I was told by a local farmer, that fuel oil (used and new) were used on fields as a fertilizer for growing corn and wheat. Apparently this was used up until the 60's. He said that bacteria in the soil would eat the fuel oil and convert it into fertilizer. He also said that this was practiced for ma...

Weatherman1968 I have only had success with fresh seed and even then when they did germinate I have lost the seedlings sometimes after 1 or 2 years. I presume you bought these through the mail and if they did not germinate in a week or two they may not have been fresh. Also, unless you bought these ...

Mark I visited Kew Gardens a few years ago and recall they had a Phyllostachys parvifolia that should have started to size up by now if it was going to do well, as I would expected. They do not have a lot of different varieties but it provides a general overview of the type of bamboo that grows well...

Senormatt Unless you have had a soil analysis performed and know exactly what your soil is lacking, if anything, I expect you would probably be mainly interested in adding nitrogen, the first number in the fertilizer analysis. As you noted, there is some flexibility in the application rate, but ther...

…I could barely get my hand around them, and I have large hands! Maybe 4"-5" in diameter! The sheaths were also huge and encompassed most of the culm, many covered my palm entirely… A culm diameter of 4-5 inches is really large, similar to or larger than a 4-inch ID PVC sewer pipe. Althou...

... One of my first evaluative steps (after, say, making sure it could survive -15 F.) would be to send the winter leaves to a lab for nutrient analysis... We have horses and cattle in the same pasture. Both eat all the species of bamboo that they can reach, especially in the winter, but the horses...

I was at a local NPSOT meeting some time ago where a couple of the nurserymen were very enthusiastic about there results using this type of "compost tea" in their greenhouses to suppress pathogens. Mike Shoup of ARE http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/ who does a lot of cuttings said he has...

Lucille I have trouble thinking of a clump of Bambusa Multiplex 'Alphonse Karr' being pruned such that it would be considered as being airy. You would have trouble sticking your arm through the base of most of the ungroomed clumps that I have seen, including my own. A number of years ago I did see a...

There seems to be some minimum temperature that inhibits tropical bamboo shooting and growth but in my experience adequate rain seems to be a more important factor above that minimum temperature. Even watering does not seem to have the same effect as rain. It may be that high humidity or wetting of ...

... Would a mulching have protected the rhizomes? I think a deep mulch would have protected more of the rhizome mass. It seemed to me that it was mainly the outer (younger) ring of rhizomes that survived. More of the rhizomes had put up survival shoots but Linda indicated that one of the garden wor...

Mark, What is the diameter of the Ph. B. ‘Castillon’ culms in your photo? They look numerous but fairly thin. I would have thought they would have perhaps been larger in the UK, but perhaps it’s just the perspective of the leaves nearer the camera. The one I had apparently died this past winter. It ...

Apparently pots can get too hot even in Canada according to this news article: http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/153496

Mike near Brenham TX

Here are some photos of hard to find bamboo in the US from my import trip, some I just got back after 4.5 years of waiting and those were stressed & diseased in the quarantine house.... Brad Would you care to elaborate on the "diseased" part? Were these plants that were diseased when ...

There are lots of interesting and diverse comments with respect to watering during the spring shooting season on this thread. We usually have rains during the winter here so the ground still has some moisture during the spring shooting season. I do not water because I do not believe it is necessary....

itredler, I am not sure that bamboo would be the right plant for your location. It is difficult to guess your situation without a picture or dimensions. What is on the other side of the walls? Are these house walls or garden walls? How tall a plant are you looking for? How far can it spread at the t...