Drain field lines are usually 12 to 24" below the surface depending on the lay of the land so you should be fine with any of the small running shallow rooted Pleioblastus bamboo. I suspect many here have planted knowingly and unknowingly large timber bamboo over septic drain lines and not had p...

I think that climate is a factor when considering winter damage and the recovery vigor or lack thereof that follows, those conditions call for the most vigorous plants one can obtain so IF micro prop bamboo tend to be less vigorous then they should perhaps be avoided in terms of marginal species fo...

I'm not sure if it's just climate related since some folks in England (similar to Oregon's climate) have had the same issues. My current batch of Fargesia robusta Green Screen were TC'd in 2008. They were tiny (4" to 6" tall) out of the lab. Bamboo Garden grew them for me until spring, 201...

I did open pandora's box again, sorry!! It sounds like many of you have had a bad experience either with hardiness issues or with juvenile plants that remained juvenile, and or very poor growth performance in your climate. To top that off retail prices have generally not gone down as a result of mas...

Alan - My climate extremes do not test hardiness but what we can do here with excellent growing conditions most of the year is observe differences in performance between species. I'll admit my bias toward Fargesia and Borinda is because they grow well here with little effort. IMHO I don't think putt...

I'll remind everyone again that my experience with growing hundreds of tissue culture Fargesia in the last five years only a very small percentage (less than 1%) need additional time to establish. The vast majority act and grow vigorously just like any other division. In some cases a few will grow m...

Here it's normal for Green Screen (aka Fargesia robusta TC) in containers to shoot smaller weaker culms all summer long into late autumn. It adds to the bushiness of the plant quite well. The taller thicker culms shoot in March. Once in the ground they generally don't do it after the first season at...

Oh my gosh it's a whole lot easier keeping bamboo in pots if you plan to divide and sell. It's easier to divide and easier to control the environment (weather protection) to get the most out of it. Up to a point they grow just as well in a pot with the proper care than in the ground. Long term wise ...

Tissue cultured bamboo by shear volume should cost less than division, no question about it! It really is market driven and as long as people are willing to pay the same price as division I don't see it changing. Collectors who are aware of the difference are very few and far between and honestly I ...

Does Boo-Shoot sell only TC plants? Locally, Boo-Shoot plants are almost all I see at nurseries, except for some Yellow Groove and Nigra which were not from Boo-Shoot, and some Rufa. My Phy. bissetii from Boo-Shoot seems to be sizing up normally, but I don't have anything to compare it to. This is ...

In your part of the US one can source large TC Fargesia but in many -if not most - parts you can not. Suppliers also do not like to ship the large ones so what many of us have access to are the 1-2 gallon TC plants via mail order or the mainstream nurseries. I think that F rufa has shown good growt...

Not to open pandora's box again on tissue culture. Yes, it's quite possible that the TC plant you have is an "under performer." I've grown several hundred TC Fargesia the last five years and there is variation among the same batches of plants. Eventually the "under performers" ca...

Does anyone have Borinda yulongshanensis growing in the ground in zone 5 or 6? Thanks, I'm in zone 8 with a 'Linder' form yulongshanensis planted as a one gallon in 2006 that's an upright 12 feet tall and gorgeous. Last year in December we had a record low of 12 F degrees two nights in a row follow...

Well mine was top killed last winter at 12F degrees. One small shoot about 6 feet tall emerged late spring so it gets one more chance at glory. I'll keep an eye out for flowering. Poor guy just can't get a break.......

You can buy blood meal cheap in bulk at a local AG store. Basically ground up cow parts that break down into pure nitrogen. Potent stuff if applied early in the year. I prefer a balanced premixed organic fertilizer myself. They all take awhile to break down into the soil and into the plant. I mix it...