View Poll Results: How much are you willing to give for bamboo?
$0-$20 1 100.00%
$30-$60 0 0%
$70-$100 0 0%
$110-up to $275 0 0%
Voters: 1. This poll is closed

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Old 28-11-2004, 05:08 PM
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Default Bamboo trades

OK, I am curious why everyone wants an arm and a leg for a start of bamboo? It is just a grass, it will take at least 3-4 years to start looking like a grove, you can make a grove out of one good start of bamboo (in about ten years), and yet everyone wants $75-$100 or more for a 12 inch plant. I am not rich people. Bamboo is grass and should be priced as such.
Roses are very interesting plants, but I dont see people charging a lot for them. I could buy 12 apple trees for the cost of one start of bamboo, or 12 pine trees and grow a very nice privacy screen in a couple years that bears fruit and seeds. Yes, bamboo can get pretty big and has somewhat of a rapid growth rate, once it is established, but after all it is still just big grass.

I also see these discussion forums about spreading the idea of using bamboo for decoration. They tell the common man that it is grass, evergreen, and can be hard to contain. Making a barrier can be more expensive than putting bamboo in the barrier. The barrier is usually 2-3 dollars per foot, plus the time and effort to dig an area to put the barrier in (figure one side of a barrier to make a privacy screen at 100 feet long and double it, now figure the end width at 5-10 feet now double it....now multiply by two dollars), or you can add the cost to rent a trencher(if you dont want to dig by hand). If people really want to spread the idea of using bamboo in a garden, then come down on the prices. Really! Who would pay $100 for a start of kentucky bluegrass, or ragweed? If you know of anyone, let me know....

If everyone would trade a bamboo start for a bamboo start, or charge only shipping/packaging, it would be much more feasable for everyone to get the types of bamboo (grass) they desire. These nurseries and private parties that probaly got their bamboo start from a friend for free or found it growing wild somewhere, are making a fortune by selling you grass at a majorly inflated price.

I am sure if you have read anything about bamboo, you have heard of the grove in Anderson, South Carolina. This one man has a nursery and tells the story of how he got a start of bamboo from Anderson, South Carolina. Now he sells bamboo starts for $80. Yeah, it is a good business for him. He got something for free, and now makes $80 minimum per bamboo start he sells. Amazing profit. Many upon many people have bought bamboo from the nursery. If the people who bought from the nursey would only give a start or two away on occasion, would the nursery be making $80 a start on moso bamboo? You could save about $60-$70 on a start of moso bamboo, and then turn around a year or so later and give a couple starts away or in trade, and save yourself alot of money on the bamboo types you want. Why pay an out rageous price for something someone found growing pretty much wild and got for free? Take that $100 and go to Anderson, South Carolina. Find yourself a good size chunk of rhizome and save yourself 10 years of waiting for a good size bamboo culm.
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Old 01-02-2006, 09:15 PM
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Indeed some bamboos are reasonably common, but others are not. The cost of importing a new bamboo into a country can run into $1K-$2K! In order for people to be able to do this, they have to sell the initial bamboos at a reasonable price. There is a good reason for these quarantine inpections and this import process in that it helps prevent pests being imported as well. I guess we've made a bit of a mess with the bamboo mites! Combine this with the cost of perhaps trying to merely locate a Phyllostachys Nigra 'Mejiro' (Black with green sulcus), and you get an idea of where the costs come from. You try and locate one of these. I've found 1 set of pictures and that's it! The fact that you have access to the variety that you do is thanks to collectors being prepared to pay these amounts in order to make them available, and you and others should be grateful for this.

In addition, some bamboos are slow growing and very difficult to propagate. Phyllostachys bambusoides 'Marliacea' springs to mind! I have one plant that I have managed to be split once in 5 years. Splitting it made it revert to Juvenile As a result, I'll not be splitting it again in the near future.

Now consider many other plants that bear seeds. You can grow 10s, if not 1000s of new plants from the seeds per year....rather than the occassional split every other year. As a result you can charge significantly less, and still make a profit.

Finally, you'd like to just go and chop a bit off another bamboo somewhere. All I can say is have fun! Having done it myself, I can tell you that on a mature plant it is very hard work. You have to nurse the plant carefully for the first year, and 2 out of the 4 that I took died! Add on the cost to you of locating the bamboo that you are after, travel there and back, and the time and effort required to take your cutting, and then nurse it for the first year. Now compare that to going and picking up a pot containing a plant which has been nutured and is healthy that you can plant straight away without worrying, and you can see why $80 for a bamboo is not unusual. Of course, you time may be worth less than $10 an hour?

OK, I acept that there are the odd 'exceptions'. Some of the more agressive bamboos - Sasa for example are a lot cheaper. These agressive bamboos tend to be more common, and as a result can be found moer cheaply than the prices that you've quoted.
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Old 25-02-2006, 06:19 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lantzmich
OK, I am curious why everyone wants an arm and a leg for a start of bamboo?
It's simple supply and demand. I'm a bamboo hobbiest. So I feel your aggrivation. I am trying to justify paying $60 for a 5 gallon Ph. Nigra 'Daikokuchiku'... This, and there is no real evidence that it's large size is even genetic. (On the other hand, no other Ph. Nigra has ever gotten that big, so I'll pay the extra $20 and call it a gamble.)

But I also recognise that there are a lot of people who want this... If I had five extra plants and 100 people who wanted them, I would probably also price them accordingly.

eBay is helping though... It used to be that a common gardener like me who had an extra plant from a division would have no good way of selling it. But now, I can put them on eBay (as can a lot of other people who are waking up to it). So, prices are falling for the common species. If you just want a 1 gallon Moso, you can get it for $12.

Final note: A $10 #1 Moso will be well established in maybe 7 years... A $25 #3 might be that big in 5 years. Or, a $45 #5 plant might be that big in 3 or 4 years. So, you have to ask yourself, "Is having this plant big 4 years earlier worth $35?" For me, the answer is usually "Yes!"
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