Over-wintering bamboo/ other plants

[stevelau1911]

One of the things that most people surprisingly don't know about is how plants actually need AIR to grow into, not soil, fertilizer, water. That's why aerating gardens will result in larger yields because they need the air space for the gas transfers and that's what the actual roots and rhizomes grow into. This is why it is important to make sure the soil is conditioned, and never too damp.

I believe that mixing in a lot of organic materials and aerating the soil before planting a bamboo, then mulching well can be a one time solution in most climates without a need to water in most cases.

Here are just the rest of my tarps. I don't have giant tarps so I cannot do a good job on the parv and atro as those would require either a tipi or a scroll/ flag pole tarp at that size. It looks like we will get colder than normal this winter based on how the conditions have been so far.

propinqua beijing


Parvifolia



Atrovaginata done step by step





Shanghai III top part



fargesia rufa

[needmore]

Steve it looks like you are mostly cutting off the AIR supply to these plants...

[stevelau1911]

That's alright. They are going to be dormant from now until some time in March anyways. It works every time anyways, and most of these tarps do at least reduce the moisture that gets to them which should prevent the root/rhizome system from drowning.

Snow storm has already started so they should all turn into snow sculptures by tomorrow.

[Alan_L]

One of the things that most people surprisingly don't know about is how plants actually need AIR to grow into, not soil, fertilizer, water.

Steve: what's your source for this info?

[stevelau1911]

I realized that plants grow into air through my own research and experience.

One of the common assumptions may be that plants will grow into soil and turn that soil into the plant mass which is understandable especially when you have potted plants which can turn root-bound over time and lose soil mass.

There are some minerals in the soil that are taken in by the plant along with a lot of water, but those minerals only make up a tiny percentage of the entire mass of the plant. Now if you try to grow plants in really tough clay soil which has little or no air, there simply won't be any room for the plant to grow. One good plant to try this out on is a carrot. The carrot will end up growing high into the air instead of downwards if the soil is too compacted. This works the same with bamboo or any other plant. There need to be air gaps within the soil for the plant to grow into as well as for gas exchanges to occur or else the plants will be starved of oxygen, not allowing any nutrients to be taken in. This is why roots in hard clay soil just don't get very deep unless their purpose is for storage.

This may explain it better.
http://www.jasons-indoor-guide-to-organ ... xygen.html

Another place where this is happens is in a hydroponics system. If you take away the air pump and let the water become stagnant, the plants will start dying off because the plants cannot get any air, thus they starve to death. Nutrients and water are also essential to air, and the soil is basically a medium to hold everything in place.

It seems to hold true with every vegetable I've grown because I've tried growing plants with no aeration at all. With side by side comparison, the plants with loosened soil will almost always dominate the non-aerated plants in performance. This is why I mix in mulch and organic matter into a lot of my garden beds before the plants are actually planted. There is simply not enough room for the roots to grow into with un-aerated soil, and the roots are generally the limiting factor for the potential of the top growth.

[Tarzanus]

Another place where this is happens is in a hydroponics system. If you take away the air pump and let the water become stagnant, the plants will start dying off because the plants cannot get any air, thus they starve to death.

If you take away the pump they won't starve. Well, they will, and they will die of oxygen starvation. Roots are delicate and they die without enough dissolved air around them.

And when it comes to air as root fertilizer... In fact, I've read that bamboo does have extremely large CO2 intake through the root system. I'm not familiar with numbers, but it kind of shocked me when I read about it.

[Nicholas]

Steve, I believe you are over-simplifying things a bit.

Every plant also needs oxygen as part of their energy cycle -> http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=2860
Photosynthesis doesn't really happen underground due to the obvious lack of light, hence growth there needs an oxygen supply if the organism can't efficiently transport it there.
Some plants have specialized air-channels to cope with oxygen deficient surroundings (Think air roots on mangroves or phyllostachys heteroclada).

From this though you can't conjecture that roots prefer an air medium to grow in. On the contrary it is recommended to (lightly) compact newly filled soil to remove such air pockets.
The logic to this is that in air the nutrient uptake is difficult/impossible. Hence hydroponics do not circulate air (however I suspect aerosolizing nutrients may actually work if you can maintain a certain level of humidity aswell!) but rather an airated medium holding nutrients.

[I_am_Ian]

Would anyone mind giving me advice on how to protect some of my tropical bamboos? Winter temps here rarely get below 30 but it does happen. I'm mostly concerned for my guaduas which are still very young and this is their first winter here. If temps are predicted to get below 30F what should I do?

[stevelau1911]

I've never dealt with that situation myself, but I've heard of tropical growers using christmas lights and plastic to hold in the heat so the foliage doesn't freeze. I don't think the tarping alone will work on tropicals because their leaf tissue is just not hardy enough.

The logic to this is that in air the nutrient uptake is difficult/impossible. Hence hydroponics do not circulate air (however I suspect aerosolizing nutrients may actually work if you can maintain a certain level of humidity aswell!) but rather an airated medium holding nutrients.

That's a pretty cool idea. Big gaps of air don't seem to make sense, but if you increase the overall volume of the soil about 10% through aeration and organic material, you can get a lot of little gaps so the roots can still grow through them, take in nutrient easily and have a lot of space to fill into.

Last summer after shooting season, I purposely used a steel broad fork to aerate all of my groves, loosening up the soil, then mixing in some manure/compost.

[stevelau1911]

Since the 7 inches of wet snow weighed both the parvifolia and atrovaginata down to the ground, I couldn't resist the opportunity to go ahead and tarp them up which should kill the chances of leaf burn even if it does get well below 0F. Of course they are first tied down with tent stakes to prevent them from tossing the tarp aside once the snow melts off the top. . They become pretty easy to tarp when they shrink down to around 6 1/2 ft.

Now I can dare for the temperatures to get as cold as possible because I doubt a zone 5 winter will affect these groves now.

Atrovaginata


Parvifolia




I'm a bit impressed at how my greenhouse heated up to 55F despite never getting above 22F outside once the sun came out. Here's all the snow gone within a day of sun.

[terrabamboo]

steve, explain to me again the concept of wrapping plastic around dying / brown / spotted leafed bamboo? does it not let as much water get absorbed (assuming that I did overwater, which is logical)?

[stevelau1911]

When I placed the tarp that reduced the amount of moisture and sunlight on my bicolor, the browning of leaves seemed to stop right away, and it also appeared that the damage will happen much more on the foliage that is exposed directly to the sun the most.

I believe that some of the causes for the damage may be too much moisture in the root zone accompanied with temperatures that are too low.

When the sun shines on these leaves, it causes transpiration to occur much faster drawing a lot of water into the roots, rhizomes and leaves. I believe that too much water getting drawn into the plant can damage the plant's tissues. As far as the leaves turning brown and shriveling, I believe that the excess water in the bamboo will make it much easier for the cells inside the leaf cells to be destroyed on each freeze cycle which was still happening in late February when I un-tarped the bamboos too early. Water expands when it is frozen so if the cells are loaded up with too much of it, that can cause problems. I've seen this phenomenon happen on a lot of bamboos, not just the bicolor, and it will always be on the south facing side of the grove.

Here's what it looks like. It is far different from normal cold induced leaf burn since it looks like the leaves are getting flooded and just rotting away as shown in this picture.


Now when I resorted to leaving bamboos tarped for much longer, such as toward April when deep freezes are no longer that common, this kind of damage didn't happen afterwards. I can't guarantee that this is the same thing that is occurring with your plants, but it is possible.

Here's the original thread that links to this.
http://www.bambooweb.info/bb/viewtopic. ... &view=next

[jd.]

In fact, I've read that bamboo does have extremely large CO2 intake through the root system. I'm not familiar with numbers, but it kind of shocked me when I read about it.

Interesting. I wonder what ratio of carbon dioxide bamboos absorb through their roots versus their leaves.

[...] wrapping plastic around dying / brown / spotted leafed bamboo? does it not let as much water get absorbed (assuming that I did overwater, which is logical)?

Blocking excess water seems like a potential benefit of a tarp, though excess moisture becomes less of a problem while most of the precipitation falls as snow. Moisture could again cause trouble for poorly drained areas in the spring.

I reckon the main winter benefits of coverings are protection from cold dry winds and insulation from freeze-thaw temperature swings.

[Tarzanus]

In fact, I've read that bamboo does have extremely large CO2 intake through the root system. I'm not familiar with numbers, but it kind of shocked me when I read about it.

Interesting. I wonder what ratio of carbon dioxide bamboos absorb through their roots versus their leaves.

I think I might have that turned around. After some research today I found numerous articles about soil respiration and Moso seems to be one of bamboos with highest CO2 production.

One of the largest bamboo species with a leptomorphic root system (a type of rhizomatous system with solitary culms scattered evenly) is Phyllostachys pubescens. The standing culm density and average diameter are 7100/ha and 11.3 cm, respectively. The above-ground biomass production is 116.5 t/ha for culms, 15.5 t/ha for branches, 5.9 t/ha for leaves and 137.9 t/ha in total. The total above-ground biomass is one of the largest in the world's bamboo communities. The biomass of rhizomes and fine roots is 16.7 t/ha and 27.9 t/ha, respectively. Annual soil respiration is 52.3 t CO2 /ha, the highest among bamboo species. The gross annual production is high, at 32.8 t C/ha, and allocation of annual gross production to the root system is also high at 11 t C/ha - 34% of gross production, and 46% of the fluxes out of the leaves.

A compartment model for the bamboo, Phyllostachys bambusoides, showing the carbon stock cycle within the ecosystem, has been published. Modelled data shows above-ground carbon stock is 52.3 t/ha, increasing at an annual rate of 3.6 t/ha. Below-ground carbon stock is 20.8 t/ha in the root system and 92.0 t/ha in the soil. Above-ground annual net carbon production is 11.2 t/ha. Below-ground annual net carbon production is roughly estimated at 4.5 t/ha. Gross annual production has been estimated at 41.8 t/ha by adding the amount of outflow to the increment in biomass. Leaves consume 13.7 t C/ha per year by respiration; the rest (41.8 - 13.7 = 28.1 t C/ha per year) is surplus production of leaves and flows into the other compartments. Annual amounts of construction and maintenance respiration of above-ground compartments are 3.4 and 18.5 t/ha, respectively. The annual amount of soil respiration is 11.2 t/ha. Soil respiration levels of 4.3 and 3.1 t C/ha per year are estimated for the flow of root respiration and root detritus. The proportion of net to gross production is 37%.

https://www.google.si/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... GQ&cad=rja and many other links with the same study...

[stevelau1911]

I just got my plants covered or tarped last Wednesday. It took about 4-5 hours, but it was perfect timing because it started snowing the following day, and doesn't look to warm up any time soon. All I used to weigh down tarps was cinder blocks, stones, filled bags, pots, and logs. I still seem to have a limitless amount of covering materials with the trees remaining that I could take down or large rocks I could toss up from the bottom of the stream. I could also use straight up dirt.

Here are some pictures.

Makinoi


Atrovaginata: It is huge, and culms went in all different directions so all i did was add about 300lbs of decomposting leaf mold, and another 100lbs of leaf mulch over, then lots of garden vines to top it up so I could at least protect the root ball. I also staked some culms apart to purposely encourage more snow to fall into the center.



Parvifolia: I might throw another tarp to cover up the rest.



Propinqua Beijing


Dulcis



Decora



Shanghai III


Nigra


Prominens


Fargesia Robusta



Bamboo divisions


Look inside of greenhouse






Pomegranate


Windmill Palm


Tree peony bed


Comfrey in front, etc potted plants in back


Largest musa basjoo banana, layered with decomposing leaf mold, and leaves


New Peach trees


Green Radish


Thousands of garlic