To appreciate the quality of a healthy and vigorous bamboo, you should not only look at its aerial parts but also unpack it to discover its rhizomes.
If it is impossible to remove the pot, i.e. if it is swollen by the rhizomes or bursts under their push, this is the plant you need.
Once the pot is removed, we observe:
- Root system condition with the presence of rhizomes. It is the future of your plant which will give the future turions. Check that the roots and rhizomes are dense enough.
- A beautiful hair (assimilating roots) with beautiful root caps mainly in spring when there is a resumption of the vegetation. These rootlets will allow a good absorption of water and mineral salts. They can go down to several meters under ground.
- The bamboo can develop a bun, that is to say to make a spiralization of the roots. What is a handicap for many plants is not for bamboos. Once planted, it will not repeat this way of growing. It has developed a bun by constraint due to the pot. Once released, the rhizomes will resume their horizontal growth.
- Advice: at plantation, separate the rhizomes which spiral by distributing them in the ground.
- In summary, it is better to choose a bamboo with few culms but many rhizomes than the opposite. Vigorous rhizomes are more important than beautiful stems. The future of your bamboo depends on the reserves stored in its rhizomes.
The characteristics of a rhizome
- Horizontal underground stem
- Hollow and partitioned stem (fistulous rhizome)
- The nodes carry eyes that will develop into new culms.
- Roots adapted to the storage of energy reserves (starch) for its future growth. A well-fed and well-maintained bamboo the year before will give beautiful culms the following year.
- It fixes the plant to the ground with its adventitious roots. There are also docking roots that make the culms more resistant to wind.
- The rhizome is a potential propagule. From a section of rhizome one can obtain another plant (cloning)
- Although endowed with a positive geotropism, the tip of the rhizomes sometimes emerges from the ground to give a culm (positive phototropism). It can also be diverted from its trajectory (stone...), go out of the ground and then enter it again under the effect of its positive geotropism.
The questions that we must ask ourselves are the following
Different types of underground devices ?
A cespitose bamboo has pachymorphic rhizomes (from the Greek prefix meaning thick) .
The apical bud of the rhizome evolves in thatch. It doesn't go very far in the ground. In this case, the internodes are short and more or less swollen. Horizontal growth is done only on a few centimeters. Bamboos with these pachymorphic rhizomes form tight clumps. They do not spread on the surface.
A tracing bamboo has leptomorphic rhizomes (from the Greek, leptos=thin and morphos=shape), often with unlimited growth (monopodial). In this case, the internodes are long and thin. Their growth is horizontal.
Does the plant have a good root system?
The most important is in the substrate which is not in sight. It is the rhizomes that will ensure the future of your bamboo plant and not its culms.
Was the bamboo well fed last year?
Its rhizomes, which store reserves thanks to the photosynthesis of its foliage, not only allow the plant to be fixed to the ground but are also the carriers of future culms. The good work of the nurseryman is mainly found in the quality and the richness of the rhizomes. The good conditions of culture (heat in spring for a good exit of the shoots and in summer to facilitate the accumulation of the reserves in the rhizomes) make it possible to obtain a subject with well augusted shoots, resistant to the cold and rich rhizomes for the future of the plant.
