lwabirds

I uncovered some of my basjoos today. Planning on uncovering the rest tomorrow. Already have quite a bit of growth showing.

__________________
May you be in heaven a half an hour before the devil knows you're dead

lwabirds

__________________
May you be in heaven a half an hour before the devil knows you're dead

wilson1963

SE Ohio uncovered 2 weeks ago, been keeping them in covered area...take a look:

Musa 2011 pictures by wilson1963 - Photobucket

Enjoy...Don

has a dream

mine are coming up in st. louis

__________________

kaczercat

lwabirds and wilson you both did an awesome job with overwintering them ! niceeee

__________________
Matt

stevelau1911

I think as long as the corm is protected, they should be OK. Planting them well below the soil level should keep the corm alive even if there's no protection at all because I've dug up one of my corms that was in my unheated greenhouse, but buried 1ft deep, and despite the top part being completely wiped out, the corm was completely intact. Pretty much anything below soil lvl, by 2-3 inches is unharmed.

I think the 2 other ones which were very well protected on top of being planted deep should come back strong in June.

__________________
I'm in zone 6 upstate NY, specialize in growing temperate cold hardy bamboos(mainly phyllostachys) and starting to get into bananas.

my picture website is http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

wilson1963

My bamboo project last summer, any suggestions for a good fertalizer for running bamboo??

Bamboo Project pictures by wilson1963 - Photobucket

stevelau1911

Bamboos are generally heavy feeders, and I would not suggest buying grass or chemical fertilizers because all they do is promote foliage growth, cause them to sacrifice root growth for top growth, and it's a lot of money down the drain.

I would suggest going on craigslist or somewhere you can get truckloads of mulch, manure, or compost to lay over all the bamboos. It's better to create a nice ecosystem underneath the ground, and the health of the bamboos will follow naturally. Having a layer of mulch or organic matter can help retain moisture, and promote rhizome growth. Looks like you have regular yellow groove, or P aureosulcata alata which should be pretty easy to grow. Grass clippings, twigs, cardboard, or any other kinds of organic material can help too.

Here's my P Parvifolia last year after I added a layer of horse manure mixed with sawdust last year in order to feed the shoots for this year. I usually feed them right after they're done shooting because that's when they have the most root growth. This is about 150lbs of manure under here, and if I were to reach under there now there are thousands of worms crawling around which help improve the soil even more.

__________________
I'm in zone 6 upstate NY, specialize in growing temperate cold hardy bamboos(mainly phyllostachys) and starting to get into bananas.

my picture website is http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

sandy0225

Your running bamboo won't need fertilizer, in three years you're going to need a trencher and roundup! That's been my experience, anyway....lol...we had to dig some with my dad's backhoe, it was 25 feet from the original patch and poked a hole in my second fish pond.
Do you have yellow groove? That's what mine is.
If you want to fertilize it, horse or cow manure is good, even chicken manure doesn't seem to burn it though. One of my customers throws all his dog poop in his grove. Once you get it started, you won't kill it. I just hope your barrier works. Rubber roof material for that second pond didn't stop it. Have you considered digging a trench 8-12" deep around your area just for good measure? then when you see the runners trying to cross, snip them off with pruners about once every 2-3 months and pull out anything on the other side.

__________________
Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

stevelau1911

Even though I'm in z6, I'm in such a cool climate, that bamboos, even the most aggressive runners are limited around here as far as the amount they can spread. The growing season only lasts around 5 months here, and it takes them 3 of those to fully develop new shoots in preparation to spread rhizomes, and we don't really get that warm in the summer so rhizomes don't seem to grow that long, even on mature groves I've seen around here.

This bamboo in particular is phyllostachys parvifolia, a runner and you can already kind of tell how little it has run after 2 growing seasons. I've sold bamboo to people in warmer climates that have more spread than me already, so I can see why some people are concerned about the aggressive aspect, but that's definitely the least of my concerns. I'm actually hoping to get some more rhizomes so I can get more divisions. I've also done a couple years of research on these plants, and even in a warm enough climate, it should be pretty easy to control these guys without ditches or barriers. Lets say it suddenly got warm one summer and my bamboos finally spread out a few feet, I could still easily locate the rhizomes, turn them back, or turn them into a whip shoot to make a division.

I have 11 running bamboos in the ground, and the only one that shows any sign of invasive-ness is bissetii which kind of makes sense because it's a screening bamboo.

__________________
I'm in zone 6 upstate NY, specialize in growing temperate cold hardy bamboos(mainly phyllostachys) and starting to get into bananas.

my picture website is http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

wilson1963

[IMG][/IMG]

wilson1963

5 new pics:

Musa 2011 pictures by wilson1963 - Photobucket

stevelau1911

How deep did you plant your bananas? Mine are only 1ft deep, and I'm very glad bacause it looks like everything underground has been untouched, and even the top part still looks fresh.

I think having the corms 2ft deep might provide even more insurance given that each time they make pups, those pups will usually be a couple of inches less deep given that they are supposed to gravitate toward's their natural depth.

__________________
I'm in zone 6 upstate NY, specialize in growing temperate cold hardy bamboos(mainly phyllostachys) and starting to get into bananas.

my picture website is http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

wilson1963

planted in 07 in warm weather, can't really remember how deep, probably 10" or so.

stevelau1911

From now on, all my banana plantings will be at least 2ft deep. I pretty much built a fortress around my basjoos which kept them looking exactly the same as before I covered them, but if I get them even deeper, I might not have to go through as much trouble of protecting them. Perhaps, I could just put 1 leaf bag filled halfway with leaves over the whole thing, and hope it protects the main stem.

This was the protection I did last fall, which may have been a little bit of over-kill, but it was probably necessary given it fell to -9F this winter. When I took a peek, I was a bit surprised to find the whole stem green.
[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

__________________
I'm in zone 6 upstate NY, specialize in growing temperate cold hardy bamboos(mainly phyllostachys) and starting to get into bananas.

my picture website is http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

sunfish

Good job.Yours look better than a few of mine

stevelau1911

These are actually before pictures of when I covered them up back in November, but I've checked and it doesn't look much different as the stem is still very firm, with the pups still completely undamaged.

Even though there's no freezing temperatures in the 15 day forecast, I'm planning on leaving the protection on for another 2 months, or at least until they try pushing leaves through their protective covers which will make sure they don't get set back from a late frost.

__________________
I'm in zone 6 upstate NY, specialize in growing temperate cold hardy bamboos(mainly phyllostachys) and starting to get into bananas.

my picture website is http://www.flickr.com/photos/31489820@N02/

http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

lwabirds

basjoo flowering
I've had 5 flower in one season!

__________________
May you be in heaven a half an hour before the devil knows you're dead

wilson1963

[IMG][/IMG]

jimhardy

Mine have come back again here in southeast Iowa z5.