Large henon transport attempt

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terrabamboo
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Large henon transport attempt

Post by terrabamboo »

hey all.

I found a great Henon grove that the owner wants gone. I have about 20 acres I wanted to move this grove into at about 20x20' spacing.

I was thinking about renting an excavator ($200/day) and basically digging up large sections and putting on a trailer, topping, wrapping, then transporting, digging same size hole and putting it in the ground again. Any thoughts on this? Any other piece of equipment that might make more sense?

Also, I have read somewhere that the fringe is much more youthful/aggressive than the thick "old" growth center of the grove - kind of similar to a young bull and an old bull out to pasture. what are your theories on this?
Terra Bamboo
300 acre Bamboo Plantation Project
Focusing on Henon, Moso, Robert Young, Rubro, Vivax and Fargesia
ShmuBamboo
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Re: Large henon transport attempt

Post by ShmuBamboo »

I have used a tractor with a bucket to move large stands of bamboo and it works well. Just dig deep enough to get the roots under the rhizomes. Phyllostachys are fairly shallow and usually 2-3 feet deep is enough soil to excavate. As for the center of stands being less aggressive, generally what I have seen is that the center of an old stand is thickly matted up with roots and rhizomes, and it is harder for new rhizomes to grow through it, but they will extend outward and once they do, they will grow at the standard clip. My Henon in the ground can send out 15 foot rhizomes in a year, easy. That clump was cooped up in a 25 gallon tub for 6 years. I have found that one to two year old rhizomes make for better cuttings for propagation when taking/planting rhizome divisions w/o any culms, but any rhizomes with viable eyes can and will produce more rhizome, and that rhizome will send out roots, culms, and more rhizome.

I have also had what I call 'stranded bamboos' that have culms, roots and rhizome, but no viable eyes left in the rhizomes. These will live for as long as the culms live, but when the culms die back, the bamboo dies. If they cannot run new rhizomes, they cannot grow any more. This usually happens here when voles eat out the eyes from a younger/smaller bamboo, and that is one reason why I keep my smaller bamboos here in pots. It can also happen if you take a division with too small a section of rhizome, or an old section of rhizome where all the eyes have grow out. This also happened with a Moso-tourtoise shell that Ned had bought and brought to Bamboo Garden one year. He wanted me to buy into it with him, but I declined. It did not appear to have any viable rhizome eyes, so he tilted the giant Moso culm on its side and buried the lower culm in loose mulch hoping to get new rhizome growth from one of the lower nodes. I do not know if it worked or not. I have seen roots grow from lower culm nodes of Phyllostachys, but not rhizome. From a genus Bambusa bamboo all you need is a node and you can propagate them easily into a new complete bamboo. Generally if you get a lot of rhizome and culms in a clump you will get enough rhizome and eyes to get them to grow. Usually when you break up a dense lattice of rhizome you will break several rhizome connections and wind up with several severed and separate bamboo plants in a clump. If you are going to transplant them into the ground this will not really matter, but the separated bamboos will grow intertwined, but independently. I have yet to see a bamboo naturally graft roots or rhizomes like conifer trees typically will in forest stands.
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dependable
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Re: Large henon transport attempt

Post by dependable »

It is true the younger rhizomes get going better after transplant.

When I am transplanting larger plantings I use a skid steer with forks, a medium tractor would work too. Get forks under a mat of rhizomes on edge of grove, lift up a pallet sized portion and go around it with a sawzall and cut any rhizomes holding you back.

With the excavator, it will be hard to dig & load plants upright and intact. It is a good method of digging out large areas though. When doing it this way, we cut culms off & load the bamboo "contaminated" soil in a dump truck & dump it in my compost area. I then mix it in with berm material, and shoots do come up. Less work, but more random and longer wait for nice plants.

Moving large bamboo at full height down the road can be challenging. Once I moved some full height areosulcata by lying it down in truck with culms out the back loosely lashed to equipment trailer. Normally, I just load like in the picture and tip and or tie culms so they are facing back. You could consider leaving them standing and cutting culms short enough so they are not overhieght. Around here, 14ft is as high as you can go without hitting wires or tree limbs.
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terrabamboo
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Re: Large henon transport attempt

Post by terrabamboo »

awesome pic!

ok, next line of questioning:

once I get it INTO the ground, say this month, what do I need to do? stake it, obviously. who is in favor of mulching? or time release fertilizer? or just organic compost? I am not at the land often so watering it daily would be a challenge.
Terra Bamboo
300 acre Bamboo Plantation Project
Focusing on Henon, Moso, Robert Young, Rubro, Vivax and Fargesia
dependable
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Re: Large henon transport attempt

Post by dependable »

I generally try to scoop an indentation in ground, drop the clump in and backfill with soil compost mix. I usually "mud" it in and be sure to stomp out all air pockets.

Some staking or tying to nearby trees can help, also you can shorten culms, just leave some leaves and branches.

Mulch is good.

A starter fertilizer like Bio Tone might help, but usually do not fertilize heavily until more established.

If you form backfill into a cone around plant it will help with watering.

Even if it is a pain, enough water after transplant is probably the most important part to ensure survival. Daily not necessary, but do not let dry out or you may have wasted all that work.
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Re: Large henon transport attempt

Post by ShmuBamboo »

Depends on where you are located. If you get rain year round, you will not need to do much after planting it. Water is important until they get established. My boos here only need water every few days in pots, new in the ground at most once a week, and once established only during hot dry spells every two weeks or so. The leaves will curl up if they are not getting enough water. I like to plant my boos to ground level with native soil, and then bury them with wood chips and leaf mulch several inches thick. Mulch helps keep the rhizomes warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and keeps the water from evaporating from the ground. The rhizomes also like to run through it just above soil level. I feed my boos a lot when I want to size them up (once a month from March through Sept. with water soluble high nitrogen fert.). Once they are the size that I want them in the ground I cut back on the food. Any kind of fertilizer is good, barn muck, horse/cow/chicken poo, or inorganic fertilizer. I have used them all. They are pigs and will eat anything you feed them.
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