With moso, it probably won't spread very fast in the first few years, but it will start upsizing faster once it goes into the ground. With good conditions, it will probably get up to 3ft next spring, and 7ft the following spring.

Once it starts sending rhizomes, you can mix in some manure or other organic materials to help it spread faster. If you are in zone 9, then it should be capable of sending rhizomes the length of the height of the culms. In my climate, moso grows more like a clumping bamboo.

It's hard to tell, when a plant is young, but that picture does not look like Moso. Keep a close eye on it when it gets larger and match it with pictures of new shoots and culms.

Kt

Thank ya'll. I think I'm actually in zone 8B; Bay St. Louis on the Mississippi gulf coast. I'd love to have a grove of 75' tall bamboo down here.

I hope this is Moso. That is what I ordered online. I'd hate to find out several years from now that I don't have what I thought.

It looks like a typical moso seedling to me.

Here's a link to a few young moso seedlings at around the same stage in development as yours.

Here is a link that might be useful: Moso seedlings

It should do fine in 8b which is the same zone I am in here and it does very well, but I don't give mine room to grow so it stays small.

Keep us posted as it grows.

Kt

It takes several years to really size up. My regular & 'Anderson Clone' moso are doing well with culms up to about 4 to 4.5" in diameter.

Hi There... do you happen to know if Moso Bamboo would survive and do well in my zone (9a)?

Thanks.

Julie-
Given that Moso (Ph. edulis) is hardy to 5 degrees F, and grows all over Asia and many parts of the U.S., you should have no problems...unless you live in the desert and can't provide adequate water. Other than that, you need to give thought to how you will control it, given that it is a running bamboo.

at 5 degrees will it defoliate? then regrow in spring. I havent seen temps that low in awhile but if it did I wouldn't want to lose large culms

Mike-
A hardiness rating is the approximate temperature a bamboo will die at if it stays at that temp for 24 hours. Obviously, this is not a precise number, but depends on a lot of particular conditions. In my experience, bamboo defoliate and can often lose above-ground growth (culms) at temps about 10F higher than the hardiness rating. For bamboo in pots, rather than in the ground, the temp at which damage can occur is even higher than that. I know you can grow Moso in your Zone; I'm skeptical that you can successfully keep from losing culms over the long term.