Just a comment on Parvifolia

[Steve in France]

I was looking at my parvifolia today and it's got to that stage of shooting where the old culms are about to grow new blades. There are a lot of old blades turning brown and the plant over all seems to need feeding. That's the comment , I have to remind myself that parvifolia is the Bamboo that takes the most feeding to look good . I think any problems with parvifolia can be put down to feeding . It takes crazy amounts of fert and iron to keep parvifolia max green. I forget about this when parvifolia is looking good. I'm going to the Hardware store for some Ironite and Osmocote, so take that you needy Bamboo

[Alan_L]

Have you tried Milorganite? I wonder if would be a suitable one-product replacement for both?

[Steve in France]

I have not tried Milorganite, I'll see if they have some locally. I do throw a lot of grass clippings and bark mulch and other compost in the boxes . I'm also going to start with Miracle grow watering once a week. I got lazy last year and skipped the Miracle grow, I need to get back to over the top fert.

[stevelau1911]

I'm finding that parvifolia more than any of the other bamboos tends to look fairly pale when it is putting out new leaves, but those leaves typically darken up as the season goes along. Once the new culms get hardened off, one thing that may help out is to first put a layer of grass clippings and manure over the grove, then use a broad fork, and work it all in aerating all the soil down nice and deep, avoiding the roots and rhizomes.

My parvifolia grove is definitely not giving a 100% effort this year as it's only putting out about a dozen shoots, averaging the same size as last year shoots. The other side with the larger culms doesn't even have shoots.


I know that yellow groove put out some pretty impressive shoots after a weak showing in 2011 with 1 1/4 inchers, so maybe this parvifolia will explode with a major upsize next year.

[needmore]

I cut down some more parvifolia culms today on 2 different plantings and they were just plain heavy with healthy new foliage and tons of new leaves. I can see some from here as I type and it is lush and happy looking - I don't feed anything special just one heavy dose of Milorganite in March is all they've had. Tomorrow I think I will almost clearcut my oldest grove of it the sloppy damn sprawling ugly mess that it is and hope next year it actually shoots in soil that is not undermined by critters.

[stevelau1911]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to aerate the soil down to 3-4ft deep to make bamboo roots grow really deep?

My broad fork only aerates down to 16 inches which can get the roots to grow a bit deeper, but if I had something that could aerate down several feet with minimal injury to the roots and rhizomes, then that would help out a lot. Getting the roots to grow deeper should be able to help them out quite a bit in winter hardiness, and perhaps make the rhizomes run a little bit easier. I think deeper roots can also give the bamboos access to more water and nutrients in the soil which ultimate results in larger shoots.

I don't intend to aerate any of them until the shoots are nicely hardened off because I don't want to risk injuring roots now, and causing some shoots to abort. I also can't aerate the soil in the middle of the groves unless I get one of the skinnier aerating forks.

[johnw]

Steve - 16 inches would be the equivalent of double-digging in England. You'll have to consult a grave digger for anything beyond that.

[Steve in France]

Brad , does your parvifolia stay as green as your other Bamboos ? I always have a problem keeping mine as green as S3 say. If I did not use Ironite on parvifolia it would be very pale. Perhaps it's just my soil conditions. I have 22 shoots on parvifolia this year, compared to S3 with 30 . Largest shoot on parvifolis is 2 inch or so. Also does your parvifolia shoot branches out from the second or third node, even the big stuff here is putting out branches from way low down.

[stevelau1911]

Steve - 16 inches would be the equivalent of double-digging in England. You'll have to consult a grave digger for anything beyond that.

If I also carried a shovel around, and did 1 section at a time, I could probably aerate down past 2ft which already has a decent benefit, but I think the only way to really get to the 3-4ft mark is to weld my own broad fork which has 3ft spikes to be used directly after aerating the first layer.

This is what the one I currently use looks like, and it opens up garden beds within a fraction of the time it would take a shovel or hoe. It's just that I know bamboos can grow deeper than most vegetables, and 16 inches cannot max out the potential. as I want to avoid an 8 inch layer of root mass if possible.




I'm definitely impressed with the results that the other Steve is getting, but there's a pretty huge differential in climate being 350 miles south of me.

[johnw]

Steve - Lee Valley sells one for compost - http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page ... 3140,10028 - but while it may be too rinky-dink for your task the design could be adapted to a motor driver affair.

[stevelau1911]

The only problem is that the hardware on that looks a little bit too thin, and could probably break once I hit a rock, or anything with greater resistance which is kind of hard to tell down that deep where most of the soil is harder clay.

Aside from the broad fork which has worked wonders for me, I have never had a digging tool without a problem in durability. For example, I've broken several wooden shovels, and even now with a steel re-inforced shovel, it still got badly bent when I was digging banana divisions. For digging tools, I think it's pretty important to have something that is powerful enough to last a few years.

Here's a picture and link showing just how deep bamboo roots can grow, and this is not even that big of a species. Roots typically don't get that deep in a natural setting.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

[Alan_L]

...Roots typically don't get that deep in a natural setting.

I agree that roots that are constrained from spreading outward will go down to some extent, but how do you know how deep the roots go when not constrained? I'd be surprised if bamboo roots didn't go 3' deep or more already. These grasses have roots that go way deeper than that!



I also think you'll have lots of trouble aerating the soil that deeply using a rod-based tool of any kind. If you're just ramming a hole into the ground, yes, more oxygen will get down there, but you've also compressed the soil around the hole even more, so I'm not sure what the benefit really is.

[needmore]

Steve, maybe it is just how I think about it and it really is needing more food but mine in my brain is just a bit lighter green with a slight yellow mixed in than some other bamboos - I have some I think of as dark green, some medium and some light green and parvifolia to me is light green - maybe just hungry though? Yeah, the branches do start pretty low don't they.

[foxd]

Hmmm...I did make a hole in the ground once that was one inch in diameter by eight feet deep so this could theoretically be done a lot of times if needed. Though I doubt it is needed by the plants.

[Alan_L]

Hmmm...I did make a hole in the ground once that was one inch in diameter by eight feet deep so this could theoretically be done a lot of times if needed. Though I doubt it is needed by the plants.

Interesting -- I once made a hole in the ground that was 8 feet in diameter and one inch deep.