Boo shoots for 2013

[stevelau1911]

Dan,

I think your moso may have simply had more juice in it to push a shoot up to all the way up to 16ft regardless of only being about 3cm. Mine's nearly 4.5cm at the lower part, and it appears to be topping off at around 11ft. Of course I dwarfed it at the lower internodes so it would be easy to tarp, and make it easier on the bamboo, but it still probably would not have gotten that tall.

For example I have p nigra shoots breaking 8ft now, and the diameter is still the same as last year's culms which only got to 7ft since the energy is simply greater. I believe that many other bamboos that don't really look like they are upsizing, but have lots of stored energy, and few shoots to work with may produce very tall shoots this year.

[dependable]

My Main P vivax grove, the one in the most sun, just started to shoot this weekend. So far there may be a few more shoots but smaller diameter than last year. Semiaruninaria fastuosa viridis, and some of the nigras just coming up too. The P aureosulcatas are having a good year it seems, lots of good sized shoots from 3 varieties.

[JWH]

These might be overwintered shoots from last autumn on my Bambusoides, but they are starting to get taller. One is forked...maybe they are branches taking over for a damaged tip?

[foxd]

Steve, my measurement of the Moso diameter was done well above ground level because I knew the diameter would taper off quickly. If I really wanted to I could get a larger diameter measure at ground level.

The Phy. nigra is definitely a larger diameter than any previous year, that was obvious from the size of the shoots.

Several Ps. japonica shoots are a good half inch in diameter, which is larger than the shoots that reached seven foot last year.

Phy. atrovaginata is definitely doing a major size up this year.

[needmore]

Seems to me like many Phyllostachys are larger diameter a few feet up than at ground level, edulis though seems widest at ground level?

[foxd]

Seems to me like many Phyllostachys are larger diameter a few feet up than at ground level, edulis though seems widest at ground level?

That's what I've noticed about edulis. I've seen 'Yellow Groove' that is larger diameter several feet up and some that remains a constant diameter. I have a suspicion that it has something to do with the weather conditions since some years this is more pronounced than others.

[foxd]

The Fargesia nitida is finally putting up some shoots. Both it and the Rufa seem to have really jumped up in size this year.

Pseudosasa japonica shoots have been slow to grow, though a few of the smaller shoots are over six feet tall. A large one I've been watching is about five feet tall. Hopefully it will break the ten foot mark.

I'm loving the look of the Phyllostachys atrovaginata shoots this year! Definite size up and looking like something out of Caryn Rickel's worst nightmares!

Various Phyllostachys aurea types look like they are also going to size up, possibly reaching 14-16 feet tall.

[pokenei]

Here are some of my boos taken on June 2nd, 2013.

Parvifolia and Atrovaginata made gains.
Beijing has been set back one or two years

[stevelau1911]

Looks like you are right at the limit as far as growing potato vines, but it's good to know they are still hardy enough in a colder climate than my own.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53822/

I believe that a propinqua beijing of that size should easily make late summer shoots at a much bigger size as it is one of the species that seems to be notorious for late shoots.


Looks like the atro made a huge upsize there, but once they exceed 1 inch in diameter, and get enough culms, it won't be possible to tarp over anymore without tilting entire root balls or breaking in a couple years once culms exceed 1 inch in diameter so it will be interesting how it takes zone 5 winters. Atro did appear to be my hardiest bamboo here where 3F hardly did anything to it. The average shoot size for mine on atro are still noticeably bigger than last year's but they need to rise 2-3ft before you can really see how big they are.

[Raja]

I planted 3 Bambusa lako back in early April and was soooooo very excited today to see one of them sending up a new shoot!! I was starting to think they weren't going to send any up.



And yes, those are evil never ending potato vines in the background.

[stevelau1911]

Here's my moso bicolor which looks like it's only going to successfully put out 4 decent sized culms for the year with one that is way bigger than the other 3. That's alright because the branches are getting really long, and I'm expecting them to be loaded with lots of leaves by July. With such a high output, it's reasonable to expect maybe just a few non-upsized shoots in 2014.




Prominens looks like it may pot all of its energy into 1 shoot and abort the others. At least it's getting to a very respectable size in its 15 gallon pot.


Makinoi is up to 8ft now and still growing, and this species typically puts out a second shooting season in the late summer so it may get pretty tall, but they are very skinny for their height.


Decora is putting out shoots about the same size and the soil there happens to be horrible with plenty of tree roots so it may be stunted until I try aerating it once these shoots get hardened off.


Parvifolia shoots are generally the same size as last year's but I know there's lots of shoot buds under there that are probably trying to charge up for another year before showing what they can do. I think it's kind of similar to how vegetables avoid bolting when the conditions are favorable for further growth. The shoots that I am seeing are getting longer internodes than last year so there should be quite a bit of energy getting stored up under there as these few shoots are only for letting off a bit of steam.




Atrovaginata has shoots that are on average a little bit bigger than last years.




We've had too much rain recently so some shoots are rotting away.


Here's the spectabilis which has formed a nice grove from only 4 culms last year. It went from 4 culms last year at 9ft to 18 new shoots this year at up to 10ft, and slightly bigger in diameter.


Dulcis appears to be reproducing almost the same exact output it did last year as it puts out 7 shoots as the tallest one is now at 14ft with maybe 1ft left to grow. It got burned pretty badly last year which probably put a dent on this year's output.




P Nigra is producing the same sized shoots this year, but a bit taller as the tallest one is around 8 1/2ft which is almost a foot taller than the tallest from 2012. It has never upsized that fast for me so I'm glad it had some gains.




Propinqua beijing is still producing the same sized shoots as it has since 2011, so I'm not sure if it's at it's genetic potential here, but the grove is started to expand out a bit more now.




The top killed kwangsiensis seems to be the furthest along in leaf development. Here's the before and after as I culled out the dead culms in the clump.

[johnw]

pokenei

First shoot on a 4ft rhizome we moved in early May and it's taken its good old time.

Best upsize on the Phyllo was on this small clump growing at someone's rear door one lane over from a friend. No mulch, no fertilizer and the one with more leaf damage than any other. Figure that one. New culms were up 5.5ft as of last week.

The weather here has been abysmal. Dense fog and intermitent heavy rain, high today 10c and low 8c. The furnace runs a few times a day and yet the Phyllos seem to be paying no attention to the weather. We can only hope their slow ascent makes for sturdier culms.

[johnw]

I'd say the overall best upsize was F. robusta Campbell. Last year 13ft and not one new culm; this year the ground erupted with new shoots and the culm diameter doubled so I'm expecting 16ft. minimum. Boy this one gets off to an early start.

F. sp. Scabrida has re-leafed every cane and sent out a whack of shoots but no upsize unless there will another round of shoots later.

All new Fargesias just starting to shoot now. Ditto new Phyllos. Of the Sasas only S. palmata has shot up, none of the new ones have sent out new shoots or leaves. How about yours TC?

[pokenei]

john,
what about parvifolia and beijing? i thought they did amazing last year for you. have not shot this year? my parvi has already done with vertical growth and is starting to branch.

[stevelau1911]

I really doubt bamboos should do much the following spring after an impressive fall shooting especially in a very cool climate. Just getting fully leafed out and hardened off would require quite a bit of energy with shoots coming as late as November.

Anyways both of my large shanghai III are putting out 1 tiny shoot each. The other one's in the background of this picture.


Makinoi is now up to near 9ft, way taller than last year


Tallest shoot I've ever seen on dulcis which is around 1 1/4, same as last year's biggest, but a bit taller at around 15ft 3 now with a couple inches of growth left.


Lots of 1 inchers on atrovaginata up to 11ft now, with the chance of beating the dulcis shoot if there's enough juice in the grove.


Propinqua beijing with unusually long branches stretching to 3ft long, even a bit greater length than the moso bicolor


Moso bicolor makes pretty long branches almost down to the bottom node despite having decent sized culms.


Prominens up to 7ft now, not including pot