it should be without problem: we are just too cold in Z7.

Zone 5 is too cold for moso
Zone 6 is too cold for moso
Zone 7 seems to winter kill a good bit of it
( the warmer parts of the east end of LI are zone 7)

All of that said , here in New London zone 6 with the past 2 winters being damn near zone 5 I am growing one in a big pot!
Nobody said a bamboo grower had to have any sense.

sandy-
My references show Moso hardy to zero degrees F, which is Zone 7, and even that's marginal. Remember that a hardiness rating only means the temperature at which the plant usually dies. You can get lots of damage (topkill) at temperatures well above the hardiness rating. I would defer to the opinions of those above who have direct experience with those temps.

It survives in zone 6 but is topkilled when the temps get below 0F. They reshoot every year, but of course they never get the tall culms we dream about.

One of my suppliers talked me out of buying one from him because, he told me, what's the point if you're not going to get giant timber?

With other factors like sustained cold and windchill it probably wouldn't do well in Z5 even with protection/mulching from what I've READ.

Anybody have a nice Moso grove in Z5, and how old is it?

I agree w/ bambooo that the past 2 winters have been pretty hard!

From what I've heard, the biggest problem with Moso in zone 6 and colder (aside from the topkill) is that new culms shoot too early in the spring and get killed by hard frosts. Maybe it would do better if it was well-sited or protected from frost in some way.

Hoosier has some growing where he is but he goes above and beyond what most normal folks would do. he had some pics of his Moso a while back in here. I'm sure he will chime in on this one. I have 2 seedlings about a yr old but they are both in a greenhouse. the way i see it, you have to try, right? Just don't spend a ton of $$ trying.

Kurt

Theres a guy on ebay goes by the name "Hortus" has something to do with pottery in his normal biz that auctions very nice moso plants cheap.
He is somewhere in Florida and one sent to CT was still under 20$ including the priority mail.
If you can't find him, bug me and I'll did through my records.

I've bought 6 from him and he hasn't left me any feedback :(

Tropicalesque,
The early shooting-frost kill issue is the one I've also heard about. I'm on the coast, so we tend not to get the yo-yo spring weather of freeze-warm-freeze. The last date of frost is relatively predictable. In spite of that, I haven't risked planting moso...yet.

The early shooting issue can be mostly resolved by site selection. Plant early shooters in areas that are slow to warm up - north facing slopes for example. Plant late shooters in full sun, south facing spots to get them going early.

I have 1 Moso that shoots in mid-March and 2 that shoot in late April, the difference being location, location, location.

The other factor I've heard mention of is that Moso stores food reserves in its culms more so than other Phyllostachys. Viz., you don't want your culms getting killed to the ground every winter.

That's a valuable observation and suggestion, hoosier. I think that I've intuitively planted my 'boos accordingly without "logicking" out the reason. Always looking for the microclimates...

Thuja, interesting about that. Why would moso be metabolically different from other bamboos, or plants in general for that matter. Maybe it's a factor related to the huge size of the culms?

It seems that in the plant kingdom, roots, rhizomes, tubers and other underground modified stems are the storage places for energy. Wonder whether it's been proven that moso is different? Another thought -- maybe it's when the shoots are forming, growing with that amazing rapidity, that energy is transferred from rhizome to (nascent) culm, and it's then that the plant is most vulnerable to energy loss if the energy-use-intensive shoots are frost killed?

Thanks for all the input everyone. I think I'll just stick with my beautiful yellow groove (thanks Brad!) since the timber bamboo won't get any "timber" anyway. I know sometimes you can keep things alive, but in this case, it sounds like "plant torture" to me to try it here where I live in zone 5.
I have enough bananas to baby and take care of anyway!

Sandy, the Dwarf Cavendish is starting to get some size (it did really well over the winter in the heated Sunroom) and there are a number of offsets coming up now. I have an Orinoco, the Red Ensete that you saw and I recently brought back 2 Hawaiian Apple Banana plants that one of our vendors brought me. I have 20 Musa Basjoo in the ground and one is already 6 feet tall with leaves that are the largest I've seen yet about a foot wide by 3.5 feet long - I think I'm getting the banana bug pretty bad, what others might you have? I planted 10 Basjoo together and they are forming a mini banana grove this spring.

Brad,
I have sumatrana X gran nain cross bananas, they look like the zebrinas, but they have edible bananas. I have musa basjoo now, about 30 of them planted in the yard. I have high color mini super dwarf cavendishes. Those are the ones I have for sale.I got the plants tissue cultured. Then for my own personal collection, I now have dwarf cavendish, gran nain, apple (manzano), ice cream, rajipuri, basjoo, sumatranaxgran nain, high color mini, zebrina, several unknowns, a chinese yellow, about four of the red ensetes, cuban plantains, and pink velutina. I think that's all unless I forgot some of them.
My bamboo is growing really well, it winter killed down to the ground, but has shot up around 6 feet tall now. I think all the plants I planted last fall grew. I kept a few over in the greenhouse in case some of them died, but they didn't do well at all and got a major attack of whiteflies. The ones you gave me for "greenhouse bamboo" are doing real well, and are next to the hot tub.
come up sometime and see us!

O.K. I give, too many bananas that I've never heard of! The Cavendish you gave me has a lot of mottled-red coloration on the pups but none on the mama. Are the ones you're selling the same as what I have?

Nope, they are a cross of a zebrina, which KEEPS the mottled leaves,no matter how big they get, and a gran nain, which is real similar to what you have, with tasty edible bananas(think Chiquita). The problem with the zebrina is that it has seedy inedible bananas. So this cross "fixes" the problem. Of course, it's not much of a problem here in Indiana. That is typical of the dwarf cavendish, they have the mottling when young, and they outgrow when they get bigger. Maybe we should take this to the banana forum!

Is there such a thing?(forum) i might stop by...
Kurt

There's a forum for everything except "Lucky Bamboo." ;)

I'm going to give it a try and study the results photographicly starting next spring. I have about a dozen plantings that are being wintered in the house. I planted them around May 15th of this year. I hope to plant half of them in early to mid April so they can get a full year of growing in the hot sun. This dispite the results, I'm trying 1/2 of what I got left at that point.

I think I'm keeping 3 of them to try to grow them indoors. My seedling just doubled it's shoots in late October (3 new ones) that's been sitting for 5 months in a South facing window.

So, dispite the fact that's it's popular to say it's hard to grow in 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, I'm trying 5b. Hopefully I can get a large underground network of rhizomes so that they can come up if we get one of our killer winters. The record is -35F in the last 100 years.

I am growing moso in zone 4. I just bring it inside for the winter. Just keep it contained in a transportable pot. It can be moved back outside in the summer.

I'm just wondering, is anyone in here still trying to grow moso in zone 6 or below? I've had a 1 gallon moso growing since summer of 2008 and it seems to be making pretty good progress.

I know this thread is 5 years old well before I started growing bamboo, but I was wondering if anyone on here is still growing it and what kind with what kind of results.

This link pretty much sums up how mine has grown in the last 2 years.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:412308}}

Are you sure that is Moso?

Kt

Yep,

Here's a sample of the spring shoots and there is no mistaking it for anything else. It has the fuzzy culms, dark specks and large juvenile leaves of moso.

Here's a picture of a couple of its shoots that came up this year. Perhaps next year they will have more dark spots.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:412310}}

I may be wrong, but I don't think that is Moso. It looks more like one of the P. nigras.

The leaves, the culms, and the new shoots look nothing like my Moso. Maybe I don't have Moso...hmmmmm.

Kt

If you have a mature grove, you shoots may look a lot different from my juvenile shoots since they will change in form each year until maturity adding more fuzziness as well as dark spots. This moso happens to have less fuzz on its shoots/culms, but I think the dark spots are very distinct to moso. I also have p nigra/ p nigra henon which look noticeably different.

The rhizomes might look the same through all stages though.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:412312}}

Do you have a close-up pic of the leaves, and/or some more pics of the culms?

Kt

Actually I do. I take lots of bamboo pictures. I know the shoots will look a lot more mature next spring when they get larger again, but I can't show pictures of the future.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:412314}}

Yes, in that pic, the culms do look like Moso, but still not sure about the leaves.

Nice looking bamboo!

Kt

The leaves seem to be less detailed and slightly smaller than my 1-2 year old moso seedlings, but they still have the same overall form. It seems like each year, the leaves get smaller as the culms get larger.

I grow many of these and the only difference I can find is that this older moso tends to have less hair on culm sheaths, but in about 4 months I should be able to see some shoots rise with some true moso characteristics.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:412316}}

Great photo. The leaves look more like my Dendrocalamus' and larger than my Moso, but as you said, they do get smaller as the plant/culms get larger.

Very healthy looking and it should do well in your area, but Moso, at least here, is slow to mature.

Keep us posted on how it does.

Kt

It has gotten as cold as 6F already with most of the foliage covered in snow during the chill, but there's still no visible damage on any of the leaves so I think moso is at least hardy into the single digits.

Anything colder than this and without the snow cover can probably burn it badly, but I'll dump extra snow on top if it gets below 0F and too much foliage is out of the snow. I think moso may be hardy to zone 5 as long as it snows all the time. The good thing is that these top heavy culms always get weighted down by the snow so I can depend on them getting lots of insulation.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:412318}}