Overwintering Bamboo in Containers

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dependable
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Re: Overwintering Bamboo in Containers

Post by dependable »

Best chance of a comeback might be to leave them alone and see what comes up in the next few months.
Tarzanus
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Re: Overwintering Bamboo in Containers

Post by Tarzanus »

You can plant something else as well. Perhaps something with shallow roots, that will shade the bare soil in the container a bit. If roots and rhizomes are dead, they will become perfect soil next year. I have one dead bamboo, that looks like peat moss at the moment, but it's turning into best possible humus as we speak. :)
Kippy
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Re: Overwintering Bamboo in Containers

Post by Kippy »

Thanks for the reply. It may have been ill advised, but due to my impatience, I went ahead and planted some hibiscus bushes in the planters. I tried my best not to disturb the bamboo roots too much, but they were so strong I had to get a bit rough with at times. I dug down a bit into seat each root ball, but since there was a lot of empty room at the top of the planters, I basically planted the hibiscus on top of the bamboo roots/rhizomes. I am guessing that the bamboo might not like being covered in six additional inches of soil, but I figure, at least it has a chance of survival. It might be hard for shoots to come up through the hibiscus root balls, but there is space between each plant. In some cases, I moved the rhizomes, so they would not be covered by the root balls.

The thing that leaves me with some regret is the fact that there were buds on many of the rhizomes, but none of them were elongated. The buds were certainly very fragile, as I did knock several off in the course of my digging around. I am left wondering if I had just been more patient, would these buds would have sprouted into culms this season? At what point do rhizome buds form? At the beginning of the growing season, or at the end of the former growing season? If the planters weren't in such prime real estate, then I could have afforded more patience, but I couldn't stand the thought of staring at empty planters for another month, and potentially all season.

Bamboo is known for being a resilient plant, so my hope is that even with the additional challenges in place, it will survive. Fingers crossed.
Tarzanus
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Re: Overwintering Bamboo in Containers

Post by Tarzanus »

Buds can be fragile, were they white-ish inside or a bit more yellow. If the buds were still viable, I think you could easily see the difference. If they were still at non-elongated bud state, they shouldn't be fragile at all and you would have to be quite rough to damage them.
Kippy
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Re: Overwintering Bamboo in Containers

Post by Kippy »

I would say that most of the buds that I came across were closer to white. They came off the rhizome with just the slightest brush. They seemed abnormally hollow, but since I don't really know what a healthy bud looks like, I don't know if that is normal or symptomatic of a problem. I squished one that didn't seem so hollow and a milky white liquid came out.
Leo S
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Re: Overwintering Bamboo in Containers

Post by Leo S »

So it is August now, did you get any shoots? Inquiring minds want to know. Based on your post I moved some P. atrovaginata into 20 gallon slop buckets from my local "Farm & Fleet". I was going to bury them, but ran out of energy to dig holes that big. If you get shoots, I might leave them above ground. If you did not, I will have to rustle up the energy and bury the pots before autumn. While it is unlikely we will have the extreme cold 2 years in a row, it is not impossible. I like atrovaginata a lot, and don't want to loose it entirely. I do have smaller pots of it as "spares" but it would be nice to not have to keep "spares".

Thanks
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