropical bamboos can have a longer period of shoot emergence (up to 3+ months) as their shooting period is also tied to the availability/season of rainfall.

The above is generalizing because one needs to consider that there are many different bamboos of different climates, from cold to warm temperate climates, sub to tropical climates, and high mountain bamboos from the tropics and cooler temperate regions etc.
Also, though most bamboos can be considered woody perennials, in which their culms live for a number of years, there are also some herbaceous tropical bamboos which have a different life cycle of culms.

Myths to dispell

Bamboo growth takes 60-90 days
Though, depending on species, bamboo can reach full height in this period of time, the main annual growth is seasonal and bamboo does not continue to produce (an abundance of) new culms throughout the year.
These new culms are not ready for harvest after this period of time and require growing on for 3-7 years (depending on use) before they are harvested. (unless one is harvesting a percentage of emerging shoots to eat)

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant
Though someone has claimed measuring shoot growth at nearly 4ft in 24 hours, this is not usual for most bamboos.
Typically when a shoot first emerges, it's growth is very slow, then gradually each day the distance of elongation increases, rising a few inches a day, and depending on species, increasing to a foot or more a day.
As the shoot reaches skyward and begins to unfurl it's branches, the upward daily growth rate slows down.

Bamboo does not get any larger in diameter after it has reached it's optimum height, nor do the culms get any thicker walled, though culm walls become gradually denser as nutrients are transported throughout the plant.
Depending on species, some bamboos will grow new branches from the nodes regions annually for a period of years, others do not, though bamboos do continue to grow additional leaves from their branches.

Bamboo is a high yield plant
Though this is true and of course depends on species, quantity can be at the expense of quality.
In order to achieve the highest quality, some new shoots need to be selectively thinned out, and older culms need to be removed.
This alone doesn't guarantee that all culms will be of the highest quality as managing a grove with this in mind is much more complex.

Mark

[Mark Meckes]

There are also types of bamboo that shoot lightly for a few years, then shoot en masse, then shoot lightly again for a few more years. Phy. nigra types tend to do this, as opposed to Phy. aurea types tend to constantly send up a few new shoots all the time.

ShmuBamboo, though I do agree that different species have their own peculiar species nuances, I think also that growth habits and cycles of all bamboos are affected in some way by conditions related to climate, weather, rainfall, nutrient availability, crowding out and recycling of new and mature/dead culms and availability of growing space for new culms, and age of and cycle of older rhizomes breaking down and being replaced by new rhizomes systems etc etc.

For example, our Phyllostachys aurea (Austin, Texas) went through a number of years of prolonged drought and hot summer conditions, which also provided me with the opportunity to thin out the number of culms in the grove to a much more reasonable and healthy spacing.
Finally this year (2007) drought conditions ended prior to the spring shoot emergence season (which is about mid March to the end of April here in central Texas) during which we've had an over abundance of rainfall.

The result is that we've had a much higher than average number of shoots come up this year, as shown here:
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/503/thumbs/PaurAuTX070403-6270.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=3941&cat=503&ppuser=1) http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/503/thumbs/PaurAuTX070403-6275.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=3940&cat=503&ppuser=1)

Some of the overcrowded new shoots never grew fully and naturally aborted, and some shoots were harvested for the dinner table, but still, many parts of our grove are now so dense that some previous years culms are prematurely losing their lower branch leaves and dying back due to overcrowding.

http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/503/thumbs/PaurAuTX070725-9830.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=5075&cat=503&ppuser=1) http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/503/thumbs/PaurAuTX070725-9831.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=5074&cat=503&ppuser=1)


I imagine, as often happens when areas of the forest floor becomes totally shaded, that these deeply shaded areas will have fewer, more reasonably spaced culms emerging next year.
I base a cycling or rotation of culms of around 20 percent annually, for an average of 5 years old at harvest (some don't live as long, others will live on for a decade+ if one lets them.
But when growing conditions are ideal, selective thinning becomes even more of a prequisite.

Mark

[ShmuBamboo]

The only 'source' of this that I've come across is an Ebay vendor who claims that Phyllostachys edulis 'Moso' will do this - suddenly grow to 65 feet or some incredible size, after doing nothing preceeding this spurt. I think this vendor generally has these magic plants for sale and you can learn the details on Ebay if they have a current listing.

Caveat emptor!

Indeed. Ebay can be a risky place for buying many things, including bamboo. Ebayum bewareum. Many bamboo sellers there do not know what they are selling, purposely misname their bamboos, or put some spin on what their bamboos will do. I have found few people that really know what they are talking about when it comes to bamboo. And I have been digging...

However, I did not coin the 'sleep, creep and leap' term for bamboo. Nor did I get it off of Ebay. I originally heard that from one of the owners of the Blue Heron bamboo nursery in the very north of Washington State 3 or 4 years ago. He has the largest bamboo plantation that I have ever been to. They have over 200 bamboo varieties, planted in huge rows that allows one to see what a grand stand of any particular type of bamboo will grow into at its fullest (here in the PNW, anyway). He also knows more about bamboo than anyone else I have met, known or read. He is also one of the most respected bamboophiles here in the west and in the ABS.

Anyway, some here seem to disagree with me (or us) about the term used for bamboo habit: sleep, creep and leap. I, however, believe it to be quite true, and it is a great statement pertaining to what I have observed in my 40 some odd years of growing bamboo from San Diego to Portland. To qualify that statement, many types of bamboos that I have observed growing here in the west, particulary in the PNW growing habit, do indeed grow that way.

[Mark Meckes]

... I did not coin the 'sleep, creep and leap' term for bamboo....
I first came upon this term back in the '70's - early 80's during my landscaping years, when the notion of planting perennial plants (plants that come up year after year, as opposed to planting annuals) in the landscape became the hot fad.
Back then a myriad of new and outstanding perennial plants and cultivars (and new nurseries) entered the American nursery/landscape trade and continues on to this day.
My first interest was in growing native and introduced cold-hardy/deer resistant perennials and ornamental grasses for my landscape jobs.
Initially and sometimes the only available method of acquiring new cultivars, at least economically, was as bare root lining out stock, eventually as plugs, which were then potted up into quart or gallon pots for resale.
When planting these perennials in a landscape, it was necessary to assure the homeowner that the empty spaces would soon fill in within several years. (sleep > creep > leap)

It wasn't till the mid 80's that I "discovered" the ultimate perennial - hardy bamboos, that were suited to my NE US garden.
Years later and the "sleep > creep > leap" adage proved itself more than worthy of being applied to bamboo..

The unfortunate culmsequence was diminished space to grow some of my most cherished but less robust flowering perennials and annuals.
I made do by planting vertical gardens on trellises and fences, and planting container gardens (portable potted plantings) which I could move around during the growing the season to catch any extra rays of sunlight.

Mark

[ShmuBamboo]

Yah, I know about limited (and unlimited) space. My last house was on a 6k sq ft lot. I have to remove plants in order to grow others. Some self-destructed, others grew like weeds and had to be erradicated. The bamboo I had there was minimal, but I had a golden screen hedge and some potted ornamentals. No deer... and no moles/voles/gophers. Squirrels though. Here it is the opposite. I have UNLIMITED space with deer, rodents and predators. Well, virtually unlimited. 105 acres is a HUGE amount of space. About 100 acres too many to manage in my experience. Just the one acre around the house (1/2 acre is an old flat log yarding deck) has been a bear to design and plant up.

But the boos are going into the ground here. This fall the rains seem to be hitting the PNW early this year so there will be a lot of bamboo planting. I have found that fall is the best time to dig up and plant bamboo here for the best results the following year. I have a 6'x6' mat of Vivax rhizomes to move (way to close to the house, what was I thinking when I planted that!?!?!?), several 15 gallon sized boos that will be specimin clumps 100-300 ft from the house, and well, your basic teraforming. I sold my big chipper, but I have a line on getting some chipper chips dumped here from the power company and country road crews that chip tons of trees every year. You see, the other secrets to growing boo other than sleep, creep and leap are 1) mulch the crap out of them so that the rhizomes can roam, water is retained, and weeds are kept down 2) Feed them and feed them often. Seemingly bamboo is in a state of constant starvation for more food! "Feed Me Semore!" is a rule of thumb with bamboo. I am still feeding my boos this time of year. A combination of the mulch and feed is also done with the application of barn muck 'doghnuts'. We muck out the barn (scrape up the barn floor) for stompled sheep poop and straw that turn into mat 'carpets' that I throw down around the bamboos and fruit trees and berries. Another tip from the Blue Heron owner, who also showed me how to optimize my bamboo growth by planting, digging up, dividing and potting/replanting in a timely manner.

Call me crazy, but my bamboo terms are:
Sleep, creep and leap (after transplanting boos)
Feed me Semore!
Mulch the crap out of them!

[bamboonewf]

I am so glad to hear about the mulch being good for bamboo as I had 2 dump truck loads delivered a few weeks ago. I am using the bark and chips from a saw mill, it's well aged and smells great! The kids around here love to play in it. It also makes the bamboos look good. I am not feeding, the ground here is pretty fertile, and I just want them to grow on their own for now to see what happens. So far the growth is amazing.

I am wondering though just how much mulch I should apply before winter and do I pull it back in the spring or just leave it?

Thanks,

Glenda

[ShmuBamboo]

In a place as cold as you are in winter, lots of mulch is good. 6 inches to a foot deep if you have enough of it. It will keep your rhizomes from getting too cold and allow them room to grow. With a lot of mulch like that you need some fertilizer in spring to keep the microbes breaking down the mulch from robbing the bamboo of nitrogen. When the mulch breaks down it will slowly return the nitorgen to the bamboo. No need to remove the mulch once it is down. In spring and summer it will help to retain the water in the soil and keep it from evaporating. The bamboo will also shead leaves and add to the layer of mulch as the mulch layer rots down.

Seriously, around here the better bamboo growers add that much mulch to great effects. I was at a bamboo nursery a few weeks ago and the guy there had a mountain of chipper remains mounded up. Maybe 20 ft high and 40 ft wide? He had some large groves of Phy. aureosulcata that are quite spectacular (including Spectabilis) and the mulch was about 8 inches thick. Some rhizomes were runnig and shooting over 20 ft from the mother plants! You also need to feed bamboo for best results. It is a grass... treat it like a lawn. If you are not wanting to feed them, at least consider several applications of half streangth lawn fertilizer in the spring. Or dump on several bags of manure and feed the worms as well. Otherwise you may get stunted and aborted culms and yellow leaves.

[bamboonewf]

Thanks for the advice, I will be adding more mulch to all the bamboo. The stuff is free and unlimited in supply, I just pay the trucking fee.

I wasn't going to fertilize since my ultimate goal is to start some very large groves a few km away and those would not get the same treatment as the bamboo grown here, however it certainly won't hurt to have the bamboo here looking top notch till the other groves establish. So do I just spread the lawn fertilizer over the mulch? When is the best time for that? All lawn fertilizers are on sale here now, is this a good time or should I wait for spring? So many questions!

We are USDA zone 6, but our winters aren't too bad, the bamboo survived last winter (fall plantings) with no mulching, as did my palms. Still, I want to ensure great growth so I am mulching everything!

Thanks so much for your help!

Glenda

[ShmuBamboo]

May as well buy lawn pellet and chrystal fertilizer this time of year for cheap and use them in the spring. That is what I do. Once the temps get cold (freezing at night) the plants will not take up the nutrients, and the bacteria in the mulch will stop growing and using it as well. No point in applying it in the later fall, but if temps are still warm there you can use some now to get the plants in good health. I a feeding an Alphonse Karr that is shooting now and pretty anemic.

Most bamboo growers around here use fertilizer in March. Urea is the most commonly used (very high nitrogen). Any type of lawn food should be fine though. Just spread it out lightly on the mulch in spring and water it in. I am sure others here have their own methods and timing for feeding...

[voodoolord]

Indeed. Ebay can be a risky place for buying many things, including bamboo. Ebayum bewareum. Many bamboo sellers there do not know what they are selling, purposely misname their bamboos, or put some spin on what their bamboos will do. I have found few people that really know what they are talking about when it comes to bamboo. And I have been digging...

Thats for sure! I was over at Gene's place today and he took me over to see his new "Chusquea" that he got off of Ebay. Turns out it is most likely a Fargesia, maybe Borinda but definetly not a chusquea. Still a nice plant but it goes to show why you need to buy your bamboo from someone who realy knows their plants.
voodoo