If you want to grow moso, you are probably in the right zone if you are in Alabama. I would suggest driving around and looking for local groves because there are groves of it all over the southeast US, and by starting off with as big a division as possible, you can get big bamboos a lot faster.

If you get some mature stock from a local dig, you will probably get spacious large culms from it.

If you grow it from seed like the stuff I got, it will grow pretty thick, upsize a bit each year with juvenile characteristics as shown in one of my pictures here of my mini moso grove. This grove is currently under nearly 1ft of snow and ice, up here in upstate NY.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:400650}}

Thinning: You can cut out any culms you want -- dead or alive -- at any time without harming the grove. You can also prune off lower branches to better show off the culm bases.

kudzu -- I think you should qualify that. If he cuts out most of the live culms, it could set back the grove. Would it be "harming" it? No, it would still be alive, but the new culms might be smaller than expected.

So cut as many dead ones as you want, but don't remove more than 1/3 - 1/2 of the live ones... something like that.

Does that sound reasonable kudzu?

Ok, that helps. I am going to start thinning out the boo soon and hopefully make some aesthetic changes outside the grove as well as inside the grove. I'm actually having a lot of fun thinking about all of this. I found out that my bamboo is "golden" bamboo and is pretty common. I measured one I cut last night and it was 2 1/4" across and 21' 8" long. I decided to make some stuff out of the plant for fun, if I can. I am going to try one day to drive around to find some moso, but I don't think I will find anything. I know somoene found a huge, several acre plot of bamboo in birmingham, close by, that had taken over part of a neighborhood. There were several species of bamboo including the black and moso variety. They said it ended up being planted from a guy named Steve Ray that apparently has a lot to do with the bamboo industry. I got excited to find these groves but found out that a realtor had the bamboo all dozed down. That was a few years ago, so maybe something came back, but in either case I would hate to drive up there to find nothing. I still want it though, so I'm not giving up

alan-
Cutting back is not going to harm the in-ground root structure, but I agree that if he overcuts the live culms it will take a while to grow back to the appearance he wants. My answer was based on the assumption that he is simply going to take out the dead stuff, and maybe cut back some of the live stuff for esthetics.

You are correct. Kudzu, just trimming it up. One half of the grove is relatively spacious with the boo being very big around (two three inches across) and tell. The other half is crammed full of dead stuff and the boo is so close together you can't even walk in it. Im pulling out the old, trimming the crowded, and cutting the lower branches of the side that faces the yard. Now I have the fever, though. I want to trade for moso (fat chance) or find out if there is some for free in alabama.

If you have P Aurea which isn't in my collection yet I'll trade for it. I have mosos from tiny sized to 3 gallon ones to field divisions which will be available by summer.

What I would want is you to establish a division for me, ensuring that it have viable rhizome buds so it can shoot in the spring and then we can trade in the summer after they are established. Have you ever taken a bamboo division?

Of course you will probably find a grove of moso if you drive around and look for it since it shouldn't be that rare where you are. Just make sure that you dig right before shooting season so that they are primed to establish a lot faster. If you dig afterwards, you are pretty much losing a season worth of growth.

You are correct. Kudzu, just trimming it up. One half of the grove is relatively spacious with the boo being very big around (two three inches across) and tell. The other half is crammed full of dead stuff and the boo is so close together you can't even walk in it. Im pulling out the old, trimming the crowded, and cutting the lower branches of the side that faces the yard. Now I have the fever, though. I want to trade for moso (fat chance) or find out if there is some for free in alabama.

smarsh

i live in central alabama and have 3 nice moso groves on my property. im taking out a large part of one grove. i have a guy coming from florida in a couple of weeks to dig most of it. if youre close by ... youre welcome to dig a start.

the largest culms are softball or larger in size and 50 ft tall or more. quite an impressive sight to walk through.

{{gwi:400652}}

Steve I'm still interested. I shot an email to you plantaholic. My email is smarsh7903@gmail.com if you want to contact me. Thanks for all the help

My email is lau1922@yahoo.com. I didn't get your emailm but I sent one to that email.

That's a nice grove in that picture. I would go for a dig if I lived within 500 miles of it, but up here in the far north, not many people grow bamboo other than me, and the people I've sold bamboo to.