Bamboo with tasty leaves

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Tarzanus
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Bamboo with tasty leaves

Post by Tarzanus »

I have a few ducks to eliminate the slug population in my garden. Recently, with winter temperatures, I have noticed, they started exploring the world of bamboo. Snow cover bended some Phyllostachys pubescens Moso culms into their pond, and they started munching it. After that, I have noticed they like to walk around Fargesia denudata. They never touched Rufa, Pseudosasa japonica, Shiroshima, Phyllostachys aureosulcata, arcana or aurea. At least not yet...

They seem to like denudata the most, moso is not far away, though. Anyone had any experience regarding that?

It is funny (not to denudata) that F. denudata is also the favourite choice for voles. Moso and Pseudosasa japonica are just slightly less tempting. Pseudosasa on the other hand may be just a bit too large and hard for the ducks, though.
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needmore
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Re: Bamboo with tasty leaves

Post by needmore »

I think I'd go for the tiny denudata leaves first as well, they look tender.
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wind-borne
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Re: Bamboo with tasty leaves

Post by wind-borne »

needmore wrote:I think I'd go for the tiny denudata leaves first as well, they look tender.

maybe in spring
06.10.17 07.37 AM.jpg
or summer
08.13.17 10.26 AM.jpg


but not now
12.25.17 08.20 AM.jpg
"memory is the future of the past"
Tarzanus
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Re: Bamboo with tasty leaves

Post by Tarzanus »

I was thinking the same thing, they are tender, but not nearly as tender as Borinda fungosa (gaolinensis?). Perhaps they just didn't discover those yet. It's completely fried again this winter, so I guess it will soon perish.

I wonder what kind of bamboos pandas eat. :)


If I chop bamboo leaves a bit, ducks eat them right away. Even the harder Phyllostachys bamboos. I might try with almost leathery shiroshima leaves next. Voles don't bother the roots of that one. It is the only one that doesn't draw attention. Should be interesting, but I'll need to wait some time for the weather to cool down again, they now have ample supply of grass with snow gone and the soil thawed completely.
dependable
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Re: Bamboo with tasty leaves

Post by dependable »

The feral/wild turkeys that roam around here took out my F murieliea, don't know if it tasted good to them, or was just there and they started in on it. It was a big mob of birds, and not a big plant..
Tarzanus
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Re: Bamboo with tasty leaves

Post by Tarzanus »

I have my ducks running around and they have all my bamboo available. As long as they don't destroy the shoots, I'm happy, if they start doing that, I'll need to keep them enclosed for a little while. Well, I kind of doubt they can do any damage to a medium size bamboo shots, but they could devastate Fargesias and Borinda. Borinda has delicate shoots, because it comes out with huge culm sheaths strangely folded and is quite tender.

Well, with the ability to roam around all my bamboos and ability to take a nibble all bamboos, I try to create an image about how much they like each bamboo by watching them. They like Moso too, despite it's leaves not being tender at all. They are even somewhat scorched by the summer and have a pale yellow worn-out look. They got a chance to nibble on it when the snow bent it down to the pond surface. Now they jump to reach the leaves. Same happened with Spectabilis and they don't really do much except for the occasional tasting.

Now I'm interested if anyone has done any testing or perhaps I'm the first one monitoring the behavior of these feathery creatures while being around bamboo. :mrgreen:
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Re: Bamboo with tasty leaves

Post by dependable »

We have chickens we let free range for part of the day. They don't seem much interested in the boo leaves, I have seen them taste it, and move on. I never realized how much grass and weeds chickens eat until we got them. They love grass and clover, and most lawn 'weeds' like english plantain & dandelion types. Where they range, I only have to mow the yard to keep some errant Semi-Arundiara at bay, and one or two other weeds they don't eat.
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