Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

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bamboo_bob
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Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by bamboo_bob »

I found someone who was willing to part with some of their bamboo in my area, so I dug up 3 bunches of it. I'm looking to use it to make a privacy hedge that will be 7 feet thick, but I'm having my doubts if it will be dense enough to fill that area. I'll attach several pictures below. This person's grove looked quite dense standing about 20 feet back, but it was quite easy for me to walk through it, so the culms weren't densely packed in there. Granted, it was growing sort of "wild" on his land near a pond. It has not been fertilized or planted in the most ideal soil. It is getting about 8-10 hours of direct sun per day, though. He did not plant it and does not know the species, which is why I'm asking here. The tallest culms are between 20 and 30 feet tall. The biggest culms are about 3-4 inches in circumference (about 1 inch in diameter). This is growing in climate zone 7. I did't see any distinguishing characteristics on the culms (like vertical colored stripes) and all the culms were nice and straight (no zig-zag ones). Any idea what this might be and how dense it can be expected to grow in well drained, fertilized soil?
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wolfedg
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by wolfedg »

Most bamboo are best identified by their shoots. If you can get pictures of the shoots and post them on here it would probably help.
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by needmore »

Looks like Rubromarginata, but as wolfedg says shoots are the best way to ID. Rubro is unique though with those very long internodes and nodes that are not at all pronounced such as in your photo.
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Alan_L
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by Alan_L »

I agree with Brad's rubromarginata ID, but to be honest, Brad's thoughts are probably enough -- he's so good at visual IDs!

One thought about the density of the planting: if you're going to be restricting the area for the bamboo (with barriers, trenching, rhizome pruning, or just kicking over out-of-bounds shoots) I'd think that the density of culms would be greater than a grove that just gets to roam free. Maybe I'm wrong?
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by bamboo_bob »

That would be awesome if this is rubro because that's what I was going to buy. This weekend I just finished transplanting 30 divisions of this stuff. 20 to 30 ft plants. It was back breaking but saved me boatloads of money on buying from a nursery (so long as they actually take). My uninformed guess was that this stuff was bissetti, which I guess would also be decent as a privacy hedge. I didn't see any shoots coming up in the grove when transplanting. Not sure if they'll come up from these transplants since I would imagine this will stunt the plants this year. But I'll stop back at the grove each weekend and look for shoots. I'll get a pic if I see any.
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by needmore »

Yours should produce nice sized shoots this year as you dug before shooting season and the energy for those shoots was produced when it was part of a big grove but next spring your new shoots will be smaller as they will be created using energy from the new small divisions.
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bamboo_bob
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Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by bamboo_bob »

That's good to know, thanks. I imagine they'll be shooting within a few weeks then. Here's a pic of the grove I took these from.

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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by fredgpops »

My rubro a much darker green even factoring direct sun. RGds
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by needmore »

I had a big grove of it in Indiana and that color is familiar to me plus Rubro has a unique look. I would normally shy away from an ID attempt at just culm photos save for an aurea form but I have a fairly high degree of confidence in this one.

So it probably will prove to be something else :drunken:
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by fredgpops »

Rubro is not in my wheelhouse of knowledge. I have a small grove that has no distinct features associated with the photos. More green and branching at lower and upper levels of culm. Brad has more history so I bow to his wisdom. Rgds
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by bamboo_bob »

Still no shoots from these yet. I stopped at the mother grove a few days ago and she isn't shooting yet either. There are two other species of bamboo in town and those are both shooting like crazy, so kind of surprising this one hasn't yet.

I did notice a few of my plants seem to have some new spiky things popping up on the branches. I didn't notice them before so maybe they're new. Perhaps new foliage coming in, if that's possible?

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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by Alan_L »

I don't see any shoots on my rubro yet, and can't find notes of when it was shooting in past years. When does rubro shoot?
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by needmore »

Established rubro shoots late, for me it was next to last before Atrovaginata, the Atro was generall mid May so Rubro I recall as late April early May. Those new divisions will likely be earlier and those new leaf buds in your photo suggest that shoots are not far behind.
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bamboo_bob
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by bamboo_bob »

And it just started shooting a few days ago. Here's a picture of one of them.
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Re: Help identifying some bamboo to use as privacy hedge

Post by needmore »

That's Rubromarginata.
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