Taro & Ti Bamboo

I recently got some Giant Grey Henon from JM Bamboo. It arrived in wonderful shape! The box took an act of demolition to get apart and the root-ball was bagged them shrink-wrapped - not a speck of loose dirt in there. The boo was pretty happy too. Since the weekend I got it was very cold and miserable, I just plopped it, wrapped root-ball and all, in our east-facing picture-window and left it there for a week.

My plans for it and my other boo are to create a large boo forest here on my little 2-acre property. However, with the greenhouses being dug and plans still a bit in limbo as I juggle things, everything I have is containerized currently except for things that are easy to move.

I potted my Henon in it’s 25 gallon container today. It’s only about 3-4′ tall, so it’ll live there happily for a while yet. The bucket of soil I used was infested with fire-ants, so it was rather exciting. This soil was topsoil I dug up when I dug one of my taro beds - I put it in a 25 gallon bucket to use later and today is that later and them fire-ants were not going to put me off.

I put a pile of 1/4″ pea-gravel at the drain-hole, them matted up some compost over that. Then, I put in some leaf compost in a layer, then some ant filled topsoil in a layer (ouch), then some leaf compost, then some ant filled topsoil, all in layers until it was high enough to set the boo in. The boo was in pretty good shape - already putting out new leaves and branches. I plopped it in the center after removing the plastic, then propped it with some topsoil, and then back with the layers around it until it was full - well, over-full because it’ll settle. I then watered until it was well flooded to integrate the layers and drive out the ants and there we have it. I look forward to seeing the new shoots come up this Spring! I’ll put some Ascend or similar ant-bait in there later on to be sure it doesn’t become heavily colonized.

I also potted up my little Moso seedling. It had made a home in a 1-gallon pot for a year now and it’s roots were well circled on the bottom - time for potting up. I went to a 3 gallon for that one tho, rather than a 25 gallon. I still want to keep it in the greenhouse so I can give it good partial shade - full sun all day long is deadly to tender Moso seedlings. I figure after this year is over, it should be ready to pot up into a larger 25 gallon container out in full sun tho. It already has a new shoot popping up too! Bigger than the current culms - so it’ll definitely be much taller. New leaves haven’t come in yet for that one tho - but it’s been cool out in the greenhouse so it’ll lag behind the Henon that spent the last week inside in the warmth of the house.

I may dig up the boo I have at the back of the property too - pot them in more 25 gallon containers and give them a chance to grow. Back there there’s practically no topsoil and it’s very dry so its’ stayed very small and not spread any at all. This boo was over 30′ tall where I got it from and had culms over 2″ in diameter, so it’s a nice little boo to have. They’ve since bulldozed the source so I’ve got the only specimens from that clump that I know of.

I then plunged the 25-gallon container of Henon in the ground so the roots will be better protected from the cold and as importantly, protected from the heat. Just the lip of the container is above the ground so they should have good root protection. I’ve had too many plants suffer from containers that were too hot - even in the shade as here in Texas getting into the 100’s isn’t unusual. I’ll create a little cluster of these plunged containers with all my young boo where they’ll stay until I get the larger beds prepared, and I may even do the same with my sugarcane and my lemongrass.

Our winters are pretty mild tho - they should stay green all winter long - which I will love immensely. I loath winter and everything turning brown - having a green boo forest around me all year long will go a long way to making this Mike a happier man.

In a couple of years or so I hope to be ready to solidify my property plan and start digging the beds to put these guys in the ground. By then the Henon will be outgrowing the 25-gallon container for certain. I can’t wait to see the forest they create. The boo will form the backbone of my little forest and in clearings I’ll have my bananas and along the edges I’ll have my massive Xanthosomas and Cut-leaf Philodendrons and amongst them Cannas and gingers. Should look almost as pretty as my large tropical greenhouse project when all is said and done.

Soon I’ll get the Vivax ordered and we’ll see what else tickles my fancy. Beware folks - bamboo is addictive!

Stumble it!

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Babble Column . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.