"Mark. Gooley" wrote in message
...

"Bob Johannessen" wrote

I'm in the San Francisco Bay area and my moso have been putting up new
shoots for at least two weeks now. The folks out here say that moso
needs a lot of water during the shooting season in order to size up more
quickly but they also say it can take up to ten or twelve years to reach
large size (probably around 4" diameter).

Watering...good to know. I have soil that's a sand/clay mix, with
clay underneath, and very water-retentive, perhaps to excess for
bamboo. I watered my clump yesterday just in case, as we haven't
had rain for a while; some is in the forecast. Also I really should
buy and apply some lime, as the soil is around pH 5.5.

"And anudder t'ing," as Bugs Bunny would say: the textbook
diameter for moso culms in a mature grove in good condition is
around 7 inches, but I've never seen or heard of moso of any
clone in the US exceeding around 4. One year I was in the yearly
cleanup of the famous cemetery moso grove in Anderson, SC
(there are actually two, one maintained by enthusiasts from the
ABS, one not, as it's on the edge of a sort of ravine and I'm sure
someone fears an accident and a lawsuit) and not one culm was
thicker than about 4 inches. The moso at the old Experiment
Station near Savannah, GA is thinner yet, last I visited.

What gives? Conditions? Genetics? Surely there is some place
in North America or Europe where the soil and climate are enough
like those in China or Japan that moso can reach its full potential,
but if so I haven't heard of it. Maybe SC, GA, and FL are just too
hot. The Anderson grove is in stereotypical red Georgia clay soil,
which presumably is just the thing; maybe it just needs a bit of
fertilizer that it may not be getting. Maybe an English or Pacific
Northwest climate is what's wanted: are the culms fatter in such
places?

Mark.



=============

Moso definitely does get bigger than what's in the Old Silverbush Cemetery
grove. I don't know about in the US though. I've seen pieces from China
that were at least 6" diameter. It may be a climate thing. Anderson, SC is
so incredibly hot/humid in the summer, yet can get quite cold at times in
the winter. Savannah's problem may also be extreme heat and humidity and a
hint of salt air. You'd think it would be common in northern FL, but I've
never seen any there. In China, it can grow at some altitude and probably
never gets the extreme temperature swings we see. It is most definitely a
tropical to subtropical range grower in China.

BTW where is the other grove in Anderson? When we first tried to find the
above mentioned grove, we found very few local people that had any idea of
what we were talking about. I live in northeast TN (Zone 6a) and would
love to try 'Moso' but scared of losing my investment over the winter on
this pricey plant. P. vivax does well here.

David Sizemore
Kingsport, TN
"no shoots yet"