Do it immediately, or wait until September.

I went and talked to the fellow last night. He said I can have whatever I want outside of the fence. I will dig Monday as I am taking the day off. There did not appear to be any shoots so hopefully I will be OK.

Dig as soon as you can, don't be discouraged if new shoots abort. I would expect 2/3 or more to go soft and die as the plant will only keep what it can support.

Absolutely do not allow the root mass to dry or the leaves to dry in the wind during transport.
Stake the new plants until well established.

Have fun!

I went to the grove yesterday evening. I waited till later because of the heat and it's chance of drying root mass. I was both amazed and discouraged. There were many shoots and some of them quite large. Many ranging diameters and the tallest besting me at about six and a half foot tall. So I should not dig? During shooting season the bamboo is putting all energy into shooting so a transplant right now will be less likely to survive? I want this division but I want to make sure it will survive. You can't dig up the shoots themselves right? How big do they need to be before I can or would they have inferior root mass? I have read as much as I can about how to dig, I just need a little guidance on when. Otherwise I need to wait until Fall?

sfhellwig-
The first dig is always the hardest. There are some techniques that reduce the time and effort substantially. You do not want to dig individual culms...unless you want nice, dead poles.
I will send you an email with an attachment that details digging procedures.

I live right here in SE kansas and have about 30 species of boo including yellow groove. 6 1/2 ft. seems kind of small as my yellow groove is about 25 to 30 ft. tall. I have culms that better what most text say is the max diameter as well ( I fertilize a lot ). Yellow groove does extrordinarily well here...in fact almost too well sometimes.

By 6 1/2 feet I mean that is what the shoot was on that day. It ended up being quite a bit taller and the full mature culms are indeed quite tall. The owner said he does absolutely nothing to it either. I however decided to wait until fall before digging. I could do it now but imagine that would be certain death. If you don't mind saying where in SEK are you. That is exciting to know that there are so many types I could grow.

Sorry I haven't been on the net in awhile...I live about 25 miles SW of Pittsburg.

So that would put you anywhere around Parsons, Oswego, or maybe Chanute. That's even better as that is the area I grew up in. Feel free to look up my e-mail if you would care to chat privately.

Hey fellas. Fellow Kansas bamboo lover here. I am just starting however.
I would be willing to drive down to dig some up with you if the guy would be so kind as let me take some. However, as I stated, I am new to this so I wuld need your education on it.
But Keep posting on here cause I would love to talk to others that grow yellow grove.
BTW, I get down to the Humbolt, Chanute, Yates Center area often.

Florida Wannabe, I have a mixed grove of nuda and red margin that I have been letting folks dig for free. I am trying to make room for an atrovaginata that I would prefer in this spot. The only caveats has been bring enough soil to back fill the hole(s), (cheap walmart soil is fine) and you diffinetly need a pickup if not a trailer. This is some fairly large boo.
I absolutely can not help dig at this time but can offer iced tea and free advice.

When my mom took a start off of mine, we wrapped the top, what was out of the moist dirt, in plastic and taped it to avoid wind dammage. The only things I have heard over and over are, NEVER let it dry at all while its out of the ground, and try to get as much root on either side of the stalk as you can. There is a wad of roots, like a strange thousand legged octopus, at the base of each stalk. out from that is the real root, which looks like an underground bamboo stalk. You would do well to get even a foot both ways of this root. I saw that some one offered you some instructions in an attatchement. as well, the american bamboo society used to have some visual diagrams on doing this. It sounds like fun, wish I lived there. I only have two types so far.

I have dug a lot of bamboo. When possible dig near the outer edge of the grove because that is where the younger rhizomes are with more viable buds. Get as much earth as possible. If it takes two or three people to lift the root ball then your doing good.Do not let the root mass dry out and, like you said, wrap the leaves to prevent wind-shredding during transport. Last, get it back in the ground as soon as possible. This lessens the shock for the plant.

Hello? I'm in Lawrence (grad school) and I've got a few species of boo that I'm growing in containers. One I got from a guy here in town the other two I smuggled back from Florida (one of them is a black boo) I'm actually going to take them down to my parents 40 acre farm in SW Missouri (around Nevada/Lamar) over Christmas break to put them in the ground. Chester6 is there any way that I could get some small starts from your bamboos in the spring? Where have you accumulated your bamboo? On the web or from other local growers? It would be nice if there were a local exchange. Anyway, good to see a few other bamboo people from Kansas.
Talk to you all later.
Jason

Here is a link that might be useful: Jason Cole.org

I'm new to bamboo and new to Kansas, having recently moved to a village of about 75 people. I need some fast growing, thick growing, clumping Bamboo to use as a privacy fence/hedge and I'm hoping to find some that I can dig for free (or buy cheap) within reasonable driving distance of Caney, KS. Any info/help would be welcome.

Chester 6 do you still yellow bamboo? If you do send me an email.