I've been sending some PMs lately, usually of the format "I see you're growing _____. How is it doing for you in your climate?" My goal is to find out how species I'm interested in are doing for those in similar climates.

The answer I get back a lot is "Well it's a tiny 1-culm division in a pot that I've had for 2 months, so can't tell you much." (Something along those lines.)

It would be great if there was some way in the plants list to indicate if the plant is in-ground or in a pot. Maybe even get more advanced and have a way to specify the year it was planted in ground, or size of plant. Maybe specify pot size too (if in a pot)? Just ideas.

Anybody else think this or related info would be useful?

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Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

That would be very helpful! Great idea!

I dunno about that. I grow most of my bamboos in pots. From one gallon size to half wine barrels and 50 gallon tubs. 15"-30' high bamboos out there.

USDA zone maps are best for gauging how well they will grow in your area. The coldest temperature is the best and more important factor in selecting a bomboo for growing in your area. The ABS sourse list has them all listed, as well as the source list on the home page of this site. They also list the shade/sun that they like, as well as the size that they can get.

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Happy trails...

That's kind of my point. It would be nice to have that information listed somehow in the plants list. If one of the goals of this forum is to spread information about growing bamboo, why not supply as much info as possible? (Aside from technical issues in implementing it of course.) Just some way of indicating age/size of the plants.

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Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

This is why I keep a couple different spreadsheets with all my info. One is shared, and one is private (contains price paid, etc). I used to have size of container, but somewhere along the way I deleted that column. Maybe I'll take a few minutes tomorrow and put it back in.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... gPYA&hl=en

Thats WAY to confidential for me to keep in the house... what if the wife found it

Yes, that's a good idea, but *everybody* isn't doing it, and it's not part of the plants database so isn't searchable.

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Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

I understand that. I was agreeing with you

My wife knows what I pay for all my plants. She enjoys bamboo too, so she doesn't mind me spending a bit of money on them. Also, the kids love to play in the plants, "light saber" battle with cut down culms, etc. If it was something that was just for me there might be a problem, but the entire family enjoys it.

I've spent less on bamboo over the last few years than I would have spent taking the family to Disney for a week, and the kids play with the bamboo daily.

well, I cant say that Heather WONT let me buy bamboos... she just looks at the prices of some of them, and thinks Im crazy.... the worst fight we have had since we have been married (11 years) was the Borinda papyrifera incedent.......

I have added that field to the new forum mods and I am also going to add a field to check if you grew a species but removed it. I have grown some plants that did not do well so I am removing them before they die and I would still like to show that I tried to grow them.

I still plan on adding everything that is in the growth data form and have it in a form that is easier to use. see the old forms on http://www.bambooweb.info/DataEntry.php

The new forum software is getting closer.

Bill

Bill -- where will this growth data be shown? Will it be searchable?

I like the "removed" option, as that's something I'm about to do with one plant. =)

A few suggestions:

1) Instead of "years since planted", "year planted" might be better. That way if I select "2007" it always makes sense immediately. If it's "2 years", then I have to look at what date the record was last modified, and then I'm not even sure if its accurate. With the year of planting, I always know. Maybe month/year of planting? MM/YYYY

2) Would pot size in gallons be better? It's always hard with dual-purpose fields.
Grove width (feet) / pot size (gal)
Grove length (feet)
- or maybe -
Grove width (feet) / pot diameter (inches)
Grove length (feet) / pot height (inches)

3) Add "In ground - contained" to "Planted" choices.

4) Add "Number of Culms".

5) Can you have a link to a photo of the plant here? (or photos) Or maybe it makes sense to show only on the record display page, not the data entry page.

Some of these may not make sense, as I'm not sure how the growth data is intended to be used. New record each year for each plant? My original post in this topic was for general info that's always available in the "plants" list.

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Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

It will be accessed through map and location and plant list screens. You can view all of the locations and select one and it will show that locations data like what is shown now with the location button. On the plant list you can click on the name of the plant to view the entries for that plant and photos at that location. You can also show on the map one species and each location will show the location data and the growth entries. There will be other searches later.



I did that so you can compare the size of a two or three year old plant. adding a planted date would be good.


The problem with pot sizes in gallons is there are many different dimensions of pots all called the same size. I do like adding the pot height. With javascript I can change the text depending on "Planted" choice.



Good Idea.


I have a number of changes to add to the photo entry that should make it easier to enter and edit photos.



I see the growth records entered each year and displayed as a group of pages sorted by date.

Bill