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Old 26-02-2004, 03:31 AM
Mark. Gooley
 
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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




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Old 26-02-2004, 11:32 AM
Mark. Gooley
 
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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




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Old 27-02-2004, 04:12 PM
Janice
 
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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
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Old 28-02-2004, 07:12 AM
tropo
 
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"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.


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Old 29-02-2004, 12:17 AM
Mark. Gooley
 
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"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.






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Old 29-02-2004, 12:17 AM
Mark. Gooley
 
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"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.




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Old 01-03-2004, 03:02 AM
tropo
 
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"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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Old 01-03-2004, 03:45 AM
Mark. Gooley
 
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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.




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Old 09-04-2004, 12:34 PM
hermine stover
 
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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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Old 10-04-2004, 07:03 AM
Mark. Gooley
 
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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.






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Old 11-04-2004, 12:03 AM
hermine stover
 
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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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