I live in north central AR about 100 miles south of the MO line. We have a type of native Bamboo around here that grows near rivers and creeks and I believe it would be classified as the 'running' type. Most people around here call it River Cane but I would guess many different species could be called that in their respective native areas. But to get to the point can anyone tell me what species is native to this area and what is the best way to plant or transplant it? I went into some thick jungley woods in a low area near a creek where it sometimes floods and got some of this Bamboo. I dug up about 12 stalks and tried to get as much root as I could but it was difficult as it was like going into a rain forest as the humidity was spiking in there. I got a few started shoots too and dug up a couple of roots that looked to be some sort of long runners 2 to 3 feet long. The shoots and a few stalks look to be dead now. Over half the stalks look to be doing well. The thing that has worked best is that I have about 5 to 6 shoots that have started off the long runner roots I planted and a few off the roots that were attached to stalks. I have learned on this forum that Bamboo does best in areas that are damp but well drained. I may have messed up on a few plants by putting them in areas of my yard that stay wet (I have a pond near one edge of my backyard), but I planted enough plants in different ways and in different areas that maybe some will continue to do okay.
Since I transplanted this Bamboo, my son told me that someone told him that they have planted many Bamboo stands in their yeard by simply cutting stalks (without roots) and then chopping the stalks into small pieces and throwing about 4 or 5 pieces in each hole they dig where they want to start a stand of Bamboo. I don't know which species of Bamboo they may have planted. But does anyone know if this method really works very well or at all? It sure would be an easy way to plant it if it works. Perhaps I will have time to try and get some photos and post from Photobucket in a few days.
???
Thanks
Doug in North Central Arkansas
How to plant Native Bamboo of N Central AR-River Cane?
Moderator: needmore
Re: How to plant Native Bamboo of N Central AR-River Cane?
Hi Doug,
Let me tell you what i know and you can learn just a whole lot more by reading here. Some of these guys here really know there stuff and most of them know far more than me.
First off, you have it right, there are basically 2 kinds of bamboos, runners and clumpers and i think they are often referred to as runner = temperate and clumpers = tropical and those are just generalizations that can overlap a bit
And yes, i had to learn the hard way, but generally the best way to propagate runners (which the native species in this area is) is by getting root cuttings and those cuttings will be successful in proportion to how much root you get (from my small experience)
most clumpers can propagated much easier with cuttings from the canes and rooting the nodes
It's surprising how many kinds of bamboo have been introduced to the state and do well here. There is a guy on this forum who has henon bamboo near Little Rock that is large sized and here's a pic and thread from the same guy showing some bamboo (most agree Vivax) that was 5" and 75 - 79' over near Helena http://bambooweb.info/bb/viewtopic.php? ... 300#p36300
There is also a nursery at Morrillton that has been raising many kinds of bamboo for many years.
I'm near Dardanelle / Russellville and have an old grove of Madake at Havana that measures over 4" - might be some 5 - i need to take a tape and get an actual measurement. I planted it about 15 or 16 years ago with a single plant and it's spread over about an acre or more.
I know how hard it can be to get roots. This grove is in a wooded area and before i knew you couldn't root cane cuttings, i sawed me up a few canes and potted up about 100 pots of them. They most all sprouted out new leaves and small branches but most are all dead now, with maybe a dozen or so still holding green leaves and they may not have roots.
I put out a few moso and vivax aureocaulis here at my home early this spring and mid summer we had a tornado come through and blew down a bunch of trees and when the tree crews were cleaning up they ran over those boo plants with the bobcat loader dozens of times until you couldn't find the plants for a few weeks, but all of them but one look like they will recover
The tree people had no choice - it looked like a war zone before clean-up. Those bamboo plants are tuff.
Have fun with your plants
Let me tell you what i know and you can learn just a whole lot more by reading here. Some of these guys here really know there stuff and most of them know far more than me.
First off, you have it right, there are basically 2 kinds of bamboos, runners and clumpers and i think they are often referred to as runner = temperate and clumpers = tropical and those are just generalizations that can overlap a bit
And yes, i had to learn the hard way, but generally the best way to propagate runners (which the native species in this area is) is by getting root cuttings and those cuttings will be successful in proportion to how much root you get (from my small experience)
most clumpers can propagated much easier with cuttings from the canes and rooting the nodes
It's surprising how many kinds of bamboo have been introduced to the state and do well here. There is a guy on this forum who has henon bamboo near Little Rock that is large sized and here's a pic and thread from the same guy showing some bamboo (most agree Vivax) that was 5" and 75 - 79' over near Helena http://bambooweb.info/bb/viewtopic.php? ... 300#p36300
There is also a nursery at Morrillton that has been raising many kinds of bamboo for many years.
I'm near Dardanelle / Russellville and have an old grove of Madake at Havana that measures over 4" - might be some 5 - i need to take a tape and get an actual measurement. I planted it about 15 or 16 years ago with a single plant and it's spread over about an acre or more.
I know how hard it can be to get roots. This grove is in a wooded area and before i knew you couldn't root cane cuttings, i sawed me up a few canes and potted up about 100 pots of them. They most all sprouted out new leaves and small branches but most are all dead now, with maybe a dozen or so still holding green leaves and they may not have roots.
I put out a few moso and vivax aureocaulis here at my home early this spring and mid summer we had a tornado come through and blew down a bunch of trees and when the tree crews were cleaning up they ran over those boo plants with the bobcat loader dozens of times until you couldn't find the plants for a few weeks, but all of them but one look like they will recover
The tree people had no choice - it looked like a war zone before clean-up. Those bamboo plants are tuff.
Have fun with your plants
Re: How to plant Native Bamboo of N Central AR-River Cane?
Thanks a bunch Arkansas. I am about 35 minutes from Morrilton - southwest of Clinton. I used to go through Russelville and Dardanelle (the Carden Bottoms, Chickalah the whole area) 3 times per week when I did an A.I. delivery route in a SUV for Cargill Pork. Tornadoes are getting pretty common here in AR. The one that came near your area and hit Atkins real hard in Feb 2008 came through here and our town will never look the same. We didn't lose our home but had to have a new roof and lost most our shade trees. I have been looking for fast growing things to plant around the place for the last year or so. I have been researching and have learned a lot on here and other sites. I have learned the Native River Cane and Switch Cane actually do better in areas that stay wet better than many of teh other bamboos so maybe most all of what I have growing good now and already producing shoots will continue to do ok. I am not sure if the native stuff I have is the larger River Cane or the Switch cane. If it is the smaller stuff I will be seeking some of the larger. I got the address and phone number to the nursery at Morrilton off the ABS site. I will have to check it out some time. I recently aquired some large non-native Bamboo, but I posted about that in the Bamboo ID forum if you want to check it out. Thanks for the thread on the Moso near Helena.
Thanks
Thanks
-
Jerry Hamilton
- Posts: 159
- Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2009 1:58 am
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- Location: Sheridan, Arkansas
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Re: How to plant Native Bamboo of N Central AR-River Cane?
Welcome to the forum Doug.
I live south of Little Rock and if you are ever down this way and it is the right time of the year for digging I have Henon and Ph. aurea thast could be past along if interested. My Henon is in a pretty wet area for most of the year abd has done real well. If I had been putting fertilzer and manure who know what it would have done.
Jerry
I live south of Little Rock and if you are ever down this way and it is the right time of the year for digging I have Henon and Ph. aurea thast could be past along if interested. My Henon is in a pretty wet area for most of the year abd has done real well. If I had been putting fertilzer and manure who know what it would have done.
Jerry
Redneck Bamboo Plantation
Sheridan, Arkansas
Sheridan, Arkansas
Re: How to plant Native Bamboo of N Central AR-River Cane?
Hi Jerry. I may take you up on that offer some time and I can share some of mine after I get it started better.
I went back into the creek bottoms just before dark this evening and got some more of the native stuff. I couldn't remember how tall it was there from when I got my first batch earlier this summer so I also wanted to look at the stuff growing there and see how large it was to decide if what I had and got more of is River Cane or Switch Cane. I believe it must be the stuff I wanted, the larger River cane, because I found some culms that were easily 12 feet tall and it was in a real shady area. Perhaps it could get even taller with more sun. I can see a problem that diggers of the native stuff probably are going to run into a lot. That is that the soil around the rootball/rhizome is so sandy that it all falls off easily after you get it out of the ground. Luckily though I was able to get some that stayed in tact, and got what didn't, back to my place within 30 minutes and got them in the ground pretty quick so I think it is going to work out pretty well.
I went back into the creek bottoms just before dark this evening and got some more of the native stuff. I couldn't remember how tall it was there from when I got my first batch earlier this summer so I also wanted to look at the stuff growing there and see how large it was to decide if what I had and got more of is River Cane or Switch Cane. I believe it must be the stuff I wanted, the larger River cane, because I found some culms that were easily 12 feet tall and it was in a real shady area. Perhaps it could get even taller with more sun. I can see a problem that diggers of the native stuff probably are going to run into a lot. That is that the soil around the rootball/rhizome is so sandy that it all falls off easily after you get it out of the ground. Luckily though I was able to get some that stayed in tact, and got what didn't, back to my place within 30 minutes and got them in the ground pretty quick so I think it is going to work out pretty well.