Dulcis Shoot - normal?

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Canadrew
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Dulcis Shoot - normal?

Post by Canadrew »

Hey all,
I know that I'm being "nervous first parent" and I'm overthinking, but I was stressing over my newly planted Dulcis (25G pot to a 5x2x3 planter) as it wasn't shooting and the leaves were fading and falling in large numbers.
But Lo! There is this tiny shoot!
But it's not moving. It's been 3 days since emergence, and it hasn't really done anything. I lightly dug around it and there's a sizable rhizome that it's connected to, so there's hope? Is this a normal behavior?
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Alan_L
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Re: Dulcis Shoot - normal?

Post by Alan_L »

If we say "that's not normal", what will you do about it? :)

My advice: try to be patient. That shoot will start growing soon. Or not. (Probably yes.) You'll get other shoots too.

If it helps my dulcis hasn't started visibly shooting yet, but I check it almost every day. :)
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needmore
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Re: Dulcis Shoot - normal?

Post by needmore »

I don't know what your temps have been but its damn cool down here south of you and in cool weather shoots will not do much. Personally, I might toss some more dirt or mulch over that rhizome & shoot, it looks a bit shallow.
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
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Tarzanus
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Re: Dulcis Shoot - normal?

Post by Tarzanus »

It can start growing and then completely stop for quite a while. It restarts when it receives an environmental trigger. Don't bother it too much and it should be fine when its time comes. :mrgreen:
Canadrew
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Re: Dulcis Shoot - normal?

Post by Canadrew »

Thanks guys - appreciate it. It relieves me to hear that it hasn't shooted (shot?) in the South yet either...

We had one weekend of 28C weather and blazing sun. But now, in Pacific Northwest fashion, it's back to 20C and on and off rain. Weather looks ok for next week so hopefully it'll restart with some more sun.
I put some more dirt over the shallow rhizome.

Fingers crossed! My goal with the plant is to propagate it and make a good hedge in a couple years inside contained planters. So I want it to live!
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needmore
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Re: Dulcis Shoot - normal?

Post by needmore »

Actually my running bamboo shooting season is essentially over down here, I think only my S tootsik has yet to start, others are leafing out already. I was just pointing out that when shoots first start if you get a cooler period they will almost stall or at least be very slow; later once they've gone on up you'll notice that the space between nodes on the lower parts is much shorter than above when it warmed back up.
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pokenei
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Re: Dulcis Shoot - normal?

Post by pokenei »

I'll provide a doom and gloom view amongst all the positive ones. That shoot doesn't look so good. A healthy shoot should feel hard and smooth looking.

Best case scenario, some other shoots will emerge when the plant is ready.

Worst case, it will become a living stick. I've had one where I planted a newly divided bamboo into the ground too soon and not protected it for winter. Came spring time, it put up two new shoots but soon aborted them because there were no leaves to help sustain the energy required for the shoots to grow. Little did I know, it has used up all the nodes that it can grow new shoots from. It lived for a few more years before dying altogether.
Alan_L
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Re: Dulcis Shoot - normal?

Post by Alan_L »

Curious how things went with the dulcis in the original post?
Canadrew
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Re: Dulcis Shoot - normal?

Post by Canadrew »

Alan_L wrote:Curious how things went with the dulcis in the original post?
Thanks for the nudge Alan, had thought about providing an update, but never got around to it (obviously).

There is signs of life! The bud hasn't materialised to anything noteworthy yet, but it has expanded since the first photo and the back looks like it's "hatching" exposing some nice green underneath the exterior.

I have had one new confirmed shoot, but it hasn't done much either :o . It emerged after I hand dug around the planting in desperation, trying to find other shoots. It's thickened up and maybe grew a bit, and only now is it starting to break the plane of the planter.

We are in the full swing of "June-uary" with more cold temps and rain in the forecast. I don't think it's hit 72C yet this month.
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