In early Japan, this careful management was by necessity. Expect few shoots (minimal harvest) when you see your grove turn yellow.Ĭomments: I have read that careful management can even out the extreme pattern of one-year-on and the next-year-off. They lose the oldest leaf on the twig each summer when a new leaf opens and in winter when the oldest leaf dies.įirst photo taken in 2011 second, in 2013 Third photo taken in 2019. Other Phyllostachys don’t have this alternate year pattern. Moso shoots less in the year that it changes its leaves – or in my case does not shoot at all! A farmer’s income from a moso grove will be less during the year that the moso changes its leaves. The ground is littered with yellow leaves. The year that moso changes its leaves, all the leaves turn yellow at once. Observation: Moso bears in alternate years because it changes its leaves in alternate years. Before, predators were squirrels and rabbits and mice… rodents. Wild pigs are a new predator of shoots in my experience. When I returned on Thursday, wild pigs had eaten these 5 shoots from the top down into the base underground. I had decided not to harvest them because the entire grove except my research plot had been over-harvested for large poles (not by me!!!) two years before and had not recovered. On a Monday in 2020, I had noted 5 shoots outside my research plot in the larger grove of which it is part. What is going on with this grove of moso bamboo!? Two years in a row, this moso produced no shoots. Astonishingly and to my dismay, this grove produced no shoots in 2020. I expected great harvest in 2020 if I fertilized with llama dung and mulched with chips or straw. Because my research showed that moso bears in alternate years. Was llama poop the reason for the jump in productivity? In 2014, yield was close to two tons at 3964 pounds. Its analysis is 1.7 – 0.7 – 1.2 We spread half an inch of llama poop over the entire moso plot. Llama dung is in pellets with little odor. This remarkable fertilizer allowed the Incas to grow maize at 10,000 feet! That civilization was built on llamas for labor and for dung for fertilizing crops. I blamed the low yield on the cold weather and the resulting late start of shooting. It took that long for the soil to reach 58☏!! A cold spring delayed harvest and reduced yields in nine out of ten research plots (praecox, henon (2 locations), houzeau, Robert Young (2 locations), dulcis, Bory, golden vivax, bambusoides). In 2013 the moso did not shoot until April 9, ten days later than in 2011. I expected a bigger yield in 2013 because of my fertilizing. I spread a bag of chicken-and-cotton compost. To increase the yield in 2013, I scattered 10-10-10 fertilizer in the plot. I thought that the increase from 2011 was because I thinned the poles in 2011. Better than the yield in 2011 but less than one ton. I removed 13 of the smaller canes and a few invasive canes from across the dirt road. In 2011 my moso yielded 229 pounds per acre, not even one ton! What is wrong?! Robby and I agreed that I needed to thin the moso to stimulate production. I had read that moso bamboo in Japan yields from three to ten tons per acre! I was psyched by that high yield! I cut away small trees, shrubs, vines, weeds. The moso research plot is adjacent to the dirt access road. My research plots measure 1000 square feet with dimensions being 32 foot by 32 foot. He mail ordered his moso from California! Amazing to think that a mail order nursery industry existed in the beginning of the twentieth century! Rufus Fant planted it in the nineteen teens.

His moso is from a division of the Anderson clone in the old Silverbrook Cemetary in Anderson, South Carolina. Robby Russell allowed me to use various of his 20 year old bamboo varieties for research. Background: I moved to Perry, Georgia, in October 2010.

Moso bamboo for sale near me