A viable "division" of bamboo is typically rhizome plus 2 or more culms with leaves.

A rhizome without culms a will not be able to obtain solar energy required for growth.

In fact, the tactic of pruning running bamboo is to cut the rhizomes spreading through the perimeter of the acceptable area leaving errant rhizome-only segments with no way to grow.

unautre - not quite accurate on bare rhizome propagation. Timing is everything. Every spring I do some when I make divisions I end up with broken pieces of rhizome and I pot them up. In fact, a friend and I are trying to decide if we are going to Europe this fall or early spring to obtain new species to introduce into the US. If we go, we will have to bring back bare rhizomes only as this is the best way to clear the inspection. Past attempts my friend has made with even careful removal of leaves resulted in confiscated plants.

The ones I did last spring have produced culms and I have had to stick new rhizome growth back into some of the pots as they are already running new rhizome out of the drainage holes. Bare rhizome propagation is the preferred method for some nurseries but as I said, timing is crucial.

The ideal time is from late fall up to shoot initiation. The rhizomes have converted the previous summer growth into stored energy and they certainly will produce culms. The culms are generally small and it is a slower way to get a grove going but you can cut a section of rhizome into pieces and have many new plants from one section of rhizome. It is best to try to include 6-10 buds on the rhizome piece. As you can imagine, a nursery can get LOTS of new plants with just a few feet of rhizome.

This time of year it is very sketchy to do this. Go ahead and bend the rhizomes into a 'U' shape and pot them up. Water well but don't rot them, I find it better to keep them on the drier side as rot seems to be the biggest issue.

How does rhizome pruning in the fall manage to rend the cut rhizomes non-viable, if they are full of energy from the warm season?

It seems the cut segments, often with many nodes, would still be viable from your experience.

Hennie-
How exactly does one go about getting rhizomes from the USDA? What species did you get?

You ask very good question concerning rhizome pruning, and you are correct that there can be viable buds on the pruned section. If so, they will indeed produce shoots in the spring and that is why pruning must be combined with a visual inspection to look for these shoots. I encourage folks to prune but also to patrol for this very reason.

Although there is some variation between species, my bamboo 'teacher' says that rhizome buds mature at different rates. Lets assume for a moment that it is spring and we have a 10 foot long section of rhizome that grew from a bud last summer. He says that in general about 10% of the buds will be mature enough to produce new culms/rhizome in year 1; about 20% more in year 2; about 30% more in year 3; and then 20% more in year 4 with a few more to mature in subsequent years until there are none left. This explains the sleep, creep, leap. Species such as Rubro & Bissetii seem to me to mature buds at a much more rapid rate and thus they produce a screening grove quicker with an earlier flush of culms.

So....if someone prunes rhizomes every fall then for the most part they are pruning brand new rhizome that does not have many viable buds - if any, plus the area from the rhizome tip moving back towards the grove usually does not have any viable buds for the first 3 feet or so.

Try it for yourself next February if you have a culm that is a bit out of bounds get underneath it and try to walk some of the rhizome out of the ground and then snip off a section that is growing between the culm and the grove and pot it up.

I wonder if fall pruning is the key to keeping the plant in check. If the buds are only viable for a limited time after the rhizome is separated from the culm, I could see that they may not make it to spring without support from the main plant.

Never mind.

HennieTx - don't know whether you saw this in the post above but I did at least attempt to answer your question, sorry to have annoyed you with information...

"This time of year it is very sketchy to do this. Go ahead and bend the rhizomes into a 'U' shape and pot them up. Water well but don't rot them, I find it better to keep them on the drier side as rot seems to be the biggest issue."

I have several bamboos that I started from rhizomes , one didnt send up a shoot foe almost 3 months ,hoosiers info fits my experience,even if you dont see life for weeks keep watering it ,,,its worth it when one day you notice the tiny shoot sticking up,,,

Ok...I've read your instructions brad....here is what i want to do.... with the Arrow i have, lots of small shoots this year. i want to pot up or move a couple of those shoots. should i dig around the shoots that have strayed a bit from my location in the fall or now or in the spring.... i was going to do it in a couple of weeks and move the small shoots(18 inches or so) to a new location plant it right in the ground and water and mulch.....i know it isn't a rhizome cutting but Do you feel it is the right timing for this scenario?

Kurt

Kurt, keep in mind that doing this will slow down the development of the Japonica that has only been in the ground since last summer and it will take longer to gain size. Also, the ones you move will only be able to produce TINY growth next year. If you are doing this to because you want the bamboo in new places, you'd be better off digging more of the big guys like last year. In general it is best to wait until the 4th year in the ground to make divisions, unless it is Bissetii or Rubro in which case it does not seem to matter as they produce so much growth in 1-2 years.

Having said that, if by shoots you mean that they are fully developed culms that came up in the spring, I'd move them now so that they have time to get over the transplant and then still have time to grow new rhizomes. I have been transplanting and potting this week for this reason. Fall is better in some climates but not mine.

If the 'shoots' are not fully developed, then you should wait another few weeks.

Thanks...what happened is the japonica spread into my lawn a bit(6inches or so). i didn't mow the shoots because i figured i would do the root pruning kudzu seems to prefer....(take about a one gallon area of roots/shoots)....so this is what i will be trimming back....i know its a bit off topic from the thread....at this point i didn't want to just cut and throw any part of my bamboo...but i don't want it to spread any further in this particular direction....my fault because i shouldn't have planted it so close to the border of bed....or edge....

exactly how did you request if from the usda?

id like to know how you requested them also