My Bamboo Grove After 8 Years | 2023 Annual Update

[@JamesTheAxeThrower]

This video brought back memories of the time I built a bamboo survival shelter in the middle of a snowstorm in a bamboo area in the woods by my house! I learned why it’s called BAMboo when I tried having a fire inside the shelter with pieces of bamboo as the kindling haha!

[@GrowingAnswers]

Bigger the better

[@VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM]

There was a guy in Indiana that grew about every bamboo. Probably had about a 100 kinds. I think he was 6a. He kept a very good log on the best cold tolerance bamboo for like a decade. Bisettii is the only one you have that should be growing where you are in the long run that you have. Incense I think is not as rated as what they say but is still good I think. What normally happens is people always plant other bamboo and it does fine most years, but you always, always get a really bad winter eventually and it wipes most out bad. I learned all about the most cold tolerant too. Most of those you have are going to be frustrating and get wiped out one of those really bad winters. Moso, don't even bother. Red margin is not nearly as cold as they say, he had that get wiped out pretty good. Vivax also. Plus Vivax broke under snow often and sounds like a shotgun going off. I'm sorry to tell you this. If I remember right these are the best ones you should have planted: Bisettii spectabilis parvifolia Decora did pretty well but did get hit at times too He probably had a bunch of other varieties of aureosulcata that aren't too bad. But spectabilis I think was the best of that kind. And he had some other more rare ones that probably did ok. Don't get me wrong, you can plant many more, and they will survive. But like I said, you'll be fine for 3-5 years, and then get one really bad winter and you have a bunch of huge groves that get totally wasted or wiped out to the ground. Or look sooo bad it's a lot of work and disheartening. And you're set back a couple years. Then they start to come back and a couple or few years later it's the same thing. You are lucky you only had one bad winter day. Imagine when you get weeks of that. And it's going to eventually happen. It just gets frustrating and depressing. He had beautiful groves though, but man, you should have seen some winters, sooooo much brown and so much work cutting down, and cleaning it all up, and having to clear it all off the driveways. It was a ton of work, and looked so bad after some winters. He's since taken down most of his site and history, because he lives in Hawaii now. I think I saved it some place though. Or might be able to find it in an archive. I'm sure there are a few more that would be ok where you are. But even the most hardiest will get some damage and can look bad after a really bad harsh winter there in a zone like that. You can be rolling along just great and then bam, really bad year that shows you why 6a is a 6a and what it can really do. You don't want a huge grove of say really tall Red Margin going mostly top dead and having to clean that up and then get knocked back many many years. It's not worth the heartache and hassle. You've probably gotten really lucky with winters so far for so long. But as they get bigger and higher in the air those winters hurt them even more.

[@VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM]

I found it. Search for Needmore bamboo. Most the site is gone and all the history and photos of the nasty winter damage are gone. But he has a list of the most cold tolerant down to 0 degrees. Keep in mind even those had some bad winter damage too at times but fared the best. He does have rubro on the list. But I remember it getting hammered bad. I think he liked it though because between the bad spells it was such a tall bamboo that on average it would be higher than most. But still a lot of work and looked really terrible some years. But it grows so fast and tall that it looked like a decent tall grove more often on average even when it had bad set backs.

[@TracMcNguyen]

Thank you for giving us an update that spanned such a long period of time.

[@squamataman]

Useful update, thanks for posting. In Logan Utah we hit -27(actual temp, no wind chill) and as you'd expect any bamboo above the snow got fried, canes and leaves. There was over a foot of snow on the ground so shorter canes and leaves that were bent over and buried turned out just fine, so the snow really is a great insulator even in extreme temps

[@isaacdunson2989]

Thanks for the update I look forward to seeing you update on your bamboo each year because I’m doing the same thing you are I’m just on my 2ed year

[@Gardeningat58N]

Thanks for the update, it's a shame that one day in December caused so much damage. Did the bissetii bamboo come through with less damage? Or has it been smothered by the incense bamboo? Looks like most of the grove is now the incense bamboo. Hopefully your moso comes back.

[@GrowingAnswers]

The bissetti seems to have not spread.

[@Ultrazaubererger]

At 1:35 you can see a bunny hopping in the lower right corner of the screen. Be careful, it's coming for your bamboo shoots! :p

[@GrowingAnswers]

Yeah a rabbit had a bunch of babies this spring and they live in there.

[@mattlloyd9054]

Wow you really took the time to show what happened to your evil child. I thought mine froze to the ground but luckily it didnt. Im amazed yours isnt as tall as mine tho im at 2500 im in the far southwest corner of virginia i guess were still warmer even with the constant down sloping winds all winter. The xmas storm caused more damage to my plants than any other winter.

[@Slurm_Daddy92]

How old is your grove? I'm over here in eastern Indiana.

[@austintrees]

Just found your channel, I live in zone 5B Ohio, and I'm looking to do bamboo in bananas as well... What is the purpose of the mesh netting fence going around for bamboo? Is it for animals?

[@GrowingAnswers]

Deer

[@austintrees]

@@GrowingAnswers I have lots of deer... Will they kill bamboo by eating it? I have the super short bamboo ground cover, they only lay in it, they don't eat it.

[@GrowingAnswers]

@@austintrees No it won't kill it. It will just set back its potential growth by years at a time.

[@eastsidemuu]

Where did u get your moso seeds?

[@GrowingAnswers]

Don’t remember. But I checked back years ago and they were no longer sold

[@eastsidemuu]

@@GrowingAnswers hey thanks for the reply. I ordered some off ebay wish me luck! Lol