Look hard at this snap and you’ll see what happens to older culms in a grove approaching maturity.
In a grove’s formative years, the difference in height between one year’s growth and that of the next is not so significant in actual metres. A giant culm, however, can tower several metres above its immediate predecessors. Several in one area will block out the sun for anything branching well below, however large. Now, when a culm is deprived of light, it dies prematurely; consequently, many fine culms in my grove are perishing after only a couple of years. It’s part of a natural and long-desired transition to adult production, yet I’m not happy that some cherished bamboo poles have to die off before a good harvesting age.
None of this matters in the long term, since one wants a forest of adults culms, and that’s now going to happen. But even if those prematurely dead culms can’t be harvested, shouldn’t they be cut and taken away for the sake of neatness?
The answer is this: moso knows what it’s doing. Look harder at the photo above, see the drab lower culms which are leaning and even criss-crossing.
Then consider what is happening through the entire grove during this spring burst. Out on the perimeter, new shoots have grown and branched rapidly.
These scattered pioneers, of moderate size, seldom break in wind. The established part of the grove, however, sends up culms much more slowly and puts a lot more juice into them. These are the towering giants we’ve been talking about, and for some weeks they are tender and very heavy with sap. (How would you like growing to your full lifetime height in under two months?) At the base they are in shelter, but their tops are above everything and exposed to everything, especially to the worst southerly and westerly winds.
If you had to design a perfect support for these tottering monsters, it would be something strong but springy, with the ability to bend and slide while offering just the right amount of resistance, preferably through fine, wiry branchlets…
That’s right! Those seemingly useless dead or dying culms are acting as ideal supports for the new generation of larger culms.
What is good order and economy for tidy humans, may be disorder and waste from the point of view of the plant or animal you are trying to raise.
Are you still at your farm? I have enjoyed your blog so much and miss reading your posts re life with Moso. I live in Louisiana. I have a small Moso grove that feels like it’s taking forever to get started! (3 years old – not even doubled in culms yet) So it helps to hear and see your groves as I painfully watch mine “creeping” along!
Tina
Hi Tina
I’m still here. Waiting for moso to achieve full size and potential…how I know that feeling! I think the reason such a valuable species has trouble going mainstream outside Asia is the time and scale required. It’s taken me too long, and I know I’ll have to move on soon and let someone else take over.
Yet as the year wears on and I think of how big this October’s shoots are going to be, I think how cool it would be to do one more spring season. I think I’ll do just that and even blog it all again. Once you have a mature grove, each year’s gains are so spectacular that the real estate/commercial value can only go up.
The dramatic effects of La Nina here are not the same for your part of the world, they tell me. Perhaps you’ve had some drought while we’ve soaked. But good years will come again for you, and it’s amazing how moso handles drought, and can even progress in bad dry years.
What a plant!
Rob
Garrulous serf can’t keep quiet.I know nothing about moso farming
but responding to yr trial and error approach and closing words re
good order and tidy humans. I’m reading Jane Jacobs other book,
‘The Economy of Cities’ where she gives case after case study of
the messiness of city-import replacing, an untidy process of trial
and error, souk trading, repair shops diversifying, all this productive
experimentation that is easily killed off by tidiness.
J Jacobs looks at Venice, early Rome.prehistory archeology, UK
and US towns kick starting productive growth of cities and places
where planned leap forward growth fell flat. Enuff from a serf but
yr use of plank technology got me going. .
The plank is my legacy technology.
btw: Aren’t books rather long? I find them long. Please keep summarising.