hi guys. i'm new on this forum so i didn't go thro all posts jet. i have just recently got some bamboo seeds of fargesia nitida. today i sown them. i have also wrote a blog about it. a'll paste it here. please just tell me if any one of you have experience with sowing this plant, and if i did it right.

tnx a lot!!!

and post: (orginal link with pictures:http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/2011/08/bamboo-diary-fargesia-nitida-seeds.html)

Today I have sowed my first bamboo seeds of Fargesia nitida. I brought them form Scotland, from Castle Kennedy Gardens, to be exact (on 29.6.2011). I got them totally by coincidence, when I went to see the gardens. The dying bamboo was visible from far away, and I knew it at that very moment, that this had to be a flowering bamboo. First I took some photos of it’s flowers and habitus, then I took some samples for herbarium, for my collection and after, I also took some flowers, which were already producing seeds, so I was hoping that I would get some seeds from them.
I put them in a paper bag with silca gel, so that it wouldn’t get rotten or moldy . They were stored like that til now. Because the germination rate of bamboo seed falls rapidly, I just hope that I was not to late. I got 10 seeds out of 20 collected flowers. Their size was around 5 mm.
To sown them I have used a technique from David Crompton book Ornamental Bamboos.

So let’s see what I have done:
First I put peat-based light compost and filled the pots so, that compost was 2,5cm under the upper edge of the pot. I used mix of two bought composts for seedlings (Brill and Valentin). Then I sprayed the compost with water, so I could put the seed on a wet base.
So, I put 3 or 2 seeds per pot, covered them with 1 cm of compost and sprayed the compost again. I placed the pots in a room with a constantly warm temperature (20°C+), and is very bright, but not a direct sunlight.
Now I’m hoping for the best, which is that at the least 2 or 3 seeds will sprout. Based on the theory by Ted Jordan Meredith (Bamboo for Gardens), it should be from 2 to 3 weeks. I’ll keep you posted.

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Uroš

My blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/

Everything you have done is correct, just remember that bamboo seeds have a very low germination percentage.

M

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M

yes i know that, but this are fresh seeds so i hope for success. today i have also planted Phyllostachys edulis seeds but i had them at home for a year but i hope some thing wil hapend because seeds stil lookt ok.

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Uroš

My blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/

I've sown P. edulis seeds two weeks ago, just to see if they would come out. I bought them this march and I've kept them in the fridge. Some of them sprouted after no more than 7 days, and they are growing faster than they did when I germinated them this March. If you kept them in the fridge, you might have success with them, if not, they might be dead by now.

I'd like to see those seedlings. I hope they will germinate. Good luck.

i'll definitely keep you guya posted. yes it's troo i didn't have them in the fridge, but out of 36 seeds just 6 were dry other 30 was fine. i just sown 15 seeds as normal and i puted 15 in a wather throo the night. i'll see what it comes out. and i still have to sow some Chusquea culeou seeds that i also collected in scotland

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Uroš

My blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/

so, happy news. to this day 7 moso seeds have sprouted

you can see pictures and read more about it on my blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/2011/09 ... routs.html

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Uroš

My blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/

there is nothing going on with my f. nitida seeds and i'm begineing to lose hope about it. but my P.edulis is growing well. i just have one qestion. two of them are diferent. One of them has yellow stripes on its leaves, so this one could be P. e. ‘Bicolor’ and the other is much lighter green. so for the first i would like to ask if i'm right and what would you think fot the second. you can see pictures on this link, on the end of the post. http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/2011/10/bamboo-diary-autumn-update.html.

tnx for any kind of answer.

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Uroš

My blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/

Having sprouted hundreds of moso seeds, some of them will consistently have some striping or gold stripes on their culms, but that is still very far from being the bicolor form which is a distinct pattern of yellow culms with green sulcus stripes.

If your seedling looks just like this, then you may have bicolor

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

so i will have to wait a bit to see what kind of clums it will be. do you know for the light green on what it could be?

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Uroš

My blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/

It is a good idea to hold onto it and see what it may be. Most likely those pin stripes will either disappear as the plant gets older, or it could be a goldstripe moso to some extent which I have had happen a few times, but pin striping on the leaves or culms is not that uncommon so they ended up getting sold anyways. If you do get something similar to edulis bicolor, or even better, then you hit a jackpot.

Pin striping happens on larger plants as well. Here's a picture of a phyllostachys parvifolia culm showing pin striping however it seems to happen randomly.



I'm actually starting some fargesia murielae seeds now just for fun. I ended up germinating most of them, but since the soil was too wet, most of them rotted away, but the surviving ones are going strong.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

what is that thing that you have sow them in?

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Uroš

My blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/

It's a kind of seed starting moss which holds way too much moisture for bamboo seeds so I wouldn't recommend using it especially because it doesn't seem to drain well either, but once the seedlings are this big, their survival rate is much better. I use 72 cell seed trays for my bamboo germination.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

hy!

i just wonder if it is wise to give mosos seedlings fertilizer? i have one for bamboos and ornametal grases. it's in granuals so i would chrus them and fused them in wather and then wathered them.

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Uroš

My blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/

Uroš,

I think you could easily over-fertilize it that way. If it's one of membrane based slow release fertilizers, it won't dissolve in water anyways.

Moso can be pain in the a.. when you grow it from seed inside the pot. I've had at least 20 seedlings, and lost nearly 1/3 before they got to their second shooting. I guess these would die anyway, but the main problem came during the summer. Sometime in June, all the seedlings completely stopped growing, turned pale - almost yellow. New shoots and branches were damaged from the beginning, leaves did not open, hole branches and new shoots died because of it. It looked like severe nutrition defect, because they were not able to absorb nutrients and grow fast enough (they did receive A LOT of sun on the other hand).

Next year, they will all go out of pots. I'll build raised beds for them which should be more than sufficient for at least several years.

I have three seedlings outside in large concrete containers. They showed slight sins of "malnutrition" during the hottest month. These seedlings were growing slower, but they showed almost no leaf damage until now, except the newest shoots and few leaves that didn't unfold completely. Minimum temperature was around -6C, temperatures (daily highs) slightly below freezing lasted for around a week. I think when I plant them out, they should be much happier, even during the winter.

Plants in containers lost almost all of the foliage with the first frost we've seen (just a bit below freezing). I'm keeping them in the greenhouse where temperature drops below freezing during the night, but not nearly as much as outside. They seem as like they did harden a bit since beginning of winter, but they roll their leaves when they get any kind of sun exposure. I'm keeping them shaded most of the time. Hopefully they survive the winter and kick off vigorously next spring.

I have one of the Moso seedlings inside now. It doubled it's number of culms and tripled 's height, but it's getting yellowish. Fertilizers had no effect so far, it might be because of low light level.



I'd use really small amount of granular slow-release fertilizer and perhaps mild solution of water soluble liquid fertilizer.When temperatures get above freezing again, I'd take it outside and when soil temperature goes above 10 to 15C, replant it out of it's pot. And of course, make sure you prevent it to spread uncontrollably.

Lol well that’s promising.

Actually to me it seems that they grow really slow. I have a feeling that they are same size as one moth before.

Well here are some pictures of them now: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/2011/12/bamboo-diary-light-for-moso.html

I have put up the lamp for plants, since these guys have just sprouted in September. How old they have to be to put the out and how many shoots should they have?

Well these are my first bamboos grown from seed. I hope et least one survives.

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Uroš

My blog: http://uros-bamboo.blogspot.com/