Growing Bamboo From Seed
Preparation.
Soak the seed in warm water for at least 48 hours before sowing. Likely the seed will float at first as it is light and often dispersed by water, where a sinking seed would be a disadvantage. It can be quite slow and erratic to germinate, so a soak for a few hours in a salt-petre solution will help this. (See the salt-petre article for how to do this - the link is here
Sowing
Sow the prepared seed on the surface of a good quality seed mix and water well to settle the seeds in. Do not exclude light as this assists the germination. Seal inside a plastic bag or propagator at 20 Deg C minimum and do not allow to dry out. Germination can take as little as 7 days or asl long as 6 months. This is an inbuilt survival mechanism to protect the seed batch given that all plants in a given area will flower and seed at the same time, so any adverse conditions will kill the entire crop if this staggered germination does not occur.
Growing on
Do not expect immediate 'Giants', the first culm may be no more than 10 cm tall. Subsequent shoots will get larger and larger as time goes on but it may be a few years before the really big culms are produced. Once the plant reaches around 60 cm tall, it may be placed in its final location (whether this is open ground or a container).
Preparation.
Soak the seed in warm water for at least 48 hours before sowing. Likely the seed will float at first as it is light and often dispersed by water, where a sinking seed would be a disadvantage. It can be quite slow and erratic to germinate, so a soak for a few hours in a salt-petre solution will help this. (See the salt-petre article for how to do this - the link is here
Sowing
Sow the prepared seed on the surface of a good quality seed mix and water well to settle the seeds in. Do not exclude light as this assists the germination. Seal inside a plastic bag or propagator at 20 Deg C minimum and do not allow to dry out. Germination can take as little as 7 days or asl long as 6 months. This is an inbuilt survival mechanism to protect the seed batch given that all plants in a given area will flower and seed at the same time, so any adverse conditions will kill the entire crop if this staggered germination does not occur.
Growing on
Do not expect immediate 'Giants', the first culm may be no more than 10 cm tall. Subsequent shoots will get larger and larger as time goes on but it may be a few years before the really big culms are produced. Once the plant reaches around 60 cm tall, it may be placed in its final location (whether this is open ground or a container).
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