Seeds available

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fredgpops
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Location: plus 700ft in the Santa Cruz Mtns, 8 miles from the Pacific
35 miles S. of San Jose

Re: Seeds available

Post by fredgpops »

Tired of propagating seeds, just scattered seeds around potted plants. Starting to see seedlings. Plants outside, protection from birds, high temps in 60's, low in low 40's. Afternoon sun. Seedlings are small and developing slowly. Obvious that Chusquea take a long time to germinate. Mother nature 1, me 0.
Tarzanus
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Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Re: Seeds available

Post by Tarzanus »

I have had 0 success with Chusquea too. Not so good with Phyllostachys nigra as well. Only got one from P. nigra 'Henon', but that one is doing extremely well.
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fredgpops
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Location: plus 700ft in the Santa Cruz Mtns, 8 miles from the Pacific
35 miles S. of San Jose

Re: Seeds available

Post by fredgpops »

My seedlings look grim. What kind of soil mix are you using? Rgds Fred
Tarzanus
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Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Re: Seeds available

Post by Tarzanus »

I use regular potting soil, mixed with perlite. Every couple of weeks I water it with diluted liquid fertilizer (around 3/4 of recommended solution).
The only seedling I have is under serious mite infestation. I'll go and buy something to tackle those little sap suckers. They almost destroyed my Hibiscus seedlings and some other tropicals, I need to finish them off, before they finish off my plant collection :)

None of the remaining seeds sprouted. I'm still keeping them in moist soil, but I think they are not coming out.
Tarzanus
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Re: Seeds available

Post by Tarzanus »

Just an update if anyone is interested and following the thread.

None of the seeds I tried growing sprouted, except the super-fast Phyllostachys nigra 'Henon' seedling. I've had issues with that seedling as well, when I brought mites home from work. They managed to decimate two of my Hibiscus rosa-sinensis seedlings and made the bamboo seedling look terrible. I sprayed everything to remove the pest, and I think it worked, new leaves on bamboo seedling are dark green again.
As I was getting worried that no new shoots had emerged for a while, first rhizome appeared on the soil surface while I was watering it. In a week or so, I noticed 2 more, one poking out on the edge of the pot and a large one trying to drill a hole through the pot. It's quite aggressive and again, it managed to start running in merely 4 months instead of over a year as bamboo seedlings usually need. I will need to get it into larger pot now. I can add photos if anyone is interested.

EDIT: Placed a few photos here: https://cold-hardy.com/starting-phyllos ... enon-seed/
Alan_L
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Location: St. Louis area

Re: Seeds available

Post by Alan_L »

That's amazing growth for just a few months! I wonder if no cold period will set it back? It might be too young to "care" about that.
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needmore
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Bamboo Society Membership: ABS - America
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Re: Seeds available

Post by needmore »

Holy crap that guy is vigorous! Next culms should approximate that rhizome diameter and that looks to be a nice up size. Part of me misses growing the running forms, or at least the vast options of cultivars, here I'm having trouble finding species, I think I have 18 or so and will pick 6 more in a couple of days but I'm used to 100+ species with the runners and those had diversity to a large extent. The clumpers here seem more similar to a degree in appearance.
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
http://www.needmorebamboo.com
Tarzanus
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Re: Seeds available

Post by Tarzanus »

Alan, without the dormancy, it won't even bother shooting. Usually it just sends out whips grom infinite rhizome growth. Seen it with the super aggressive Phyllostachys arcana seedling. Sadly guys I gave it to managed to kill it. If they would plant it outside (like they said they would), I think it would be a monster by now.

Growing runners sure is rewarding. Their explosive growth is really unique, but then again, there's an effort of controlling that beasty behaviour. That takes some of the fun away. Anyway, I love growing seeds, you never know what you will get.
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