Soil is most likely way too wet! Pictures show discoloring and yellowing of new leaves, which is exactly what happened to my seedlings last year after I transplanted them into larger pots and after they got drowned.They won't need watering for quite some time, if drainage is good, they should recover in couple of weeks. If you dig pots into the soil, to keep them cool enough, you'll hardly have to water them. Since it has a lot of soil and only small number of leaves and most likely poorly developed root system, it won't need much moisture. Keep it dry, at least for 2 or 3 weeks. When top soil get dry, keep it dry for some time more if there's moisture below. Let it breathe, let it create strong root system and let it live.

My seedlings lost one whole year, because I didn't transplant them when there was still time. Instead I left them out on the rain and they suffered.

Root-bound seedling that I have gets dry in less than a day when there's full sun. But it has hundreds (if not thousands) of leaves and roots that go out of drainage holes and are like 20 cm long. I nearly had a heart attack, when I saw them. Established bamboos with strong roots can drain water almost immediately, which means it can't easily get water-logged. When small plant enters large pot, it's hard not to drown it. on't water unless it starts rolling it's leaves. If soil is still wet when it curls the leaves, DO NOT WATER.


Good luck!

Thanks Tarzanus, I thought that may have been the case. Especially with the high concentration of mosquitoes taking up residence in the pots.

I took four of them as an experiment and pulled the soil mass out of the pot to add some gravel at the bottom to help with drainage, and then added some peat moss to help lift the plants closer to the pot lip. When I did, I noticed two things. First, the soil was still very damp, even though I have not watered them in about a week and there has been no rain. Secondly, the roots are growing. I had some nice long (4 - 6 inch) roots running along the sides and bottom of the soil in 3 of the 4 pots I added the gravel to. This gives me some hope that these might still be able to pull through.

Next week, I am planning to erect a 40% shade cloth that I purchased over an area (20' x 24') of my yard. I will also be sinking these pots into the ground under the cloth. The idea of the shade cloth is that soon we will be starting to see our temperatures rise much closer to (and possibly over) the 100 degree mark. I figure the cloth should help to keep the seedlings from overheating while still allowing 60% of the sun's rays to reach them. I also intend to build out some type of framing to allow me to tarp over the seedlings in the event of rain. This should help keep the rain off of them until the roots get more established and they can take more water.

We will see if these little guys will pull through or not!

Well, thanks to the Department of Agriculture, I now have no more baby bamboos. It would seem that eBay provided my purchase details to them and this afternoon I received a visit from two very nice ladies. They confiscated every little sprout and the soil they were planted in. I am so bummed.

I am somewhat surprised that they USDA fairy visited you over some 'moso seedlings', considering how long that particular species has been present in North America. That being said, since the early 20th century the USDA has banned bamboo importation without going through customs and a prolonged period of isolation. This is done to protect the cash crops of corn, wheat and to a lesser extant rice.

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M

The issue isn't what you have, but where they came from.

If you can find seed sellers that ship to you from within the US, you will be good

Those USDA folks are saddled with the chore of stopping parasites from coming into the country. That's all. They don't care what kinds of bamboo you have. Contact the seed seller and be clear where the seeds ship from.

Agriculture Canada will not even inspect bareoot or non-bareroot bamboos to be exported into the USA and that includes seeds. They told me in the past that according to the USDA records one cannot import any bamboo to the USA from anywhere. Special arrangements can be made, a permit has to be issued and quarantine facilities set up, all this must be submitted to Ag Canada before they will proceed any further.

Here we can import bamboos from the US with or w/o soil or bareroot from Europe. No probelm with seeds.

johnw

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

I think I might have figured out the reason behind why so many people have trouble growing moso seedlings from seed in pots, as they tend to turn lighter in color, or start browning from the tips. I've had the same problem until I started to diversify my potting mixtures to try and prevent any micro-nutrient deficiency. The one thing I still don't understand is, why would this only happen on bamboo seedlings, and not bamboo divisions?

I believe that the problem might be magnesium deficiency. Just doing a google search, it looks like the culprit to the problem. https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl ... dWNR52Nk0g

I guess the solution to that is to add in epsom salts(magnesium sulfate), but I have resorted to adding in a bit of azomite, as well as native soil to my potting mixtures just to try and give them all a good balance of micro-nutrients. As long as the foliage looks dark green, and the root zone is strong, I am happy with my plants.

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

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

@ Steve - at what rate do you add epsom salts?

Arkansas - here we use 2 tablespoons per 4.5 litres of water (an Imperial gallon). I think your gallon is about 4 litres but it's hard to overdo epsom salts so you'd be safe with 2T.

johnw

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

I never tried them before but I do use azomite which has many micronutients. I usually use a handful for a 2ft tall pepper plant or something similar. I put the powder right around the stem since it cannot burn the plants.

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

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

Thanks Guys - always something new to learn

Well, I seeded 3 trays of what I thought were mature F nitida Anceps seeds that started to flower last fall and one tray from an unknown nitida variety that was still putting out a few seeds in 3rd year flowering. Nothing has come up after a couple months. Can only conclude seeds were not mature, pollinated or cold scoured. Do fargesii seeds need cold treatment, like some native field grasses?

Most of our nitida seeds came up right away after a summer sowing but there were some sowings that waited until the following spring to sprout. F. murieliae sprouted within 3 weeks.

The seeds for those two Fargesias were about the size of a medium grain rice kernel.

johnw

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

My Nitida seeds have yet to come up after 4 months in trays, always moist but well drained. Am thinking there might have been low pollination or seeds inmature? Have not given up on them only because of this thread.

I'm a newcomer to bamboo seed germination but between Chimonocalamus pallens seeds that I am growing plus listening to folks who are using my seeds, it is clear that the age of the seeds planted has a great deal to do with success. I also believe that timing is important - trying to grow seeds in late fall thru late spring is probably not wise. It appears that germination success drops quite a bit after 2 to 3 months (date seeds were dropped).
If I were buying seeds, I would ask how fresh the seeds are. I have a hunch that seeds on hold a year or more will 1) take a long time to germinate and 2) the rate of germination will be low. It would be smart to know when the species started flowering as a base point. I sold some seeds on ebay and it was clear to me that many other seeds posted had been held for a long time plus some were bogus. My fellow poster, tarzanus (I cheated and sent seeds to Europe) has very good data on my seed germination plus other seeds that he has germinated. I bow to his wisdom. Rgds