Almost two years after sowing fargesia seed it is time to do a winter test. While searching for experiences regarding fargesia overwintering I came across the same situation as before; not much information scattered all over the internet. So since my fargesias are going to overwinter outside anyhow, I will document their progress and publish it here. That way everything will be in one place.
Fargesias are nice bamboo that anyone can grow because it is clumper ie it is not running bamboo so there are no problems with uncontrolled spreading if left unattended. From what I read some species can grow up to 8 m || 26 ft so they are ideal for privacy screens. Some fargesias are also very cold hardy so that makes them ideal for many parts of northern hemisphere but some species in fargesia genus are not very cold hardy....so that is where I got lost. Some say this, and some say that and I don`t know whom to believe. As a primary source of information I use book "Bamboo for Gardens" by Ted Jordan Meridith but unfortunately for F. yunnanensis and papyrifera there are no information.
This post is about three species of Fargesia genus: fungosa, yunnanensis and papyrifera (considering that the seed I received really came from these species). I got the seed in late 2011. and sown it in February 2012. As all my bamboos they grew in a milk cardboard while they were little because it is practical due to its size and shape and it can last up to 2 years. They grew well although they did not (and do not) like strong sun and that is their characteristic. Direct sun in the morning and the evening is fine but during the middle of the days it is something they don`t like. They fold their leaves and keep them that way until sun moves away.
First winter (not counting the one the one when seed was sown) they overwintered in the house-attaches glasshouse. Temperature there never goes below 4°C || 39°F so they were safe from the freezing.
In spring 2013. I planted them into the ground. Parcel where I planted them has never been used for planting anything. For decades it served as storage place for bricks and other working materials but never for planting although the soil is very rich in nutrients that accumulated during the years. Parcel itself is well protected from northern side (shed for combine) and southern side (corn storage). Above the parcel is a hundred years old pear tree that provides protection from strong summer sun. Basically, an ideal place to plant some bamboo :). Tires around bamboo serve as protection from chickens.
Info under the bamboo name (see below) about the height and cold tolerance are collected from the internet. During the winter I will gather my own data and publish it with photos.
Info under the bamboo name (see below) about the height and cold tolerance are collected from the internet. During the winter I will gather my own data and publish it with photos.
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| 10.11.2013. |
Fargesia fungosa (3 plants)
Synonym: Borinda fungosa
Height: 6 m || 20 ft
Culm diameter: 2,5 cm || 1 in
Minimum temperature: -9°C || 15°F
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Fargesia fungosa has been renamed to Borinda fungosa but since I got the seed under the old name I will keep the old name.
Fungosa had vigorous growth producing strong stems and a lot of them. In the late fall chickens attacked it and eat some leaves but that should not be the problem. Stems are around 1.70 m || 5.5 ft tall and still not fully developed (as in the rest of species) so I am not sure that they will be able to survive the winter temps. They did survive the frost without damage.
Fungosa had vigorous growth producing strong stems and a lot of them. In the late fall chickens attacked it and eat some leaves but that should not be the problem. Stems are around 1.70 m || 5.5 ft tall and still not fully developed (as in the rest of species) so I am not sure that they will be able to survive the winter temps. They did survive the frost without damage.
Fargesia yunnanensis (3 plants)
Synonym: Borinda yunnanensis
Height: 10 m || 32 ft
Culm diameter: 4 cm || 1.5 in
Minimum temperature: -15°C || 5°F
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F. yunnanensis grew the slowest of all of them and stems it produced are thinner then those from fungosa or papyrifera. That might be due to the fact that it is planted in most shaded place on the parcel.
Fargesia papyrifera (1 plant)
Height: 6-8 m || 20-26 ft
Culm diameter: 2-6 cm || 1-2.2 in
Minimum temperature: -10°C || 14°F
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From time when it was planted until today F. papyrifera has grown the most. It has the largest number of new stems. When it was planted it was 30 cm || 11 in tall and 6 months later the biggest stem is over 2 m || 6.5 ft tall. Stems are tall but not fully developed. First frost that we had in September did not damage it. It grew even taller afterwards. I am surprised by the size of the new stems.
I have Borinda fungosa seedling from 2011. I tried to capture the whole process with pictures (http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4547).
ReplyDeleteIt's a fantastic grower, vigorous and it looks really nice. It does have a bad habit of late fall shooting, which ends up catastrophic around here. Like you, I'll test it in the ground this year for the second time. First year it survived, but got broken down by snow. So far it's still green with very low temperatures.
Here's a photo of it http://cold-hardy.com/cold/
First picture. On the same site there's a post about it with pictures. I haven't had time to write a lot, this is kind of work in progress that never gets down. :P
Nice to see that there are other people with almost exactly the same plants :))
I have seen your photos and I like them very much. What was the lowest temperature that your fargesias survived? I had a little problem with the chickens recently...they eat most of the leafs of these several bamboos. I`ll upload photos and more details tomorrow because I temporarily lost the memory card :).
ReplyDeleteI must agree. It takes time and dedication to do the entire work but it is interesting to do it. I try to write every 30 days or so but sometimes it takes a bit longer.
:)
It looks completely fried now. I don't think it was damaged by low temperature itself (it got down to -9C on several occasions), most likely it got devastated because we haven't seen above freezing temperatures for around one whole month. It was doing surprisingly OK until day temperatures stayed below -3C, that instantly fried it.
ReplyDeleteI hope its culms aren't damaged and they start anew in the spring.
http://cold-hardy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/branches_fungosa2014-1.jpg
ReplyDeletehttp://cold-hardy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/branches_fungosa2014.jpg
Culm color is getting fantastic. First leaves are appearing, but it kind of doesn't like full sun, so it might suffer a bit. I hope it fully leafs out.
Minimal temperature was -10C and it got completely defoliated. I think it might get a bit more cold hardy when it matures even more.
Hope yours started as well.
I have photos but lately there is simply not enough time to update this post. Mine also lost all of their leafs. But one that was in sheltered place had green leafs all winter long. Stems that grew in the autumn died off when frost came.
ReplyDeleteYour stems look excellent! They probably had time to harden up before cold came. As for the temperatures, we also had -10°C this winter as lowest temp. My fargesias started to develop leafs/branches primarily from the old thin stems. Hopefully they will recover successfully.
Stems did not harden, they were 2,5m tall, but never started branching out. The first cold took top 2 or 3 nodes, then after a month, they lost a couple more nodes. In the spring, I noticed that stem that was still alive had dead buds on another couple of nodes. To sum it up, it has lost most of the stem, but all the lower nodes were intact and are now growing insane numbers of brances. There are no shoots yet. I hope to see them soon, so they can harden enough to survive winter. It seems spring shoots can harden enough to stand a chance, but autumn shoots are almost certainly heavily damaged around here. It's leafing out nicely. Hope that cold mornings wont harm it. It can get to -2 again.
ReplyDeleteHow did it perform until now? I guess it's doing good, my fungosa is going crazy at the moment. I sadly lost the more vigorous one that was kept inside the pot this winter, but the one in the ground is exploding. New shoots are around as thick as my index finger. If they harden enough before winter and if by chance we have mild one this year, I think next year it will be over 4m tall.
ReplyDeleteIt's branching out. Did you have any luck this winter? I think all of my B. fungosa culms survived the winter. Can't wait to see shoots!
ReplyDelete