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looking for sources...
I wrote: I'm looking for a source of Bambusa balcooa; I've e-mailed some businesses on the American Bamboo Society source list, and I'm awaiting answers, but in the past I've had no luck with any of the places ABS lists as sometimes having it. I understand that it's a widespread pest in parts of Australia, so perhaps people are reluctant to offer it. One source replies that he is growing some from cuttings, and that people tell him he may have the only plant of the species in the U. S.! Mark., amazed |
looking for sources...
On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 20:45:17 -0500, "Mark. Gooley"
wrote: I'm looking for a source of Bambusa balcooa; I've e-mailed some businesses on the American Bamboo Society source list, and I'm awaiting answers, but in the past I've had no luck with any of the places ABS lists as sometimes having it. I understand that it's a widespread pest in parts of Australia, so perhaps people are reluctant to offer it. According to the ABS species list (and various books), Dendrocalamus asper can take 23 degrees F without damage to its culms. However, I understand that this figure is from experts in India; the D. asper I've obtained has been a Thai or an Indonesian clone, and those seem to tolerate little if any frost: I spend up to $100/plant and always lose it. Is there a hardier Indian cultivar that actually can stand 23 F? Or are they all essentially the same plant, and my cultural practices simply lousy? (Or is that temperature for a mature clump, with the cutting-grown plants I buy being more frost-tender?) Maybe I should just be grateful that my seedling moso is growing steadily bigger, and the hell with tender-ish clumpers. Mark. Gooley, in zone 8b in north Florida I saw a Bamboo grower in Alabama featured on one of the gardening shows some time back. He had all kinds of bamboo, some of it as big around as an average sized woman's forearm to a bit bigger. I am not a grower of bamboo because I'm in Zone 6, but I understand there *are* some bamboo that may even grow here, 0 to -10 F in winter. The problems may be in that we have 100+ f summers with low humidity. That humidity factor plays a big part in how happy and how high and low a temperature a bamboo can take. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the fellow in Alabama who was featured on the gardening program, but at least someone is close by that you may be able to locate. Good luck! Janice |
looking for sources...
"Mark. Gooley" wrote
I understand that it's a widespread pest in parts of Australia, so perhaps people are reluctant to offer it. I'm in Australia and I haven't heard it referred to as a pest before. It is, or was the most common large, clumping bamboo on the east coast before the new era of bamboo plantations. It is a very good durable bamboo although like many Bambusas, it has a lot of long branches that can get interlocked making it a little untidy and difficult to manage. I prefer Gigantochloa & Dendrocalamus species. |
looking for sources...
"tropo" wrote : "Mark. Gooley" wrote I understand that it's [B. balcooa] a widespread pest in parts of Australia, so perhaps people are reluctant to offer it. I'm in Australia and I haven't heard it referred to as a pest before. It is, or was the most common large, clumping bamboo on the east coast before the new era of bamboo plantations. It is a very good durable bamboo although like many Bambusas, it has a lot of long branches that can get interlocked making it a little untidy and difficult to manage. I prefer Gigantochloa & Dendrocalamus species. I can't seem to find a site calling it a pest, just some mention of how there are some out-of-control stands on the east coast of Australia, and how, yeah, it's not the easiest to harvest because of the tangled branches. Wonder where I got the idea? What I'd really like to grow is D. asper, but although that's supposed to be able to withstand about 23 degrees F (-5 C) without damage to the culms, I have not been able to get it to survive a winter here (usual harsh winter: brief lows around 18 F; this rather mild winter we're in now, lows so far around 25 F). I can get D. asper plants grown from cuttings; maybe I need to give them winter protection until they get fairly large. I was hoping that B. balcooa would have enough extra cold-hardiness to survive here reliably. (I'm in north Florida, and D. asper seems to do okay in the southernmost parts of Florida, as in the Miami area [and surely the Keys, if anyone has tried it there]. Maybe it's just plain too cold here for the tropical clumpers, and I'm stuck with B. oldhamii or the like.) Mark. |
looking for sources...
"tropo" wrote : "Mark. Gooley" wrote I understand that it's [B. balcooa] a widespread pest in parts of Australia, so perhaps people are reluctant to offer it. I'm in Australia and I haven't heard it referred to as a pest before. It is, or was the most common large, clumping bamboo on the east coast before the new era of bamboo plantations. It is a very good durable bamboo although like many Bambusas, it has a lot of long branches that can get interlocked making it a little untidy and difficult to manage. I prefer Gigantochloa & Dendrocalamus species. I can't seem to find a site calling it a pest, just some mention of how there are some out-of-control stands on the east coast of Australia, and how, yeah, it's not the easiest to harvest because of the tangled branches. Wonder where I got the idea? What I'd really like to grow is D. asper, but although that's supposed to be able to withstand about 23 degrees F (-5 C) without damage to the culms, I have not been able to get it to survive a winter here (usual harsh winter: brief lows around 18 F; this rather mild winter we're in now, lows so far around 25 F). I can get D. asper plants grown from cuttings; maybe I need to give them winter protection until they get fairly large. I was hoping that B. balcooa would have enough extra cold-hardiness to survive here reliably. (I'm in north Florida, and D. asper seems to do okay in the southernmost parts of Florida, as in the Miami area [and surely the Keys, if anyone has tried it there]. Maybe it's just plain too cold here for the tropical clumpers, and I'm stuck with B. oldhamii or the like.) Mark. |
looking for sources...
"Mark. Gooley" wrote in message ... "tropo" wrote : "Mark. Gooley" wrote I understand that it's [B. balcooa] a widespread pest in parts of Australia, so perhaps people are reluctant to offer it. I'm in Australia and I haven't heard it referred to as a pest before. It is, or was the most common large, clumping bamboo on the east coast before the new era of bamboo plantations. It is a very good durable bamboo although like many Bambusas, it has a lot of long branches that can get interlocked making it a little untidy and difficult to manage. I prefer Gigantochloa & Dendrocalamus species. I can't seem to find a site calling it a pest, just some mention of how there are some out-of-control stands on the east coast of Australia, and how, yeah, it's not the easiest to harvest because of the tangled branches. Wonder where I got the idea? What I'd really like to grow is D. asper, but although that's supposed to be able to withstand about 23 degrees F (-5 C) without damage to the culms, I have not been able to get it to survive a winter here (usual harsh winter: brief lows around 18 F; this rather mild winter we're in now, lows so far around 25 F). I can get D. asper plants grown from cuttings; maybe I need to give them winter protection until they get fairly large. I was hoping that B. balcooa would have enough extra cold-hardiness to survive here reliably. (I'm in north Florida, and D. asper seems to do okay in the southernmost parts of Florida, as in the Miami area [and surely the Keys, if anyone has tried it there]. Maybe it's just plain too cold here for the tropical clumpers, and I'm stuck with B. oldhamii or the like.) Mark. I think balcooa has about the same cold hardiness as D. asper, at least the Javanese clone, I don't know about the Thai seedling clones. I once lived in a river valley in NSW where we regularly had minimum temps of -7 degrees C (about 19F) A balcooa I planted was killed to ground level every year for a 3 or 4 years. Each year recovering bigger and stronger because of the build-up of surviving rhizome mass. Then one winter was mild and the culms survived and the clump never looked back. To look at the massive clump now, 15 years later, you couldn't tell it ever had a hard time. Asper should do the same but whatever protection you can give it over winter will only help. Especially that first one if it's only a small plant. http://www.earthcare.com.au/slides/balcooa.htm http://www.earthcare.com.au/slides/asper.htm Hans |
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"tropo" wrote I think [B.] balcooa has about the same cold hardiness as D. asper, at least the Javanese clone, I don't know about the Thai seedling clones. I once lived in a river valley in NSW where we regularly had minimum temps of -7 degrees C (about 19F) A balcooa I planted was killed to ground level every year for 3 or 4 years. Each year recovering bigger and stronger because of the build-up of surviving rhizome mass. Then one winter was mild and the culms survived and the clump never looked back. To look at the massive clump now, 15 years later, you couldn't tell it ever had a hard time. Asper should do the same but whatever protection you can give it over winter will only help. Especially that first one if it's only a small plant. Thanks, that's very encouraging. I'll try to provide better drainage (clay/sand mix on most of my land, with clay for a long way underneath: high ground for the area but very water-retentive) and some serious winter protection for a few years: found a source in south Florida that's not too expensive (for D. asper and some other slightly hardy tropicals, though not B. balcooa). I have a B. dissimulator that gets stronger every year in the way you describe, but I think it needs better drainage than it is getting, as it's still sickly. Another problem is that the cold-tolerant clumpers tend to shoot fairly late, at least for me, so that by the time the first frost hits the new culms have not hardened off enough to survive it. Then the clump puts out sort of off-season, rather undersized new culms in spring...and then proper ones only a few weeks before frost, AGAIN. It's very frustrating. Mark. |
looking for sources...
On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 05:22:33 -0500, "Mark. Gooley"
wrote: I wrote: I'm looking for a source of Bambusa balcooa; I've e-mailed some businesses on the American Bamboo Society source list, and I'm awaiting answers, but in the past I've had no luck with any of the places ABS lists as sometimes having it. I understand that it's a widespread pest in parts of Australia, so perhaps people are reluctant to offer it. One source replies that he is growing some from cuttings, and that people tell him he may have the only plant of the species in the U. S.! Mark., amazed Well, there is at least ONE OTHER! and ours came from someplace. so I do not think so, but it is not commercially available yet. There just is not enough of it to begin cutting up. hermine |
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"hermine stover" wrote: [on B. balcooa] We have never yet been moved to propagate it because of the lack of demand. I mean, it is rare here, but it is also very much like oldhamii which is a standard of the industry for tall clumping bamboos. I believe it is somewhat more cold-sensitive than oldhamii. I really should get an oldhamii anyway, and, yeah, the ABS species list and other sources say it's more cold-tender. But I'm a glutton for punishment -- hey, I went and bought a Dendrocalamus asper last month, which in my part of Florida may well croak from the cold, and all of my biggish clumpers are struggling anyway, even the B. ventricosa: they tend to shoot in the autumn and then the immature culms get killed by frost. Mark. |
looking for sources...
On Fri, 27 Feb 2004 08:03:29 -0700, Janice
wrote: On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 20:45:17 -0500, "Mark. Gooley" wrote: I'm looking for a source of Bambusa balcooa; I've e-mailed some businesses on the American Bamboo Society source list, and I'm awaiting answers, but in the past I've had no luck with any of the places ABS lists as sometimes having it. I understand that it's a widespread pest in parts of Australia, so perhaps people are reluctant to offer it. In Southern California, it looks very much like Bambusa oldhamii. we hear that it tastes better, and we are familiar with the story of how monstrous huge it becomes in Australia, but this has not been the case for US. I like it. Our plant came from one of The American Bamboo Society auctions, and we understand there is not much of it in the USA. We have never yet been moved to propagate it because of the lack of demand. I mean, it is rare here, but it is also very much like oldhamii which is a standard of the industry for tall clumping bamboos. I believe it is somewhat more cold-sensitive than oldhamii. hermine |
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