tips on digging up large henon for transplant?

[sporkandbeans]

AT least, i think it's Henon. It looks to be 60' or more with 4"+ culms. I snuck into the same grove a while back, only to escape with a few feet of rhizomes that haven't done much. Now that I've got permission to dig a few divisions from it, I want to do it right. It's a beautiful grove that will no doubt disappear someday to an apartment complex or a Walgreen's because of it's location.

I'll have another person with me, but the grove is a hundred yards away from where we can park the truck. The grove is ~30 minutes from where they'll be put back in the ground. Temperature should be in the upper 50's (F)

My plan is to find a healthy culm around the perimeter of the grove and dig around it to find the rhizome on each side. Then, I'll cut the culm down to a few feet and dig around it to extract as much of the rhizomes as possible.

I figure we can carry a few of these back to the truck and place them on a tarp. I'll pour jugs of water over the roots and wrap/tie the tarp around it to keep them from drying out on the drive back.

I worry about cutting the culm down, although I've had great luck removing some Psuedosasa japonica. The Phyllostachys aureosulcata I transplanted the same way late last summer, also seem OK because they sent up numerous shoots in just a few weeks.

Is there a better way to do this?

[hotchkiss]

Sporkandbeans

You can still dig rhizomes and get many of them to grow but you will get larger plants and faster growth if you include a culm and at least 4 or 5 sets of branches. Pick 1-2 yr old culms (they will be the cleanest, brightest ones) that are usually on the outside of the grove. Pick a size you can transport or one with low enough branches so you can cut all but a few and make it short enough to transport. If the leaves will be exposed, wrap them in plastic and secure with rope. Needmore Bamboo has a great page on the entire process. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/digging.html . Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[sporkandbeans]

Alright, maybe I exaggerated a bit on the size. The biggest ones were closer to 40' with 3.5" culms. I dug up one of the larger culms with about 3 feet of rhizomes on each side. I had to cut it short to get it back home.

I also got a smaller plant with 2 or more feet of rhizomes on each side that I was able to bring back whole.

It will be neat to see which one does better. I would have liked to get more, but that big one wore me out after digging it outta the ground and carried it a few hundred feet though briars and kudzu vines.

To you old pros: what does this look like? Moso or Henon? Granted, I've taken better pictures in my day..




one of yours truely:


and one of yours truely's best side

[hotchkiss]

Good pictures! I actually think that it may be Phyllostachys vivax. Fairly large leaves, prominent wax rings at the nodes and culms that are slightly zigzag. The green culms are newer ones and the gray ones are older. Are there any broken culms in the grove? The hurricanes and an ice storm two years ago snapped off many of the vivax culms in our area. They should shoot soon and a good shoot picture would help.

[sporkandbeans]

Are there any broken culms in the grove? The hurricanes and an ice storm two years ago snapped off many of the vivax culms in our area.

Yeah, there were plenty of old busted culms laying around. Kinda spooky.

[bamboozal]

sporkandbeans:
Check the thickness of those culms that have been knocked down. Vivax should have thin-walled culms while Henon and Moso should have thicker-walled culms.

[boonatick]

My first thought was vivax,or viridis ,, the stump pic looks like it has fairly thick walls.

[sporkandbeans]

here's a better pic to show the thickness of the culm walls

[sporkandbeans]

so.. are we somewhat convinced this is Vivax?

[hotchkiss]

I think I will stick with vivax. Of course, I once looked at some pictures and thought the bamboo was bambusoides. When we visited the grove it turned out to be Henon. Shoots should be along soon. Here are some other pictures. http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showg ... hp?cat=538 .

[sporkandbeans]

Finally, I have new growth from the mystery bamboo. It's about an inch wide and 4 inches tall.

After searching for pics of vivax shoots, I think we've got a winner!

[Eastlandia]

Im curious...how big were the shoots from the division with just the large culm-stump? or has it began shooting yet?

[sporkandbeans]

this new shoot is from that stump of a culm. It's the biggest shoot I've had this year

The other division hasn't sent anything up yet, but it should soon. It hasn't lost a leaf since i planted it

Both divisions had 3 feet of fat healthy rhizomes on each side when planted.

[David]

S&B,
Looks like vivax. For sure not henon.