Source List - Additional Growing Criteria

Comments and Sugestions for the ABS Source list.
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Mike McG
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Location: Near Brenham TXUSDA Z8b

Source List - Additional Growing Criteria

Post by Mike McG »

Bill - The emails on the Yahoo Texas Bamboo Group discussing growing conditions/requirements prompted me to bring up the subject of additional growing criteria. I know this has been discussed before on other message boards probably including this one in the past.

The specific emails I am referring to were related to the individual who was new to bamboo, interested in bidding in the ABS Auction, but daunted by the long list of bamboos available and having to research which of the bamboo were suitable for growing in Zone 9. Pointing him to the Source List requirements for say Fargesia nitida 'Jiuzhaigou' might result in disappointment, while he may have become a convert if he won a bid on say Bambusa emeiensis 'Flavidorivens'. I do not know where this individual lives, and am guessing southern TX, but recognize there maybe some frost free island that stays cool where a Fargesia would do just fine. But that is my point, as useful as the Source List is, it would be even more useful with additional data.

Some of the additional information that I see probably needs to be added are things such as:

- Soil pH (probably whether the bamboo tolerates alkalinity or not?)

- Tolerance to wet or dry conditions (perhaps graded similar to sun/shade)

- Maximum temperatures (peak summer average at night?)

- Winter chill hour requirements

I would propose that this addition information initially only be included in the online version here on Bambooweb to save on printing costs.

I realize you have a lot of things on your plate and so volunteer to help accumulate this data and perhaps populate a "Beta" database unless someone else wants to do it.

Mike McG near Brenham TX
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RE: Source List - Additional Growing Criteria

Post by bambooweb »

Mike,
My plan is to to have a link on each species to a Forum where the first topic would be a sticky with more information on the plant including all of the information that you mentioned and other things like the rate of spread and increase in height in a hospitable environment. The data would be updated based on suggestions from users in that topic. Users can also add topics under each species with their comments on how the plant grows in their climate. This would also be linked through each users location and plant list to create a map of species.

I am still hoping to have the forum updates finished by the end of the year because there are a number of improvements.

A discussion of some of the things coming is at http://www.bambooweb.info/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2260
Hard to believe that that thread is 8 months old :( I was hoping to get more done by now.

Bill
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