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Bamboo shoots coming up!

WebSlave

WebSlave

It is what it is, but certainly not what it was.
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This bamboo is a yellow form of Phyllostachys vivax. The shoots now are roughly 3.5 to 4 inches in diameter. A larger grove that I have of the green variety is putting out larger culms, but it is quite a bit older than this yellow form.

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Unfortunately it looks like the squirrels are getting into the grove of green vivax and chewing up the new shoots, so it looks like I'm going to have to put out the hunting blind and pop some caps into some squirrel asses. :madeuce:

Just when I was starting to soften up on shooting them, they've got to go and pull this crap.
 
I'm in north Florida.

Bamboo has proven to be extremely easy to grow in this area, but honestly the Phyllostachys varieties tend to do well even further north. Not sure how well they would do further south with warmer temps, but I would suspect they would do OK. My favorite is Phyllostachys vivax. Easy to establish, and it gets HUGE. I have some shoots that are about 6 inches in diameter and the culms are around 50 ft. tall.

They do need a fairly regular watering cycle, as they are a pretty thirsty plant.

You propagate them by digging out part of the rhizome with a single culm (stalk) which you normally take in February when it is dormant. Keep the root system WET during the transfer, put it in the ground, and give it plenty of water for the first several months to get it established. After a few years, just stay out of the way...

I have another thread here with a video I took last year walking through my several bamboo groves located here -> http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=388155
 
I took a walk down to the green P. vivax grove today and took some photos.

First one is an example of the damage that squirrels can do when they get a taste for fresh bamboo shoots.
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These next two are showing holes in the culms likely made by some sort of cavity nesting bird. However, I have never seen anything go in or come out of those holes, nor seen any sort of nesting material sticking out of them. So this is just a guess on my part.
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This next one is a pic of me trying to give some sort of perspective as to how big some of these new culms are by putting my foot up against one.
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And the next ones are just some shots I took of sections of the bamboo grove itself.
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As a side note - if you find yourself wanting to thin it out a little, bamboo is a popular "prey item" for crazy sword people...though I suspect shipping would be a hassle.

(crazy sword people, crazy reptile people...nobody understands us. As far as I know, it's mainly the people into Japanese style swords that cut bamboo - can't say that it's popular with the Euro/medieval crowd)
 
Yeah, shipping would be a hassle with anything over 4 ft or so in length, I believe. Shipping live plants would be even more so. I would have to dig up part of the rhizome during the dormant season IF I could find a culm small enough on that rhizome to be shipped. This would be quite a challenge with the larger stuff. Not to mention that I am not all that keen on the amount of physical labor that would be required for selling the stuff.

Maybe one day I'll sell small sections for animal hideboxes and such, but not really any strong desire to get into another business venture quite yet.
 
You should be able to find online sources for the various types of bamboo. I got most of mine that way, except for some that I personally picked up from a seller in Savannah, GA, and then some from Kanapaha Gardens in Gainesville, FL.

I don't remember exactly where I got the Phyllostachys vivax from, but I believe it was a grower in Oregon or Washington state.

Just bear in mind that you do need some reasonable average rainfall amounts in order for bamboo to take hold and thrive. And it WILL take up a large plot of land if it REALLY gets established. BTW, the green form of P. vivax I took photos of above was originally put into the ground a good 15 years or more ago. The yellow form maybe 10 years ago. So you do have to be patient for them to get some impressive size to the culms coming up.
 
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