Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

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Panda
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Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by Panda »

I like the look of thick bamboo... I guess that is timber bamboo. I found some on eBay here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-JAPANESE-TIMB ... 4ac275e851

But I feel like that might be over charging... Is there somewhere else online I could buy a thick, fast-growing bamboo species like the one in the link? I'd like to get multiple, but $20 seems a bit high...
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needmore
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by needmore »

You'll probably find that the price this vendor is asking is actually cheaper than about any place else that sells bamboo because the bare rhizomes are easy to harvest/ship but are also a less reliable product than a potted living plant such as most nurseries sell. For the most part growing bamboo from bare rhizome sections is only reliable before shooting season in early spring/late winter. Sections harvested then will generally have sufficient energy to produce vigorous new plants. Once the grove has already produced new plants (March - May) the rhizomes will have far less stored energy and are not as relaible in terms of actually producing new vigorous growth. Therefore very few bamboo nurseries will sell bare rhizome sections and instead generally offer only bamboo divisions with new living canes already leafed out and growing healthy plants which are far more work to produce but also more reliable in terms of vigorous new plants.

This particular bamboo will also begin to sustain leaf damage in winter when temps get around +10 degrees F and above ground growth will be totally killed back to the ground probably between +5F and 0F so keep that in mind if you live where the low temps in winter generally get below 10F then this 'timber bamboo' is not a good choice and will certainly not get large there.
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
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Alan_L
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by Alan_L »

Also keep in mind that you won't be seeing thick culms (canes) from a rhizome cutting plant for a while -- probably 5 years or more.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by Panda »

Thanks for the replies! :)

I want thick clums as soon as possible... Would that happen with a small potted plant faster? How long would it take a plant in a 4" pot (probably 8" high or so) to get to a size where the clums are a few inches thick?

And I live in like zone 9b, it never goes below 20F. :)
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by zxylene »

I agree with the growth of bamboo from rhizomes it is very slow I have two Viridis and atrovaginata and they have both been in the ground I believe for three shooting seasons and are both tiny twigs and both are surpassed by every bamboo planted before and after them.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by pokenei »

If you want thick canes as soon as possible, then you would need to spend more money and a get a big plant to start with.

Sure you can start from a $20 plant, but the initial 2 to 3 years will be agonizingly slow growing. Save the pain and start with a big one. $100 can probably save you couple years of wait time.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by needmore »

If your winters are that mild depending upon where you are you may be able to grow forms of tropical species, some of which can be started from branch or cane cuttings and those you might be able to find really cheaply. They tend to size up quickly as well. But a 4" pot is not better than a bare rhizome, in fact it is probably worse since it would have to have a tiny piece of rhizome to fit a 4" pot, this would be like buying the 12" bare rhizome and making it smaller. You really need to start with the largest size rhizome with living canes in a pot that you can afford/find to have large canes in fewer than 5 years. Is there large bamboo growing in your area that you might be able to obtain divisions from?
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
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Cumberland_County_NJ
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by Cumberland_County_NJ »

Panda wrote:Thanks for the replies! :)

I want thick clums as soon as possible... Would that happen with a small potted plant faster? How long would it take a plant in a 4" pot (probably 8" high or so) to get to a size where the clums are a few inches thick?

And I live in like zone 9b, it never goes below 20F. :)
Are you a fugitive from the law? If not, where do you live?

If you buy those rhizomes and get them to grow it will take fifteen years to get the tall thick culms you want. Madake is slow to size up anyway.

If you want big culms fast then grow vivax. If you like the the look of tropical clumpers you should be able to grow something like Kanapaha - Royal Bamboo - or Oldhamii.

God knows what you might get from Ebay. Could be poison ivy.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by ShmuBamboo »

zxylene wrote:I agree with the growth of bamboo from rhizomes it is very slow I have two Viridis and atrovaginata and they have both been in the ground I believe for three shooting seasons and are both tiny twigs and both are surpassed by every bamboo planted before and after them.
That is odd, as I have both Atro and Robert Young (viridis RY) here that I started from rhizomes that I traded on this forum, and they are both sizing up here like mad right now after 4 years. Atro has escaped into the ground from a pot, and is really taking off; 1 inch culms up to 12 feet high. RY is all shooting big this year, 1 inch 10 foot culms in 5 gallon pots. A few RYs started shooting last year that size, and this year they are all chiming in. My runts here are all Moso... 3 different sources, none are sizing up. Talking to several boophiles at Ned's memorial last weekend, the issue seems to be micro climates. Some people there could not get Henon or Vivax to size up, and Moso goes mad. Here its the opposite.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by ShmuBamboo »

Cumberland_County_NJ wrote: If you buy those rhizomes and get them to grow it will take fifteen years to get the tall thick culms you want.
15 years? I doubt that it would take half that long. I live in zone 7b and I have gotten atrovaginata, vivax, vivax aureo., viridis Robert Young, Henon, nigra, nigra Daiko., nigra Bory, iridescens and Castillon all to shoot large 1"+ adult culms in about 5 years from rhizome cuttings. In zone 9b they should be able to size up bamboos rather fast. I got some oldhamii culms and cut the nodes out and potted them up, and they outgrew my 8' greenhouse in less than 3 years. Of course I heavily feed my bamboos and I have a small greenhouse to give them protection here in winter when they are smaller, but in 9b that would not be needed.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by Cumberland_County_NJ »

ShmuBamboo wrote:
Cumberland_County_NJ wrote: If you buy those rhizomes and get them to grow it will take fifteen years to get the tall thick culms you want.
15 years? I doubt that it would take half that long. I live in zone 7b and I have gotten atrovaginata, vivax, vivax aureo., viridis Robert Young, Henon, nigra, nigra Daiko., nigra Bory, iridescens and Castillon all to shoot large 1"+ adult culms in about 5 years from rhizome cuttings.
I don't think of one inch culms of vivax as "adult". That would be three inches and I believe that's what the OP is looking for. It's another five years getting from one inch to three. So that's ten years.

For me one inch diameter culms are twigs and unless you're five feet away from the bamboo it looks like a clump of weeds.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by ShmuBamboo »

Cumberland_County_NJ wrote:
ShmuBamboo wrote:
Cumberland_County_NJ wrote: If you buy those rhizomes and get them to grow it will take fifteen years to get the tall thick culms you want.
15 years? I doubt that it would take half that long. I live in zone 7b and I have gotten atrovaginata, vivax, vivax aureo., viridis Robert Young, Henon, nigra, nigra Daiko., nigra Bory, iridescens and Castillon all to shoot large 1"+ adult culms in about 5 years from rhizome cuttings.
I don't think of one inch culms of vivax as "adult". That would be three inches and I believe that's what the OP is looking for. It's another five years getting from one inch to three. So that's ten years.

For me one inch diameter culms are twigs and unless you're five feet away from the bamboo it looks like a clump of weeds.
Well, I would argue otherwise. My one inch plus diameter vivax are 12-15 feet tall and they are not some small clumps of weeds that you would trip over. Unless you are 12 feet tall? Or blind? I would also say they are adult culms (based on their culm shoot characteristics at that size). In California they would be 2+ inches in diameter by now.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by dependable »

I would think the OP's location or grow zone is necessary to answer his/her question.

My first vivax grove started as a single culm in 3 gallon pot 13 or so years ago. Culm was around 1 in in diameter and cut off at 8 ft. It grew a few 1 in culms for a few years, then has been up sizing ever since. This years culms well over 2 in and closing on 50 ft.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by Cumberland_County_NJ »

ShmuBamboo wrote:
Well, I would argue otherwise. My one inch plus diameter vivax are 12-15 feet tall and they are not some small clumps of weeds that you would trip over. Unless you are 12 feet tall? Or blind? I would also say they are adult culms (based on their culm shoot characteristics at that size) .
PICTURES?

A picture is worth a thousand words.
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Re: Where to Buy Timber Bamboo?

Post by stevelau1911 »

Panda wrote:Thanks for the replies! :)

I want thick clums as soon as possible... Would that happen with a small potted plant faster? How long would it take a plant in a 4" pot (probably 8" high or so) to get to a size where the clums are a few inches thick?

And I live in like zone 9b, it never goes below 20F. :)
It would probably make sense to drive around and find the biggest tropical clumping bamboo you can find, take some branch cuttings, and try to get them to root, or see if you can get an entire culm division if you are willing to dig which may require a reciprocating saw. If you can get the division to take, then it should be pretty quick to get results with tropicals.

My first vivax grove started as a single culm in 3 gallon pot 13 or so years ago. Culm was around 1 in in diameter and cut off at 8 ft. It grew a few 1 in culms for a few years, then has been up sizing ever since. This years culms well over 2 in and closing on 50 ft.
I'm interested in seeing a picture of that from a distance. 50ft is pretty tall for a bamboo in the northeast as I've never seen anything in the ball park of that height around here. The tallest I've probably seen is maybe 37ft on what I thought to be regular green vivax.
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