HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

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MidwestBambooGarden
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HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by MidwestBambooGarden »

Hello am completely new to growing bamboo but I have a dream of finding out and learning how to sustainably grow bamboo right here in the middle of Ohio. I would like to start making bamboo flutes and sell bamboo for others to make flutes. After talking with Greg White Hunt, nursery man and Bamboo flute-maker, he sold me 5 gal containers of three sub-tropical varieties... Bambusa textilis gracilis, Bambusa multiplex 'Silver Stripe', and Bambusa multiplex 'Alphonse Karr'. He told me that they could grow inside during the winter. I would like to discuss how to take care of these bamboo types. I am thinking that in a few years I would build a green house to grow my bamboo in because of the colder winters. Does anyone have some thoughts about how to best take care of these beautiful bamboo plants. I am not sure how much to water them or how to fertilize them. One of my plants has already outgrown my living room. I am not sure if I should put it in an unheated detached garage under a grow light and if so what kind of light.
Alan_L
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Re: HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by Alan_L »

MidwestBambooGarden wrote:...One of my plants has already outgrown my living room...
That's going to be one of your main problems there. Why didn't you go with any of the temperate bamboos that can survive in-ground? As somebody who once took some measures to keep less-hardy bamboos surviving the winter, I can tell you that it gets old fast.
cole
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Re: HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by cole »

My mostly worthless 2 cents is to be 100% certain of the need to commit the resources for growing out of your zone. Are the tropicals essential to high quality flutes? If you intend to compete with the $3000 professional root-end Shakuhachi flutes, the p bambusoides Sieb. & Zucc. appear to be zone 8.

But also consider that zone 6a is p aurea/golden bamboo territory, and what the Fluteman (at makeaflute.com) and many others use.

Alan's summation of just how old battling the elements becomes is pretty darn accurate. I have a five year old Chinese timber bamboo that reached seven and a half INCHES this year. Yeah, I could lug him into my grow room and keep him at >75% humidity, stagger CFLs, MHs, and HPSs, turn on the circulation fans, etc ... sh*t, come to think of it, I'd probably do it if he produced $3k culms.
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Re: HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by Tarzanus »

I'd say 6a is not even Phyllostachys aurea zone. According to my observations it loves to defoliate way to soon to be Z6 hardy, Phyllostachys aureosulcata on the other hand - good zone 6 choice.

PS: Perhaps aurea is less hardy here in Europe than in US.
cole
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Re: HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by cole »

Tarzanus wrote:I'd say 6a is not even Phyllostachys aurea zone. According to my observations it loves to defoliate way to soon to be Z6 hardy, Phyllostachys aureosulcata on the other hand - good zone 6 choice.

PS: Perhaps aurea is less hardy here in Europe than in US.
Nah, you're right, Tarzanus. The golden was hit hard by last February's crazy cold near the OP (and near us in 5b), while the yg 'only' took leaf burn and got banged up a bit. Whether yg is flute worthy is knowledge beyond my pay grade.
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Re: HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by dependable »

The best zone 6 bamboo for making flutes may be Phyllostachys nuda. Don't know much about making flutes, but nuda has considerably thicker and denser culm walls than the other zone 6 hardy bamboos I know of.
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Re: HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by johnw »

I've never had P. aurea top-survive any sort of winter here in Z6b.
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
Alan_L
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Re: HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by Alan_L »

One thing that we're not really detailing here is that for flutes I'd expect you'd want durable culms -- like you'd use in building something (even crafts) from bamboo. That means culms that are 3 years old? Definitely older than 1 year, which means that if your plant puts up a 10' culm, you'd have to protect that so it survives at least one more year.
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Re: HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by foxd »

I've had P. aurea survive some Winters here without top kill, but the last couple of Winters have not been kind to it and managed to kill P. aurea 'Koi'. I've also had some Bambusa survive several Winters outside and it would start to produce some impressive shoots by the end of the Summer, but it too was killed by the last couple of Winters. After this last Winter I may try the clone X test. The past Winter also managed to kill a Musa basjoo, a Chicago Fig and a cold hardy Palm.
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MidwestBambooGarden
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Re: HELP! Growing Tropical Bamboo in Zone 6

Post by MidwestBambooGarden »

Thank you everyone for your comments. I will look into the possibility of getting some of those bamboo types mentioned. I realize that I have some work ahead of me. If I end up coming up with some good solutions on surviving the winter, I will try to post them so that the forum can benefit from them.
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