Hardy Tropicals UK

Ive only tried bamboo once before and it was a bad idea..it ran like crazy and I couldn't get rid of it so I swore off of it..wellll I went to the zoo today and there was bamboo growing everywhere so I was intrigued. My wife said her grandmother had a 20 year old patch I could take a crack at so we headed that way...I came up on this patch I would say was 20 feet wide and about the same deep with canes reaching 30 feet easy. I hit the large ones with a shovel to no luck aafter working at a 2 came clump for 45 minsI went after the small ones.. I managed to get some clumps up about 4 feet long with lots of shoots comming off the top but even those were a massive amount of work. even broke my shovel tip off. there soaking in water until I can plant in the morning.. basically did I do this right? I did cut the main root/rhizome on each end to get the clumps out of the ground. will they survive and if they wont how do I go about getting up 20 year old bamboo from the ground with out harm...If I knew what specie it was I would tell you.. All I know is it has blue green leaves and the stalk is dark green and it can handle -10F easy with no damage

The easiest method of digging up a bamboo, is with a mini digger or JCB!
Also its best done in the spring, but if you've got a large enough clump you might get away with it

if the canes/culms are 30ft on your cuttings they need to have their height reduced by at least a third because the rootmass wont be able to support such tall canes.smaller canes would probably be a better choice with as large a rootmass as possible.

i just watched this


and by chance am picking one of these up at lunchtime from argos (same price as amazon)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00074ETBK/r ... B00074ETBK


easy!

thanks for the help I imagein the small ones I took will survive then. one other question. If I manage to get some of the 30 foot canes out of the ground and I chop them off to about 4 feet or so do they start to branch out there or do they go back to the tall height and begin to grow again.. I honestly didn't think I could cut them off and they would regrow I figured they would just skin over the top and be that height forever

they wont regrow. if you cut a culm that is 30ft to 4ft you will be left with a stump of 4ft for good.bamboos grow from the ground up with new shoots appearing in spring that reach their full height in about 60 days and then branch out and leaf up.then it is finished growing, it will put on more foliage as the years go by but essentially the culm wont grow anymore.

if I could manage to get some of the 30ft stalks home some how would it be able to support itself after transplant if I could keep it from falling over? Id like to take some of the waiting out of growing them since Im useing them like a green screen so I don't have to see the neighbors

Jacko's right ... you need to reduce the height drastically ... otherwise they will either die or take years to get established.

It's like anything, your rootmass must be balance by the top growth.


Laz

your better off with the smaller cuttings and to be patient.if you take 30ft cuttings you would need a huge rootmass to support such large culms.plus i'm intrigued on how you would get said cuttings from A to B.low loader ?

I live in the farm lands of KY there really isnt anything you can't have on the road.. if I threw them on a trailor and put a flag on the end to tell people where to stop no one would say a thing..next time I'm up there I'll take some pictures of the massive clump

yeah i'd like to see some pics of it and then maybe have a guess of what species it is.

been meaning to take pics of this for awhile. I finally went back there for the holidays and remembered to snap a picture. I was in a hurry to get out of there ( place was crawling with in laws ) so just a quick on from afar. I plan on going and trying to get some good size culms in march before it shoots again. grove is about 15 years old cumls are at least 30 ft. the little gazebo is about 8 ft tall for scale. I have some really small culms if someone wants a leaf pic to try and ID it. smooth culms green all winter about 30 ft tall takes temps well below freezing heavy runner. about all I know

Try looking at Chusquea gigantea pictures online, see if that looks the part, your picture reminded me of my clump of this. If it is I find it goes a lot deeper than most Bamboo and spreads like mad, but its a lovely thing if you have the space

it could be an all green vivax.looks like a phyllostachys rather than a chusquea to me.other possible could be phyllostachys nigra henon but older culms would be grey green rather than ordinary green.some close up pics would be better if possible.march would be better for taking cuttings too.

I was in a hurry to leave so I just snapped off that pic but I will get some close ups when I go back maybe wed for christmas. I have some of it outside if a leaf pic would help but I can get some good pictures wed.