Taro & Ti Bamboo

Boo Update

admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 06:51:28 +0000

It’s been two weeks since I potted up the Giant Grey Henon, the Moso seedlings and the unidentified boo that I had planted at the back of the property and subsequently rescued after a total lack of progress for four years. The Henon is topside in a 25 gallon container and the other two are down in the pit greenhouse in 3 gallon containers.

Happy Henon bamboo

In the last two weeks, we’ve had at least a couple of freezing nights plus some freezing rain. Very chilly - but not a super hard freeze as my water buckets only got a slab of surface ice but nothing very thick. Nevertheless, the Henon is a recent planting without establishing it’s root system, so I was understandably nervous.

When I potted up the Henon, I decided to plunge the pot in the ground, just in case I had more freezing weather, and as importantly to protect the roots from the summer heat as well. It turned out to be a wise move - very shortly after I had plunged it, we had a freeze. The earthmass kept the soil from freezing - under the mulch it was soft to the touch while the water in my lotus containers was frozen.

And after all this, the Henon is not only still green - but growing. I’m seeing lotsa new buds swelling, ready to pop out the new Spring leaves. I expect to see a few shoots too, tho I’ll be happy to see the new leaves. Not bad. It will have a good year this year and after getting established will certainly pop out new shoots next Spring.

Moso boo with new shoot on the right.

My Moso has popped out a new shoot too and a second smaller shoot as well. Characteristic of Moso, the leaves of the young seedling is large, and the hairs at the nodes are black. In the next few weeks we’ll see just how tall the new culms get. It’s perfectly happy in its new home and I expect it to outgrow that in at least two years then it’ll be up to a 25 gallon container. Once it outgrows that, the beds will be ready to plant it inground.

Rescued boo ready to shoot out new leaves.

The boo I rescued hasn’t shot up any new shoots, but it’s got serious bud-swell. I expect to see new leaves in the next couple of weeks. This boo is a pretty green boo that will give me 2″ thick culms at the least that stand over 30′ tall. Should make a very nice screening boo.

As of now, it’s mainly a waiting game - watching grass grow. However, the wait is worth it - this grass will in time produce a very beautiful stand of bamboo that will be a sight to see.

Boo Rescue

admin — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:41:57 +0000

This weekend ended up being a boo weekend. I potted up the Henon I got from JM Bamboo, potted up my yearling Moso seedlings, and today I went out to rescue the boo that was suffering at the back of my property.

4 Year Old Boo - Drought Affected

And it’s a good thing I got the gumption to do it too. This boo has been in that soil for over 4 years. By all means, it should be 10′ tall or taller by now and be a nice clump. I had dug this boo up from a very lovely road-side patch next to a vineyard I was visiting here in town. Sadly, they have since bull-dozed that patch, tho I may revisit it and see if they missed anything. It was taller than the power-pole that it grew around - likely the reason it was bull-dozed - and the culms were at least 2″ in diameter. Very straight, very green and beautiful to behold.

I dug up three rhizomes from this patch. Since I had a drip-irrigated little vineyard at the back of my property, I planted them out by that in hopes to form a hedge along the back of the fence. The drip kept them alive - but at the time I didn’t know that my top-soil and subsoil back there was only perhaps a foot deep - that entire part of the property is sitting on a sandstone shelf, as you will see when I get pictures posted of my pit greenhouse. So, neither the grapes nor the bamboo did well.

Dug Up Boo

A severe drought a year later hit us and really kept my drip busy. Even so the vines and boo didn’t have enough depth of soil to grow significantly. That winter I didn’t irrigate - shouldn’t have had to - but all my grapes grafted on root-stock died - they budded just fine that Spring, but with dead root-stock, there was nothing to keep them alive. Fortunately, my boo survived and all my own-roots grapes survived.

Last year I dug up the grapes - they spent that year in containers getting some growth on - and they grew like weeds! At the time, the boo just wasn’t up on my list of priorities, plus it was a very wet spring so I let them be. However, this spring, on inspection - where there were three patches I had planted, now there was only one. So, it’s time to rescue…

Potted Up Boo

Inspired by my recent potting up of my yearling Moso seedlings and potting of the Henon boo, I decided that it was time to take shovel to dirt and dig that boo up. I had hoped there would be more rhizome than there was - it was pretty pathetic, sadly - it was smaller than it was when I originally planted it. I dug the shovel down deep and came up with a large chunk of soil with the boo and brought it back to be cleaned up. I removed more soil than what remained. My timing couldn’t have been better - this boo was clearly in decline. I didn’t remove all the dirt from the roots - I didn’t want to stress this boo any more than necessary. Still, most of the dirt came off.

Since it was so small, rather than using a 25 gallon container, I decided to pot this puppy in a 3-gallon container instead. I used the same layered technique that I used on the Henon and Moso - compost and leaves on the bottom, then enough soil to cover them, then another layer of leaves and so forth until it was high enough - after compacting - to sit the root-ball at a comfortable level. In went the root-ball and more layering around it, compacted tightly until it was level. I packed in some leaves and leaf-mold on top of that as a kind of mulch and that was that.

Home in the Greenhouse

Since it went into a smaller container and with a few more cold nights left to this winter, I put this one down in the greenhouse next to the Moso. It’s a bit pathetic looking right now, but if the potted up grapes are any indicator, this boo is going to have a very good year. I already saw one shoot fixing to rise up as I was potting it up, so it’s still growing and it still has potential. Before long this diminutive little boo may be the parent to a nice little screening patch.

Boo Potted Up

admin — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:45:05 +0000

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.

Recently Potted Henon

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.

Potted Up Moso Yearling

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.

4 Year Old Boo - Drought Affected

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!

Bamboo!!!

admin — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:18:52 +0000

Welcome to Taroandti.com. I am a big bamboo fan. There are no end of uses for bamboo, it’s easy to grow, with care fairly easy to contain, and is just pretty to behold. I like giant boos and landscape boos and will focus primarily on those. I don’t like clumping bamboos and will not write much if any about that.

My ultimate goal is to frame my greenhouse and tropical/sub-tropical beds with a towering bamboo forest. Giant Grey Henon, Vivax and perhaps Moso will play a part. I have some very young Moso seedlings and Henon and will soon have Vivax as well. It takes a long time for large bamboo to get large, but it’ll be a lot of fun along the way.

As a fringe benefit - I really like bamboo shoots. To compliment my other bamboos, I plan on planting some sweet-shoot bamboo - a bamboo that produces shoots that require less cooking to get rid of bitterness.

Stay tuned - lotsa boo fun ahead…