Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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