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Tube of delight!

#1 2010-11-23 16:55:57

dstone
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From: Vancouver, Canada
Registered: 2006-01-11
Posts: 552
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Bamboo can be silly

Don't get my wrong; I love the stuff.  Truly.  But how's this for weird timing...  I woke up this morning and checked on how my bamboo was surviving at -5C in late November.  To my surprise, the bamboo has had a little growth spurt and revealed some tender new growth (tender, textured green section near middle of the photo with the dry sheath spread open).  Oh, Nature, what are you doing?!  We'll see if it survives! 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5283/5202664236_ac79ca983f_z.jpg


When it is rainy, I am in the rain. When it is windy, I am in the wind.  - Mitsuo Aida

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#2 2010-11-24 05:34:03

Josh
PhD
From: Grand Island, NY/Nara, Japan
Registered: 2005-11-14
Posts: 305
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Re: Bamboo can be silly

Interesting. Must be the global warning. Usually bamboo grows in more in the spring.

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#3 2010-11-30 12:03:57

lowonthetotem
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From: Cape Coral, FL
Registered: 2008-04-05
Posts: 529
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Re: Bamboo can be silly

I always thought that at least some varieties of bamboo thrive in cooler, if not downright cold, environments.  It certainly grows in parts of China and Japan that are quite cold through out most of the year.

Usually bamboo grows in more in the spring.

I know that it generally sends out its runners in spring to create new stalks, but I thought that since it is a grass, the plant itself grows pretty much continually and is more dependent on access to water than temperature for the rate of growth.  You do generally get more rain in Spring in most places, but I think the East coast states have had a great deal of rain through the last few months.  Maybe that could explain it more than Global Warming, although that may explain the unseasonable rain.  With the polar ice melting there is undoubtedly alot more water in the world and therefore alot more percipitation.  That is why the snow falls in such abundance in the Winter, giving all the denialists the idea that GW isn't happening.  They should ask themselves why there is so much snow but rivers and lakes aren't freezing several feet down like they used to earlier in the last century.  I used to talk to old folks in my college town that told about the New River freezing solid every year.  They used to cut ice from it for their ice boxes.  To my knowledge, it never froze once significantly while I was in school or since.


"Turn like a wheel inside a wheel."

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#4 2010-11-30 12:56:34

Karmajampa
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From: Aotearoa (NZ)
Registered: 2006-02-12
Posts: 574
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Re: Bamboo can be silly

I am in the Southern Hemisphere and right now new bamboo shoots are emerging. Interestingly, where the ground has more moisture shoots emerged earlier, two weeks back and are now 4-6 metres tall. Where the ground is dryer those conical lculm heads are just poking out.
Also, it looks like wider diameter culms are happening where the ground is more nutritious and moist. Regarding Madake, good flute diameter culms are happening in ground that is neither too dry or too moist.

Kel.


Kia Kaha !

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#5 2010-11-30 19:39:37

lowonthetotem
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From: Cape Coral, FL
Registered: 2008-04-05
Posts: 529
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Re: Bamboo can be silly

I don't grow bamboo, but I am getting good tomatoes out of good sandy soil, ie. not too dry not too moist.  I am way south, as far as the US goes.


"Turn like a wheel inside a wheel."

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#6 2010-12-01 02:26:26

Kiku Day
Shakuhachi player, teacher and ethnomusicologist
From: London, UK & Nørre Snede, DK
Registered: 2005-10-07
Posts: 922
Website

Re: Bamboo can be silly

Have you dug up some bamboo shoots to eat, Kel?
And the pohutukawa flowers are beginning to bloom. I miss it!


I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ's breath moves through
listen to this music
Hafiz

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#7 2010-12-01 03:18:11

Karmajampa
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From: Aotearoa (NZ)
Registered: 2006-02-12
Posts: 574
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Re: Bamboo can be silly

Kiku Day wrote:

Have you dug up some bamboo shoots to eat, Kel?
And the pohutukawa flowers are beginning to bloom. I miss it!

Aha ! you have been here, yes, the Pohutukawa is beautiful, our christmas tree.

I have eaten bamboo shoots, raw, right out of the ground, quite bland, they can be frozen for later additions to stir fry's.

What I am doing every few days is cutting out any culms smaller than the Shakuhachi diameter I want. If I cut them now while they are soft they will decompose quickly, if I wait even two weeks the culm gets quite a lot harder and is more difficult to cut. this is my way of controlling the grove which can expand up to three metres in all directions each season.

But, back to the original observation, I have never noticed any growth from a culm once it has been dug up, but I can see it happening if the roots are a little moist, if the culm has not dried out, but I would think that would happen in late Spring. I am always impressed with the vigor that a bamboo culm has in the first few days it comes out of the ground, even a fat 30-40 mm diameter culm just pushes up like some sped-up video.
But once this initial growth has finished you don't notice further growth as it is all happening inside the culm as the walls thicken. Many don't realize that the culm emerges from the ground at it's final outer diameter, be that 1cm or 15cm !

Kel.


Kia Kaha !

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#8 2010-12-01 03:27:44

Karmajampa
Member
From: Aotearoa (NZ)
Registered: 2006-02-12
Posts: 574
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Re: Bamboo can be silly

I can't see the picture of your bamboo, is it in the ground ?

An interesting thing about bamboo is how it flowers only once in it's lifetime, then dies, and that is the whole grove dies, and not only one grove but every grove on the planet of that particular species. some groves live for 50 years, some for 80, some for 120 but when it is time for that species to flower, it happens all over the world in that season.
Individual culms will die but the grove, connected through the roots, continues for its designated lifespan.

Kel.


Kia Kaha !

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#9 2010-12-01 11:58:53

lowonthetotem
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From: Cape Coral, FL
Registered: 2008-04-05
Posts: 529
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Re: Bamboo can be silly

They are kind of like mushrooms like that.  What is above ground is not really the organism, just the organ, so to speak.


"Turn like a wheel inside a wheel."

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#10 2010-12-01 23:55:25

Zakarius
Member
From: Taichung, TAIWAN
Registered: 2006-04-12
Posts: 361

Re: Bamboo can be silly

Here in Taiwan there is a varietal (can't tell you the scientific name, sadly) which is harvested during the 'winter' for its edible shoots. Of course the winter here rarely goes below 5C.


塵も積もれば山となる -- "Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru." -- Piled-up specks of dust become a mountain.

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#11 2010-12-16 16:42:07

dstone
Member
From: Vancouver, Canada
Registered: 2006-01-11
Posts: 552
Website

Re: Bamboo can be silly

Karmajampa wrote:

I can't see the picture of your bamboo, is it in the ground ?

Hi Kel.  This bamboo is not in the ground; it's in a large container on a deck.


When it is rainy, I am in the rain. When it is windy, I am in the wind.  - Mitsuo Aida

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#12 2011-01-26 18:36:21

ntimperio
Member
From: Spokane, WA
Registered: 2010-12-27
Posts: 9

Re: Bamboo can be silly

Nice!  I want to grow bamboo!  I just didn't want to put it in the ground, and never thought of containers.  How large of a container are you using, and do you know anywhere to get seeds or baby bamboo plants?

thank you,
Nicholas

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#13 2011-01-26 20:19:53

edosan
Edomologist
From: Salt Lake City
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 2185

Re: Bamboo can be silly

ntimperio wrote:

Nice!  I want to grow bamboo!  I just didn't want to put it in the ground, and never thought of containers.  How large of a container are you using, and do you know anywhere to get seeds or baby bamboo plants?

thank you,
Nicholas

http://www.google.com/search?q=bamboo+f … =firefox-a

Google is our friend, mostly...


Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.

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#14 2011-01-27 13:47:26

ntimperio
Member
From: Spokane, WA
Registered: 2010-12-27
Posts: 9

Re: Bamboo can be silly

Sorry Edosan, you're right.  I should have googled before getting excited and blurting out my request for information.  I will try not to make this mistake in the future.

Nicholas

Last edited by ntimperio (2011-01-27 13:58:56)

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