Nani Mau Gardens, HiloBoth of us really like the look and feel of bamboo, and it makes the most incredible sounds when the wind is blowing. There are lots of places to buy bamboo starts here, but it can be expensive...$50 to $350 depending on the size and species. After doing some research on propagation techniques, we decided to try our luck using culm cuttings that were donated by two friends, George and Linnette. Linnette had a beautiful stand of wamin (Buddha belly), and George had some very old gold/green-stripe specimens.
I constructed a couple of beds using scrap lumber and filled them with a 50/50 mixture of cinders and soil. The culms, ranging from one to two inches in diameter, were pruned and cut into lengths with three nodes, and then were placed in trenches about six inches deep. Here you can see the wamin, which was planted about a month ago, at the back (note shoots), and the green-stripe in the foreground.
We were thrilled to see these new shoots erupting about two weeks after planting. Apparently, the success rate for propagation varies greatly among species, but the wamin seems to be growing well, although we have no idea whether or not roots are forming as well. Several of these shoots are almost two feet tall now.
I also tried planting some culm cuttings vertically, and they are growing in a very different way producing true leaves on the branch nodes. Again, I don't know if roots are forming as well.
So far, this seems to be a successful experiment. We are watching the green-stripe plantings for signs of growth, and will report back later.
I constructed a couple of beds using scrap lumber and filled them with a 50/50 mixture of cinders and soil. The culms, ranging from one to two inches in diameter, were pruned and cut into lengths with three nodes, and then were placed in trenches about six inches deep. Here you can see the wamin, which was planted about a month ago, at the back (note shoots), and the green-stripe in the foreground.We were thrilled to see these new shoots erupting about two weeks after planting. Apparently, the success rate for propagation varies greatly among species, but the wamin seems to be growing well, although we have no idea whether or not roots are forming as well. Several of these shoots are almost two feet tall now. I also tried planting some culm cuttings vertically, and they are growing in a very different way producing true leaves on the branch nodes. Again, I don't know if roots are forming as well. So far, this seems to be a successful experiment. We are watching the green-stripe plantings for signs of growth, and will report back later.
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