growth of moso bamboo in zone 6 from summer of 2008
 

Just wanted to share some pictures of how my phyllostachys edulis moso bamboo has progressed from the time I bought it until now. It started out as a 2ft tall 1 culm plant with literally 6 yellowish leaves in a 1 gallon pot that was mostly soil in the summer of 2008, but it has made a ton of progress and now in the summer of 2010 it is a decent size grove of around 100 culms varying from 4-6ft tall with several rhizomes starting to leave the confines of the original clump.


2008
24 July 2008, starting to make its first shoots.


2009

6 May 2009 Making new shoots


28 May 2009 starting to branch out


9 June 2009 leafing out


2 July 2009 leafed out very well


20 August 2009 more shoots come out of the canopy that reach the 3-4ft range.


2010

20 May 2010 Onset of shooting season with much larger shoots than last year.


26 May 2010 Shoots make some huge progress after some warmer weather


22 June 2010 Shoots start to leaf out


19 July 2010 Plant starts to get really bushy and still has 4 more months to grow for the season.

Re: growth of moso bamboo in zone 6 from summer of 2008
 

That's a lot of growth for only 2 years. It looks great! I had some lucky bamboo last summer but it wouldn't grow when I planted it. You seem to know a lot about bamboo. Is sugar cane a bamboo plant? I'd like to try growing sugar cane but I don't know where to find it or if it will grow in zone 7.

Re: growth of moso bamboo in zone 6 from summer of 2008
 

Looks great:woohoonaner: I have some in pots grown from seed last year and was afraid to leave them in the ground even with protection during the winter at this stage but now, think I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the post!

Re: growth of moso bamboo in zone 6 from summer of 2008
 

Haven't tried sugar cane yet, but that isn't supposed to survive way up here in the northeast.

As far as planting them in the in the ground I've found many ways of optimizing their growth rate with the moso seedling experiment that I conducted last year.
Moso seed experiment - Bamboo Forums

In zone 6, they can get through a winter with very little damage by only using 1 layer of clear plastic tarp making sure all the wind is blocked. They do get progressively hardier as they mature so it is important to keep them well protected while they are still seedlings.

I still have some seedlings from last year.

Re: growth of moso bamboo in zone 6 from summer of 2008
 

Cory - FYI, "Lucky Bamboo" isn't a bamboo. It's Dracena sanderiana.

Re: growth of moso bamboo in zone 6 from summer of 2008
 

Thanks. :) I just found out. But what I really want to try growing is sugar cane and I just found a great thread on that [using the "search" feature here]!

Re: growth of moso bamboo in zone 6 from summer of 2008
 

very cool! I love bamboo...I have some bambusa vittata I grew from a stem that went through the same vigorous growth as yours. Thanks for posting!