Increasing the growth rate of a seedling
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:18 am
After growing several batches of moso seedlings, I've figured out that they do better in the ground in being grown in pots, but this time I'm dealing with kwangsiensis seedlings which seem to show slower growth starting off, but they are speeding up now so I had to move some of them out of their 1 gallon containers. One of the problems I have encountered with smaller containers is that they tend to get lighter color leaves probably because nutrients get washed away which may be why my moso doesn't do well in pots. Ironite would probably help, but I only use it when I absolutely need to because that stuff is expensive.
My experiment is putting one of them up to a 15 gallon container which will hopefully moderate temperature and give more growing room, sort of like a raised bed. I fill the pot up first 1/2 way with dried leaves so I don't have to use so much soil, and to help drainage which doesn't seem to hurt the bamboos. I also use my own potting mix which consists of stuff from my compost pile, peat moss, pine mulch, milorganite, worm castings and mushroom compost. My goal is to get larger culms, and the only reason I'm keeping all of them potted is so I can protect them much easier over winter so they get well established before getting planted.
Here's the plant currently at 1ft tall just up-potted to it's 15 gallon container. My goal is to get 1/2 inch diameter shoots by next spring, and have it well established in it's pot, but I'm probably asking for too much.
I use much smaller 3-5 gallon pots for the rest of them which will probably go on ebay next spring right before they shoot next year.
I'm also going to use a wall o water to heat up this seedling since they have made vegetables such as peppers and tomatoes grow twice as fast as shown here. This tomato seedling in the WOW was about the same size as the others when I put it on, but since then, the size difference has kept on growing.
My experiment is putting one of them up to a 15 gallon container which will hopefully moderate temperature and give more growing room, sort of like a raised bed. I fill the pot up first 1/2 way with dried leaves so I don't have to use so much soil, and to help drainage which doesn't seem to hurt the bamboos. I also use my own potting mix which consists of stuff from my compost pile, peat moss, pine mulch, milorganite, worm castings and mushroom compost. My goal is to get larger culms, and the only reason I'm keeping all of them potted is so I can protect them much easier over winter so they get well established before getting planted.
Here's the plant currently at 1ft tall just up-potted to it's 15 gallon container. My goal is to get 1/2 inch diameter shoots by next spring, and have it well established in it's pot, but I'm probably asking for too much.
I use much smaller 3-5 gallon pots for the rest of them which will probably go on ebay next spring right before they shoot next year.
I'm also going to use a wall o water to heat up this seedling since they have made vegetables such as peppers and tomatoes grow twice as fast as shown here. This tomato seedling in the WOW was about the same size as the others when I put it on, but since then, the size difference has kept on growing.