not sure of the soil temperature, but we have been seeing 70-80's daytime and 40-50 nights for the past couple weeks.

I see on your profile you have that you had moso, but it died. Is this because of the lack of enough chilling hours leading to eventual decline in vigor?

I would guess that 8b would be a perfect climate if most winters only get a little bit below freezing which should just barely be enough for vernalization leading to the potential for some really big bamboo. Maybe the heat can be too much for a small seedling to handle if that's what you started out with.

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http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

Steve, I have read somewhere that some of the runners need a fair amount of freezing weather to keep their vigor and to upsize properly. Moso in particular is sadi to only thrive in a very narrow band of area in the southeast US and the list never seems to include the very mild areas like Florida. Some 8b areas may not have enough frost to satisfy some of the runners. Honestly I am worried a bit about my own this year, as we have only seen about a half-dozen frosts here and some of those nights were several degrees above freezing. I think I remember about 4 nights so far this winter actually below freezing for a brief time, 2 nights in the low 20s and 2 nights around 28-30f.

A few runners like aurea, however, very much thrive in extremely mild winters and can get a bit larger than ABS listings

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God Bless,

Matthew

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Genesis 2:8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.

Judging from what I've seen of the Phyllostachys species that I have kept in the basement during the Winter, they don't need freezing temperatures, just a period of time with temperatures below 50°F. I've noticed the Phyllostachys don't look as happy since the lowest basement temperatures are now about 60°F.

BTW, the Moso I have outside has not lost its leaves this Winter and is looking happy with life. So far it has been a Zone 8a Winter for us and it looks like it will continue through the middle of the month. After that the chances of a near zero cold snap drop greatly.

BTW, I found shoots poking up under the Fargesia dracocephala 'Rufa' a few days ago.

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Southern Indiana. Theoretically the same climate as 'needmore' & 'Eastlandia'.
My Bamboo List.

Wooooo!!!! I have 16 foot tall Moso in Southern Indiana!

Hmm, possibly I just assumed that's what what was meant, then, since the areas talked about were basically frost free areas: Hawaii and parts of Texas and Florida, I think. Maybe the areas where runners won't thrive don't have enough time 50f or lower? Maybe someone here with growing experience in these areas knows for sure what the issues are with growing runners in very mild climates. I would guess that continuous chill time could be a factor. Maybe if winter nights are under 50 but the days are mostly warmer that keeps the plant out of dormancy? Either way, I could see how a zone 8b area, for example, could be unsuitable for most runners, since all the 8b means is that some years there is at least one night below 20f. That doesn't mean that there is ever a continuous block of cool weather there, necessarily.

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God Bless,

Matthew

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Genesis 2:8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.

One of the things I'm wondering is if an extended period of ideal vernalization temperature where the soil stays between 40-45F will result in more shoots. Ever since I removed the temp greenhouse, and tarped my moso bicolor in late December, it has stayed in that temperature range and It should be a full 3 months or longer where the temperature hangs around there since the tarp never allowed the soil temperature to get near freezing which stops vernalization altogether. If the tarped soil temperature is starting to exceed 50F consistently, then it's time to take the tarp off and put on some wall o waters around the plant, and spread out some roofing tiles to catch some of the spring heat so shooting can occur much earlier than May 19th.

I've seen pots of moso taken out of a tarp that were bursting with so many new shoots that none of them got that tall since the energy was stretched so thin with the excess of shoot production. They were generally well upsized too so I think vernalization does play a huge part in the energy required to produce new shoots. When I kept moso seedlings indoors, they seemed to focus more on rhizome production and were more prone to make whip shoots with less of an upsize.

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Again, if you don't do tests with multiple plants under different conditions, you'll never really know.

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Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

A lot of bamboos are getting tarped for the first time ever and I'm hoping all of them are experiencing the ideal vernalization temperature range throughout the entire winter so if the spring growth is better than ever on everything that was tarped to the ground that might mean that it works.

It might also mean that it was a warm enough winter so that the bamboos wouldn't be getting much damage even without tarp protection anyways and the soil has also stayed unfrozen almost all through winter making vernalization possible which can also contribute to better growth. In any case, I think I would be surprised if my bamboos do not perform better this shooting season in comparison to previous years.

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http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

Just don't draw any conclusions from what you've done. All you'll be able to say in the spring is "my bamboos are happy and producing lots of shoots, so I must be doing something right".

I often wonder though if you're doing way more than you really need to, and how much the success the plants are having is due to the plants themselves, and not anything else you're doing (except for water and making sure they have good, fertile soil).

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Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

@ stevelau...yes, they were moso seedlings....we do get to freezing, but we might get a few nights in the upper teens and then the following week the nights are in the 60's-70's. Enough nights of frost to kill off new growth and then enough warmth to encourage again....truly a vicious cycle!

I've found that 1st year seedlings are prone to leaf burn at 22F(no winds) after a good season of growth so if you started with moso seedlings you might have had a worst case scenario since it may have been a very bad winter accompanied with a plant that hasn't established any hardiness yet. I've also found that the younger the seedling is, the earlier they tend to shoot.

If you start with a more mature stock, I think you will definitely get much better results. I've found that on last spring, my oldest moso seedling made shoots on April 22 while the moso bicolor(mature division) made shoots on May 19 so I think older stock will be less likely to shoot as easily. Unfortunately, I don't have divisions yet.

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http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

First shoots of the year. As usual, the sasa vetchii is the first one to show growth. Normally it's up and running before I realize it might be time. This usually means the black, arrow and vivax are about two to three weeks away- depending on cold fronts. Historically, this season is starting about 2-3 weeks early.

Must have come up sometime last week. Not sure about the soil temps, but the nights have been in the 40's and days in the 50-65 range.