moso seeds, sprouted very well

[19psi]

but after a year, all i have is grass still! very nice green thick grass, but no bamboo!
is this normal?

[CaroleMeckes]

It takes a much longer time to grow bamboo when you are starting from seed.

[stevelau1911]

You are supposed to have sprouting within 1-2 weeks, some up to 4 weeks, and by the 1 year mark, you should have a nice clump of canes 1/4inch in diameter by 3 feet tall, maybe 20-30 canes.

As already stated it is much faster to start with a large plant, at least a 15gallon if you want fast results with moso, or a 5 gallon seedling might work if you don't have any local bamboo nurseries and need to order them online.

[CaroleMeckes]

a lot depends on your growing conditions -
I think 20 -30 canes after the 1st year is a bit exaggerated

Even starting with a plant - you don't usually get that many new canes after 1 year - unless you've done some really special treatments to your plant and to the surrounding soil and that the conditions are perfect for moso growing

[stevelau1911]

My moso with the most canes is working on it's 8th one now considering its only been 3 months so these guys do produce shoots pretty fast. With my climate, I don't think I'm even close to ideal conditions for moso even though everything else might be good.

A 1gallon 1 culm plant planted in June2008 has the ability to to raise it's # up to 25(including culms & shoots) within 14 months and this plant wasn't even that well rooted so this has me believing that moso is produces culms very vigorously.
I think having enough water and humidity constantly with of course a good fertilizer will make conditions right for this.

The only problem I have it likes to invest too much into culm production, and not sizing up enough. The largest shoot that I noticed a couple days ago is only about 3/8inch. I'm hoping next year will bring less culms and more size.:)

[R e x]

19psi, can you post a picture of your plant for us? Are you saying that you have lawn grass growing in place of your bamboo - or that your bamboo looks like grass?

I think 1/4" culms by 1 year might be a little exaggerated because edulis isn't super fast at sizing up. I'll believe the 3' tall culms estimate though because cgnodles reported having culms taller than 3' at the 1 year mark.

[stevelau1911]

I think 1/4" culms by 1 year might be a little exaggerated because edulis isn't super fast at sizing up.

Some of my plants don't think so. I think as long as theres enough soil, water and nutrients with the right conditions, 1/4 should be reached easily in a year.

These are 3 month plants and heres one coming up larger than 1/8inch, so a few more shoots and 1/4 seems very possible.
Heres a picture to show what moso can do
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3549/3776701682_faa6723f9c_b.jpg