though bamboo is indeed fast growing, some of this is deceptive as, like wire grass, the early stage of long leaf pine, there is a long period of establishing root systems before the ultra fast growth can occur.
There is a saying about newly planted bamboo: The first year it sleeps The second year it creeps The third year it leaps For the first 15 years or so everything in your grove is one plant. All the above ground culms are connected by the underground rhizomes. When you plant a single plant, it starts putting out new rhizomes. The root mass will usually double in size each year. As the root mass increases, the energy available for the plant increases and the size of the new culms will increase in diameter and height in direct proportion to this energy. Where does the energy come from, you ask. This is where leaf mass comes in. The leaves on your new plant transpire water that the roots provide and in return the leaves convert sunlight into food and send it to the rhizomes to use for producing more rhizomes and to store for use for the next year's new shoots. This process will continue until the grove flowers and dies. Critical root mass is when your grove produces the maximum size culms it is going to produce based on local growing conditions. For most varieties this will occur somewhere between 7 and 15 years (up to 30 years for some seedling varieties) and after that the grove will continue to produce the maximum size culms it is able to produce in that particular location. The above was taken from a website of a seller of bamboo: www.midatlanticbamboo.com I would normally try to avoid a commercial refrence, however this is a pretty good description of the process. I suspect that the references in the previous e-mail eventually got around to this, but this makes it cheap and dirty and quick. Bart Bouricius Amherst, MA On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 11:59 PM, Edward Frank <[email protected]> wrote: > James, ENTS, > > James, In an older post mentioned in a recent link > http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/north_carolina/20090104-norwayspruce/norway_spruce_nc.htm > you ask: > > There is a bamboo ( Cane ) patch on the VA property. Has anyone in ENTS > ever measured how tall bamboo can get? Also, check out that strange sequoia > that I photographed! > > I am curious about that also. They are big and tree-like even though they > are not technically trees. This is what Wikipedia has to say on their > height. > > Bamboo > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo are a group of perennial evergreen > (except for certain temperate species) plants in the true grass family > Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the > largest members of the grass family.There are more than 70 genera divided > into about 1,000 species. Many prehistoric bamboos exceeded heights of 75 > metres (250 ft). Primarily growing in regions of warmer climates during the > Cretaceous period, vast fields existed in what is now Asia. Bamboos are the > the largest grasses, sometimes reaching 100 ft (30 m). > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_species Bamboo listen is a group of > woody perennial grasses in the true grass family Poaceae, which is a large > family with over 10,000 species. In the tribe Bambuseae also known as > Bamboo, there are 91 genera and over 1,000 species. The size of bamboo > varies from small annuals to giant timber bamboo. Bamboo was only added to > the world in between 30 and 40 million years ago, after the demise of the > dinosaurs. Bamboo is the fastest growing woody plant in the world. They can > grow up to 3–4 feet/day (1.5-2.0 inches/hr) > > Bamboo Forests http://www.bambooandtikis.com/bamboo-forest Because of > their relatively expedient growth, bamboo forests are of the easiest types > of forest for man to reproduce. The largest bamboo tree in existence, in > fact, can be found in the bamboo forest institute at the Yunnan Normal > University, called the Menghai forest. The Menghai forest is an artificially > built forest, and it is home to the largest bamboo tree specimen in the > world. The director of the bamboo institute reports that the plant measures > *46 meters in height, with 36 centimeters and an estimated weight of 450 > kg.* This giant bamboo plant, as confirmed by farmers who live and work in > or near the forest, grew to its full potential during a single year. > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/19915...@n00/149189348/ Bamboo Forest > Sagano, Kyoto, Japan > > Bamboo-Dominated Forests of the Amazon > http://www.yale.edu/ceo/Projects/Students/bamboo_forests.html > > Canebrakes: Missouri's Bamboo Forests > http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2002/10/30.htm > > Edward Frank > > http://nature-web-network.blogspot.com/ > http://primalforests.ning.com/ > http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=709156957 > > -- > Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org > Send email to [email protected] > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en > To unsubscribe send email to > [email protected]<entstrees%[email protected]> > -- Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
