At the moment I was wondering if by any chance someone there who knows
all about bamboo problems could take a quick peek at my patch and tell
me if you see any problems I may need to address before it's too late.
My late grandmother planted this patch back in the 1940's and it has
grown wonderfully ever since.

Last fall I was laid off from my job so I started making and selling
bamboo didgeridoo's (http://www.etsy.com/shop/scarumtrading)

This is my family's only source of income right now so the health of
this patch is extremely important. I have been cutting these poles
like crazy thinking there is no way I could hurt the patch but I think
I may have caused some problems. This spring when the new bamboo came
up a lot of the new shoots died after growing about a foot or two.

Here are photo's of my patch... can you please tell me what you think
of the overall appearance and take a guess at the health of these?
http://s643.photobucket.com/albums/u...Man420/bamboo/

Here is a 60 second video walkthrough of the patch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNYlnbFPJRQ

Any tips, suggestions or help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you

-=] RiverMan [=-

Bamboo puts up many more shoots than it can bring to full size with
the available food and energy and it aborts the excess.
Seeing the aborted shoots alarms many new bamboo growers but step back
and I bet you have had just as many shoots make it to full height ,you
just never paid this close of attention before.
This late in the season I don't think I would fertillize but anywhere
you can add organic material- leaves -gass clippings- wood chips-crop
wastes-etc
would add strength; also a light dressing of wood ashes will provide
nutrients. Avoid adding nitrogen at his time as it will affect winter
hardyness.
A source of nitrogen such as a good dressing of manure come late
winter through spring will strengthen your grove as well.
There should be no reason why you can't take a good tenth of what is
standing every year if the soil is good.

Tom

































If there are reserves of nutrients in the soil I don't see any reason
why you could not remove 10% of the poles annually

On Aug 30, 4:22*pm, beecrofter wrote:
Bamboo puts up many more shoots than it can bring to full size with
the available food and energy and it aborts the excess.
Seeing the aborted shoots alarms many new bamboo growers but step back
and I bet you have had just as many shoots make it to full height ,you
just never paid this close of attention before.
This late in the season I don't think I would fertillize but anywhere
you can add organic material- leaves -gass clippings- wood chips-crop
wastes-etc
*would add strength; also a light dressing of wood ashes will provide
nutrients. Avoid adding nitrogen at his time as it will affect winter
hardyness.
A source of nitrogen such as a good dressing of manure come late
winter through spring will strengthen your grove as well.
There should be no reason why you can't take a good tenth of what is
standing every year if the soil is good.

Tom

If there are reserves of nutrients in the soil I don't see any reason
why you could not remove 10% of the poles annually

I see that you are in Alabama, my grove is in Connecticut , you may
be able to fertillize with a source of nitrogen far later in the year
than I can here.

On Aug 30, 3:27*pm, beecrofter wrote:
On Aug 30, 4:22*pm, beecrofter wrote:



Bamboo puts up many more shoots than it can bring to full size with
the available food and energy and it aborts the excess.
Seeing the aborted shoots alarms many new bamboo growers but step back
and I bet you have had just as many shoots make it to full height ,you
just never paid this close of attention before.
This late in the season I don't think I would fertillize but anywhere
you can add organic material- leaves -gass clippings- wood chips-crop
wastes-etc
*would add strength; also a light dressing of wood ashes will provide
nutrients. Avoid adding nitrogen at his time as it will affect winter
hardyness.
A source of nitrogen such as a good dressing of manure come late
winter through spring will strengthen your grove as well.
There should be no reason why you can't take a good tenth of what is
standing every year if the soil is good.

Tom

If there are reserves of nutrients in the soil I don't see any reason
why you could not remove 10% of the poles annually

I see that you are in Alabama, my grove is in Connecticut , *you may
be able to fertillize with a source of nitrogen far later in the year
than I can here.

Thanks so much for the tips. I had never thought before about boring
insects or fungus. I always thought bamboo was almost unstoppable. It
has spread from an area of about 20' by 40' to well over 75' by 120'
since I was a child in the early 1970's. Of course it was also very
dense back then. So dense in fact that you could hardly walk through
it. Now it's wide open. We are in the process of cleaning out all the
dead and fallen poles now too.

I may invest in some lawn fertilizer and give it a light sprinkle this
week. We get a lot of rain here (around 60" a year) so it should
dilute quickly.

Thanks again for your tips. I'll try to find some composted cow dung
and we have plenty of wood ash from roasting the bamboo poles for
didge making.

-=] RiverMan [=-

Such a very amazing link!
Thanks you for the post.

On Sep 7, 8:29*pm, carolyny476
wrote:
RiverMan;898659 Wrote:



At the moment I was wondering if by any chance someone there who knows
all about bamboo problems could take a quick peek at my patch and tell
me if you see any problems I may need to address before it's too late.
My late grandmother planted this patch back in the 1940's and it has
grown wonderfully ever since.

Last fall I was laid off from my job so I started making and selling
bamboo didgeridoo's ('Didgeridoo's by RiverMan by scarumtrading on Etsy'
(http://www.etsy.com/shop/scarumtrading))

This is my family's only source of income right now so the health of
this patch is extremely important. I have been cutting these poles
like crazy thinking there is no way I could hurt the patch but I think
I may have caused some problems. This spring when the new bamboo came
up a lot of the new shoots died after growing about a foot or two.

Here are photo's of my patch... can you please tell me what you think
of the overall appearance and take a guess at the health of these?
'bamboo pictures by RiverMan420 - Photobucket'
(http://tinyurl.com/39jehqm)

Here is a 60 second video walkthrough of the patch:
'YouTube - Bamboo Patch' (http://tinyurl.com/2euvlvd)

Any tips, suggestions or help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you

-=] RiverMan [=-

Such a very amazing link!
Thanks you for the post.

--
carolyny476

Thanks!

Oh yeah... you can also reply at my facebook page. Just search for
"River Man"

As you seem very passionate about this, I think you ought to try growing some woolleybutt, as its what the pukker digi's are made of and has a much better reasonace and will command a far, far higher price...

Eucalyptus didgeridoo. Eucalyptus species for didgeridoo making.

Wish we could grow bamboo like that here...sadly not warm enough.

On Sep 8, 7:20*am, RiverMan wrote:
Oh yeah... you can also reply at my facebook page. Just search for
"River Man"

If you can find horse,cow,rabbit, chicken manure you can just
broadcast it throughout the grove, don't worry about composting it
unless you are putting it down in a solid layer.

Riverman, I've always heard that you can cut up to a third of your grove without causing damage to the grove. I think it will recover. But my Phyllostachys aureosulcata does this every year. Many shoots abort. Most of the time they are your best shoots. Good Luck nice diggeradoos?