Anyone tried this, putting a length of cut rhizome in a pot vertically. I was just looking into these deep cones and pots for use with planting trees and grasses, which through seedling growth develop very deep roots and so can use extra room. Like this:



The same company sells some insanely deep pots, something on the order of two feet deep by eleven inches across the top.

Anyway, looking at them, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if you put a rhizome in one of these things and planted it? Would the top buds produce the weedy little shoots, and the lower buds produce rhizome? I think I should give this a bit of a try.

On the topic, what is the best time of year to take rhizome cuttings? Is late summer after leafing-out is complete a good time, or will next spring be much better. Regardless I think I will take at least a few this summer to see what happens and then on further recommendation decide to take a lion's share of rhizome cutting next spring.

Planting them vertically in pots is quite common, I prefer different methods - heeling in long runs of them is my preferred one. Personally I only will try them when I dig them between Feb-shooting time for that species. In my experience doing it before Feb - in my area at least - is a waste of time, if they do shoot it is usually in survival mode and takes forever to size up


I recently potted up a few from this year, had a couple produce 5-7 foot culms, I usually wait until August to lift and pot them but did so much earlier this year - big difference, barely starting to push new rhizomes while the August ones usually have good new development.

_________________
Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/

Are you talking about taking a rhizome division with culms already present? I was thinking about rhizome divisions, no culms, which is a viable propagation method as long as there are viable buds and sufficient root structure, right? Though, I know that taking a division with some above ground growth is preferred. The particular species that I am taking a rhizome division from will be bisettii, and I will take at least a culm division and possibly a rhizome division from the 'mystery' aureosulcata species that I have skaed for help with I.D. in another thread, and thanks again, I need to add a not to that, being that the culm that you thought might abort survived and it does have a very rough culm feel to it. More on that in it's proper thread.

Here I am talking about bare rhizomes with no culms, for me only in very early spring as they'll have WAY more stored up shooting energy then.

For divisions with culms attached, in my area I will wait another 4-6 weeks from now on digging any of those so that they may store up more energy before I dig and perhaps already be starting new rhizome branches that I'll get then - but I also prefer to dig the lions share of culm divisions in late winter/early spring. I try to dig an entire years worth of new divisions between early Feb and shooting season for the species. After that I wait until mid August or later.

Fall digs for me are usually limited to escaped runners that produced new culms this spring I'm waiting to dig. The timing I look for is late enough in summer for the new culms to have hardened off well and for the rhizomes to have begun storing up energy again but early enough in summer that I still have several weeks of growing season left for the divisions to have a chance to start new rhizome. This translates into late August through early Sep diggings.

I very rarely lose a division with a culm attached so I prefer to dig them when I think it is strategic in terms of the new division have lots of vitality, and not weather related. I know that in some areas folks prefer to dig when it is cooler for the division to stabalize but I focus on when I think the plant has the best chance to develop quickly.

_________________
Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/

i'm just a clumper guy but i dont see how taking something that normally grows horizontally
and planting it vertically could provide a beneficial result. or am i missing something?
cool pots though. got alot of seedlings i could pot up.

_________________
"Plants are people just like us"

yeah, sometimes I have the sudden urge to question all logical reasoning, and let my imagination go completely bat-sh!t.

I thought that a vertically-planted bamboo might cause the plant to be forced into deciding which buds to use for survival culms and which to use for new rhizome growth, with lower buds being the obvious rhizomes and the upper being the obvious weedy culms.

I guess that I might want to get some experience with starting rhizome divisions before I go off on a tangent with this stuff.

Needmore, do you think that by feeding heavily and pampering the heck out of the bamboo you can help them fill up the reserves, and give them a better chance at survival?

Since one of the rhizome donors this year is the bisetii, I am confident that there is going to be a ton of rhizomes to cut and plant, though you are supposed to wait until the rhizome is at least a year old, right? Meaning, you should only use the rhizomes that grew last summer?

Current season rhizomes in summer aren't worth much and if you wait until early spring then any rhizome is ready to go. No, I don't think feeding now will help at all, it's about them having time to convert food into stored energy. Yes, they may produce culms but those tiny survival shoots take forever to size up, as do small pieces of rhizome dug at the right time of year.

Discard from the growing tip back to where you see a goodly amount of fine roots, that part of the rhizome above them is not worth the effort. Planting them vertically should not alter the behavior any, they grow on steep hills here and behave normally. Usually people plant them in pots vertically, the buds that are ready to go will shoot out and then turn up towards the light. If I put them in pots I prefer bending them into 'U's in the center of the pot but anymore I just take as long a piece as I can lift, trim the unlikely portions off and toss them on the ground in early spring - bury them in mulch, soil, whatever and then ignore them. When ready they'll produce culms and you can lift the whole thing and pot it accordingly. With these long pieces I usually get nice size new culms that I can then pot with long runs of rhizome - these plants size up as fast as typical divisions as they have plenty of rhizome mass. Most of the ones I just potted required squat 7-10 gallon pots to hold all the rhizome. For now it looks like a smaller plant in a BIG pot but next spring the new culms will be a nice size. Sometimes I'll have a long piece that produces multiple culms and if it looks appropriate you can seperate those or pot up a multi-culm division that will have lots of energy.

My thoughts are to keep the sections of rhizome as long as I can manage, they can always be shortened later.

_________________
Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/