Total newbie In the UK Phyllostachys Pubescebs ( Moso) for seeds

[james]

Ok i brought 50 Moso bamboo seed and they arrived today the only info i have is for Germination after that i have no info. these are the instructions i have.

General sowing and cultivation method:
We would like to show you here a new sowing method, which is very easy to handle, and has shown great success in the germination results. This method can be used for all seeds.
There is no pretreatment of the seeds necessary. The seeds should be sown in cat litter. Please be very sure that you are using cat litter on mineral basis (plain clay) which is non clumping, non scented, and do NOT use the silica gel type, the clay-like or clay clumping type. The advantage, cat litter is absolutely germ-free.
Fill a plastic pot with cat litter and put the seeds on top. Then cover the seeds with a very thin layer of cat litter. Put the plastic pot inside a zipper lock closure type, pressure catch bag, which should be a bit larger than the plastic pot you are using. Fill with as much water (with fertilizer - use the recommended strength dilution of e.g. 10-10-10
water soluble house plant fertilizer) on the bottom of the bag as the cat litter can absorb, and then fill some more water (about 0.25 inch, or 6 mm) on the bottom of the pressure catch bag, which should remain enclosing the pot. Then seal the pressure catch bag closed.
Now you only have to take care about the temperature, around 86 F for bamboo seeds and between 68 F - 86 F for all other seeds and put the plastic bag in a place with enough bright daylight, but no direct sun.


It does not say how bigger gap to leave in-between each seed do i place them on there side or do i push them a little into the litter a little.

When/If they do start to grow how big should i leave them to get before i move them to soil.
How can i protect them against bugs. And how long should it be before they start to get going.

Thanks in advance.

[stevelau1911]

its better to get like a 3 gallon plant cause seeds take like 3 years to get to like 3-4 ft high shoots. The seedlings might not survive in the winter in london if u starting from seed

[james]

london? im in the country in norfolk lol.

[stevelau1911]

its better to get a bigger plant so you get quicker results, and better survival rate of the plant.

[ceepsprice]

Hey James I have just got my seeds and am wondering what to do with them being a total newbie too!
How are yours getting along?

[R e x]

"james london? im in the country in norfolk lol." - Lol.

Hi ceepsprice & James. I was a newbie a few months ago too! Now I have 3 shooting Moso plants that I grew from seed. Here are some answers to your questions.

The amount of room you should give each seed depends on where you're planting them. If you're going to germinate them in a container, the distance isn't critical because you will be transplanting them. I would say that an area enclosed by a circle with a diameter of 1.5 IN. (about 4 centimeters I think) is sufficient for 1 seed, but I put my seeds only 1/2 IN. away from each other and they did fine.

You want to put them on their sides. Don't put them vertically into the soil (or whatever you're deciding to use). The roots and 1st shoot will come out near the non-pointy side of the seed.

To get an idea about when to transplan them, you can check my journal here:
http://http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3280

It will be safe to transplant them after they have grown to be about 4 weeks old.

It took my seeds exactly 14 days to emerge, so you can expect the seeds to germinate anywhere within 1-3 weeks.

[Donal]

Ok i brought 50 Moso bamboo seed and they arrived today the only info i have is for Germination after that i have no info. these are the instructions i have.



It does not say how bigger gap to leave in-between each seed do i place them on there side or do i push them a little into the litter a little.

When/If they do start to grow how big should i leave them to get before i move them to soil.
How can i protect them against bugs. And how long should it be before they start to get going.

Thanks in advance.

Hi James.
Like you I bought Moso seeds (3 packets on ebay) and searched for what little advice was available. As there was very little and conflicting opinions I tried 3 or 4 different ways.
I found that each way was just as sucessful as the other. All were about 30% successful in propogating and then exactly the same once repotted.
I tried soaking in warm water for a day prior to sowing, putting on top of normal seed compost and covering lightly, same again but covering in vermiculite and just sowing like normal seeds.
I started in April and it took 3 weeks for the first signs, some seeds took 7-8 weeks to propogate.
All were in standard seed trays in a simple electric propagator. I kept them slightly damp with a bottle spray (simple pump type) and 90% of the seedlings survived to be potted up in August when about 3" tall. I kept them in 4" pots in normal potting compost in the propogator over the winter.
The following spring each plant had 1 or 2 new shoots which grew quickly to about 1 foot tall in 2 months, some had more shoots (up to 5) only 5% were failures and all the same from each sowing type.
Since then I just repot when necessary in an unheated greenhouse and now (4 years later) they are in 12" to 16" pots and are 4' to 6' tall with between 10 and 18 shoots in eack pot. I have transplanted two pots in an outdoor trial to see if they are viable (I live in N. Ireland) and so far they are doing nicely.
This year the growth was amazing, the shoots are up to to 3/4" in diameter and grew at a rate of 1" -2" per day for 5-6 weeks.
Don't forget that a bamboo shoot only grows for 1 season and then stops. Each year the new shoots are larger and more numerous and I hope mine will reach 2"-4" diameter and up to 20' tall outdoors. My only concern is just how wide they will spread. I have other bamboo types in my garden and one has nearly taken over quite a large area when it got established but I control it by breaking off dozens of new shoots in the spring and I actually cook them. Another variety died (4 clumps all at the same time) after flowering. I will keep the forum up to date as my trial progresses.