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I live in Australia and I am trying to propagate B. textilis var. "Gracilis" from culm cuttings and layering.
I have tried air layering, ground layering and cuttings with low success rate.
I know that it is possible to do it with high success rate because there are large numbers of cutting propagated plants available for sale.

Does anyone have any advice?
I have thought about taking cuttings of and also layering new culms before they branch out.
It's too early to say if they will be successful.

I have contacted everyone I can find in Australia but it seems to be a very secretive business.

Does anyone know how to do this?

I would like to know
1) how old should the culms be?
2) What time of year should propagation be done?
3) single, double nodes?
4) anything else anyone can tell me, even if it's something that wasn't successful so I can rule it out.

Did you ever figure out the best way to propagate? I was studying air layering as well and found new technology in this arena, but waiting until mid March to try.

I saw a demonstration on an air layer technique in 2004. It involved bundling a dampened suitable medium at the branch junction with the culm, and sealing that up in a plastic bag. The discussion that day basically said that this works with some species better than others - then the California people said it doesn't work too well there but in Florida yes - humidity factor. They unbundled a plant where this had been done a few weeks prior and the guy was able to snap off a couple new plants with roots/shoots at each junction.

I have a lot of experimenting to do this spring. I'm hoping to propagate on the branches and leave mother culm alone. If that doesn't work, I will try air layering every node that still has a branch. All of the videos I've watched showed scraping the bark off where you apply your growing medium. I want to find out if that is necessary with bamboo since I was told I could lean the culm down into the ground and the nodes would begin to take root.

I've seen several ways to propagate, what have you found to be the most successful? Thanks for the reply Brad.

I bought nearly dead B. ventricosa. It arrived completely dry, so I just decided to plant it 2 nodes deeper and leave only top 2 nodes. I have to say it made it. In just a couple of weeks, top nodes continued to grow branches, lower nodes (the ones I buried) grew nice healthy roots and in about a month, first shoot emerged.

I'd say air layering should not be an issue. I'd use 3 to 4 node sections, one or two covered with moist soil, and two above to grow branches. When the roots appear, you can cut the culm to prepared sections and plant them. Ventricosa is easy to propagate, but with other Bambusa bamboos, it should be similar, but could take a bit longer. Try and report.

I'm glad to hear you were able to see results in 1 month. I really wanted to try the branch propagation first before going after a culm. My thinking is if the nodes are what produces roots, why not the branches. I do have to wonder if the clone will duplicate mom in size even with the genetics being the same.

I was wondering if the bark would need to be scraped and I watched a 2 liter plastic bottle propagation technique for muscadines which also have nodes. The consensus was scraping was not necessary for muscadines. I planted 15 of those last spring and the vines have made it across the 20' wire span. Pretty exciting, but now my focus has turned to bamboo.

I got the bamboo bug in late fall '15 and chose to purchase just one plant to put in the ground to inspect how it will do over the winter. 3 gal Gracilias with 4 culms $65+ tax and I would judge it's appearance today as fair. I wanted to be educated as much as possible before making a much larger expenditure in plants, ground cover, drip system etc. I visited two bamboo farms in South Florida last month and really gained a lot of insight to the business. But, the more I think I know, I know how much I don't know.

I have room for mother plants, but only about 1/4 acre to nurture propagated plants to sell. I'm a city boy that bought a 1 acre farm and loving the experience. My farm had a blank canvass short of the camellias and 2 pecan trees. Great harvest this year BTW.

If anyone has any experience with air layering bamboo, I'd appreciate the knowledge. If not, I will attempt to post my results good or bad on this forum.

Air layering works on Bamboo but B.textilis is notorious at resisting cutting. I tried it once and some success but not enough to try it again.
MarCat

marcat wrote:Air layering works on Bamboo but B.textilis is notorious at resisting cutting. I tried it once and some success but not enough to try it again.
MarCat

I had no visible rooting results after 3 wks in late winter. I may try again this spring. Did you scrape the bark? Trim off branches? Thanks

I scraped the node and used hormone on it, drilled a hole low in a #1 pot sliced it to get the culm to the hole and filled with potting soil. Keeping it moist was a pain. oh Duct taped the slice.
One culm with several pots on it.
MarCat

marcat wrote:I scraped the node and used hormone on it, drilled a hole low in a #1 pot sliced it to get the culm to the hole and filled with potting soil. Keeping it moist was a pain. oh Duct taped the slice.
One culm with several pots on it.
MarCat

You've given me encouragement that air layering will work on bamboo, now I want to find the most efficient technique. My attempt was pretty poor and keeping the medium wet was a pain until it ultimately went dry during a wkend excursion, so I aborted.

I found this product online and it has very good reviews, but nothing concerning bamboo techniques. You say you chose to propagate off of one culm with several pots on it, this is the dilemma I have now prior to ordering this product. I would love to propagate from branches without having to sacrifice culms and the smaller 2" air propagator should attach easily enough. But...if I have to go after a culm, I would need the Larger version to accommodate the diameter difference.

They have a variety pack available, but I'm probably going to go for the smaller propagator to attack the multitudes of branches. I was going to omit the bark scraping process, but may have to try both ways for a better sampling of results.

Thanks MarCat
http://airpropagator.com/buy_online.php

Severing the branch before rooting could make a difference in the end. If not in rooting success ratio alone, the speed should be faster. You migh even want tudi try cutting the whole branch up to a half, to make it starve a little. That should make it root more likely.

Tarzanus wrote:Severing the branch before rooting could make a difference in the end. If not in rooting success ratio alone, the speed should be faster. You migh even want tudi try cutting the whole branch up to a half, to make it starve a little. That should make it root more likely.

I ordered 6 of the small air propagators and plenty of branches are beginning to emerge. It makes sense that a wound would be a catalyst for root growth and I like your suggestion of clipping off the running branch to feed the existing nodes that are left.

Do you have any idea how long it will take for a root ball to mature enough for transplanting?

Thanks Tarzanus

I would wait a couple of weeks for the roots to become strong enough to sustain the cutting. You will need to keep it shaded at the beginning, but it should work. Experiment, I haven't been doing a lot of that, I just like to experiment.

I have had some success growing Bam. A. Karr from cuttings. So far only about 20% made it. In spring just before the new growth I took the cuttings and trimmed the branches to about 1 or 2 inches, stood them upright in potting soil just covering the branching node. I can tell you this is a very slow way to propagate bamboo.

Try leaving a couple leaves on them and root stim helps. With A. Karr you should get better results it like the rest of the multiplex are good for cuttings.
MarCat