Bamboo diary: Sowing Phyllostachys edulis

On Monday (29.8.2011) I sowed seeds of Phyllostachys edulis. I bought them a year ago, from some German on-line company that sells seeds of rare plants. I would had sowed them before, but I was in a student residence hall during the week, so I wasn’t at home enough, to keep an eye on them, if they would had sprouted. So now I have almost finished my studying, and I’ll be staying home for at least a year, and it’s perfect timing for me to grow bamboo. Yes, I know I’m very, very late with these seeds and their germination rate is probably 0%, but still I had to try.

Seeds of Phyllostachy edulis. 6 of them were too dry.

I used the same technique I used with Fargesia nitida,which I sowed the other day. I’ve had 36 seeds and 6 of them were completely dry. I potted 15 as they were and the other 15 with those 6 dry ones, I soaked them in water through the night and sowed them the next day (30.8.2011). The 6 dry ones didn’t get better, so I threw them away. And now, I'm waiting again. It’s probably just gambling with luck anyway.

So, read you next time!

Uroš   

Pool frog and Yellow-bellied toad photos

These are few photos of a pool frogs (Rana kl. esculenta) and Yellow-bellied toad (Bombina bombina)  that I took the other day when I was at my girlfriends. They were both still babies, but already looked as adults. I really like frogs so I want to take a photo of as many as I can. 

(click on photo for better quality)

So read you later.

Uroš      

Bamboo diary: Fargesia nitida seeds

Today I have sowed my first bamboo seeds of Fargesia nitida. I brought them form Scotland, from Castle Kennedy Gardens, to be exact (on 29.6.2011). I got them totally by coincidence, when I went to see the gardens. The dying bamboo was visible from far away, and I knew it at that very moment, that this had to be a flowering bamboo. First I took some photos of it’s flowers and habitus, then I took some samples for herbarium, for my collection and after, I also took some flowers, which were already producing seeds, so I was hoping that I would get some seeds from them.

Flowers were already produceing seeds.

Dying clumps with last leafs.

I put them in a paper bag with silca gel, so that it wouldn’t get rotten or moldy . They were stored like that til now. Because the germination rate of bamboo seed falls rapidly, I just hope that I was not to late. I got 10 seeds out of 20 collected flowers. Their size was around 5 mm.

Bamboo seeds look like grain.

To sown them I have used a technique from David Crompton book Ornamental Bamboos.

So let’s see what I have done:

First I put peat-based light compost and filled the pots so, that compost was 2,5cm under the upper edge of the pot. I used mix of two bought composts for seedlings (Brill and Valentin). Then I sprayed the compost with water, so I could put the seed on a wet base.

So, I put 3 or 2 seeds per pot, covered them with 1 cm of compost and sprayed the compost again. I placed the pots in a room with a constantly warm temperature (20°C+), and is very bright, but not a direct sunlight.

Now I’m hoping for the best, which is that at the least 2 or 3 seeds will sprout. Based on the theory by Ted Jordan Meredith (Bamboo for Gardens), it should be from 2 to 3 weeks. I’ll keep you posted.

So, read you next time.

Uroš