Nice looking plant. Your culms look 'greener' than mine are.

Mine is shooting. Here's a new shoot pic taken this weekend.

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Kt

mine i bought on ebay looks similar to above about two or three years old, the moso from anderson has not put up any shoots yet.

Been a while ... here are updated pics. Still a tight clump of new growth. This is the 5th or 6th season now. Anyone object to IDing this as a Moso? I grew this from seed and the seeds are/were the long spike looking variety. Had I not grown them myself I too would question the ID. 6 seasons should have sent out more than 1 foot of growth...shouldnt it?

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Do you have other species of Phyllostachys that run "normally" for comparison? In some settings and climates the runners "run" a lot more than others.

When the shoots get a few inches taller, post more photos of shoot close-ups.

hello_c_j_here

Do you have any updates from this year?

Your pics look like bambusoides Madake to me.

Doing business on Ebay isn't a good idea.

I've never heard of a clumping moso, but it looks like it's clumping. Weird.

I don't see a sharp sulcus either.

Still looking good... tight formation... I cant find my latest oics of the new culms that just came out... I'll post them when I find them. Latest culms are a little fatter than a golfball and about 18 foot now ;-)

I think the lack of spread is most likely related to the shady conditions which may result in little spread as well as few few shoots. The tree roots also probably take away a lot of the soil moisture necessary for adequate rhizome growth.

If you cut down some nearby trees, and apply a bag of gypsum to the grove, as well as sever all the tree roots running into the moso, I think there will be much more growth the following year.

My phyllostachys dulcis is behaving in a similar way after 5 years of growth as it is only about 1.25 inches by 15ft at best as the shade seems to be limiting its potential.

"I think the lack of spread is most likely related to the shady conditions"

I have read numerous posts from those who say they grow Moso who say that shade is essential in order to grow Moso successfully.

In fact I've read so many favorable posts to growing any species of bamboo in shade that I don't think doing so can be a negative. I've read many posts saying that the grower believed their bamboo grew taller and of course with thicker culms due to the bamboo growing in shade and reaching for sun.

I would concur though that we sadly do not have enough information to verify what is true. I wish those growing bamboo would photographically document their experiences and share so we can figure out what is what.

My first bamboo was a grove of Yellow Groove that came with a house I bought. For twenty plus years it never got over 10-12 feet tall. One year I decided to have many of the tall firs in my yard limbed up to let in more light to the somewhat gloomy back yard. The following year the Yellow Groove shot to over 20 feet.

While some bamboo don't do well in full sun, my general belief is that sunnier conditions produce better growth in most species, including Moso.

If those were the only 2 culms produced last year, it was likely an off year and this coming shooting season for 2014 may have better yields.

One possibility aside from the shade issue is that the tree roots may be sucking up all the water around the bamboo limiting its performance.

Creating a trench or taking out the nearby tree may result in an explosion in growth.