Good rhizome spread

[needmore]

I have Spectabilis planted in a raised bed that we filled with a mix of manure, sawdust, leaves, top soil and sand so it is a pretty loose, fertile mix. Each fall I remove any culms & rhizomes that are growing beyond the small space allocated for it, and this year only 1 culm was out of bounds. I carefully removed the culm and attached rhizomes which were approximately 18-20 feet long - all of these in the photo were branches of the rhizome that the culm came from. Jim is standing on the grove side of the culm where I snipped the rhizomes at the edge of the mini-grove which is barely visible above the banana leaf in the background.

I crammed the culm with 4 attached rhizome branches, each a few feet long into a 15 gallon pot, it held an entire 2 cubic feet bag of potting soil as well. It will be interesting to see what comes up in the pot next spring.

Right after I dug this our new bamboo friends Jim & Lisa from Michigan Bamboo came down for a visit and Jim was kind enough to help me with this photo. I culled this part of the bed last year so these plus another 6-8 rhizomes not attached to this culm but equal in length had grown this summer.

Sorry, I wish to post the photo in this message but do not know how to do this but here is a link.

[Sobal]

Wow! It's an underground monster

Calvi, you probably also have something like that with your P. parvifolia
Maybe right now you are walking on rhizomes which just wait for the spring to attack your whole garden

[needmore]

Can you tell me what is the html code that worked to embed the photo? I tried

[img] http:photolocation.jpg

and also

<img>

these commands work in other forums but did not work here? These file names above are not correct but show the html code I tried.

[Sobal]

Can you tell me what is the html code that worked to embed the photo? I tried

[img] http:photolocation.jpg

and also

<img>

these commands work in other forums but did not work here? These file names above are not correct but show the html code I tried.

You can use this syntax:
[img]http://adress_of_pic[/img]

I prefer other mathod. I mark address first and then I click "Img" button. [/img]
rgds
][
][
][Sobal

[needmore]

Thank you Sobal, I was omitting the second [/img]



5-year old raised bed pf Phy. atrovaginata

[Artur]

Needmore

What are the lowest temperatures in your town? What is the average temperatur in the year? What is the average temperature in july and in august?

[needmore]

Needmore

What are the lowest temperatures in your town? What is the average temperatur in the year? What is the average temperature in july and in august?

Almost every winter the temperature will fall to the range of -20C to -25C one or two times, sometimes longer. Very often there will be several days in a row where the temperature stays below 0C and the ground freezes deep.

July and August are very humid and the temperature is usually 32C - 35C. The frost comes in mid-October and continues to frost until late in April, but we will have days in March & April that warm up to 25C - 28C and then cold days, then more warm days, cold nights - most of the bamboo shoots in early to mid-April, the very latest ones start in mid-May.

[calvi]

Wow! It's an underground monster

Calvi, you probably also have something like that with your P. parvifolia
Maybe right now you are walking on rhizomes which just wait for the spring to attack your whole garden

My garden is already attacked and captured!
Regarding rhizomes, I check the situation occasionally and haven't noticed any sign of new growth,
however, the situation may change overnight...
My sharp shovel is ready.

Regards,
calvi

[needmore]

I think that I will from now on wait until March to do the rhizome pruning. Then I would be able to make many new propagules from the bare rhizomes, but now I think it is a waste of time as the rhizomes are not yet ready to produce new culms. I wanted to dig the division so that is why I cut them out now, but I did waste many future plants.

[needmore]

Here is a link to my weather information



http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/a ... _allergies

[calvi]

I think that I will from now on wait until March to do the rhizome pruning. Then I would be able to make many new propagules from the bare rhizomes, but now I think it is a waste of time as the rhizomes are not yet ready to produce new culms. I wanted to dig the division so that is why I cut them out now, but I did waste many future plants.

But for me more important is the future growth of mother plant.
The question is, if I do the pruning now, probably this will save some resources in other parts of the plant,
not wasted for superfluous rhizomes??

[needmore]

But for me more important is the future growth of mother plant. The question is, if I do the pruning now, probably this will save some resources in other parts of the plant,
not wasted for superfluous rhizomes??

Yes, this can be a consideration. The culm of Spectabilis that shows in my picture is about average size for this bed. I planted a small mail-order size plant 3 years prior and have been fall pruning the rhizomes every year. I leave only perhaps 3-4 meters in the raised bed for the mother plant to grow and in 3 years the new culms are 4-5 meters tall,so I am pleased with the development of this mother plant so perhaps the fall pruning has helped.

By contrast, my other 4 groves of Spectabilis remain smaller than these plants, even though the other groves have never been disturbed, and they are growing directly in the ground. The raised bed plants do get the best soil, and more water so perhaps that also explains the larger culms along with the rhizome pruning in fall.