River Cane Seed/ Seedlings

I want to grow river cane in my yard, but I can’t find any decently priced seed online. I found one website selling a couple dozen seeds for $200. I want to grow at least a couple dozen plants, so that seemed expensive. I was wondering if anyone knows where I can find river cane shoots/seedlings or seeds for a reasonable price? Also I’m in zone 6a if that matters.

Where are you located?

If it is in an area where it grows naturally, like here, you just find a creek along the side of the road and dig some up to transplant.

The more rural the road the better because it will not be mowed down or sprayed with herbicides so easier to spot.

Josh Hoffman wrote:Where are you located?

If it is in an area where it grows naturally, like here, you just find a creek along the side of the road and dig some up to transplant.

The more rural the road the better because it will not be mowed down or sprayed with herbicides so easier to spot.

I live in central IL and it does not occur naturally where I live.

Yes, it looks like central is in a more sparsely populated area for it.

It is all over the place here.

Are you open to any Bamboo or only native american bamboo (Arundinaria gigantea)?

Josh Hoffman wrote:Yes, it looks like central is in a more sparsely populated area for it.

It is all over the place here.

Are you open to any Bamboo or only native american bamboo (Arundinaria gigantea)?

When you say here, where is that?

Ryan Burkitt wrote:

When you say here, where is that?

39339 Louisville, MS.

I stumbled across this earlier today. Somewhere in the video he says viable seeds are very rare. I wouldn't pay for seed. My rivercane was started from two rhizomes from a friend's place. Didn't water them. Thought I killed them... Couple years later, lo and behold, 5 stalks stood there. Hooray! Now, a few years later, I can almost call it a stand of rivercane!

Mmmm... Okay. I have refreshed my memory. Mine were live plants dug up near our dry season and plopped down above the pond. Here's a video of someone much more careful transplanting some cane.



If you can't locate a stand near you, I'm pretty sure the rhizome source mentioned above would be the place to get some. Big plus, it's dormant when shipped, if I remember correctly, so transplant shock should be near non-existent. Good luck!

This past early winter, I had the opportunity to get some more rivercane. It was a limited time rushed opportunity. We chopped the canes to about 6 inches tall and dug out the roots. We have yet to check on them this spring... So don't try that method yet. Wait for an update!

I am no expert, but I recall reading that for bamboo, the living culms provide a lot of the energy for the new culms and roots to grow. Therefore, as awkward as it seems, leaving the culms as tall as possible when transplanting is better.

The Bamboo expression is, "the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps." My personal experience is that it takes even longer than that in my ecosystem, but I'm on the cool side for the bamboo I planted.

Jay Angler wrote:I am no expert, but I recall reading that for bamboo, the living culms provide a lot of the energy for the new culms and roots to grow. Therefore, as awkward as it seems, leaving the culms as tall as possible when transplanting is better.

The Bamboo expression is, "the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps." My personal experience is that it takes even longer than that in my ecosystem, but I'm on the cool side for the bamboo I planted.

Are culms the soft new shoots that pop up in the spring?

Ryan Burkitt wrote: Are culms the soft new shoots that pop up in the spring?

"A culm is the aerial (above-ground) stem of a grass or sedge." So I usually call the "shoots" just that until they're above the height that the bunnies, deer and geese tend to chew on them.

Bamboo culms (hollow stalks) grow to their maximum height the first season. Their side branches may continue to grow higher later, but the actual length of the central core won't change, and if something stops it at any spot in that initial grow period, that will be its final height.

So that initial growth from shoot to full sized culm happens quickly over a short period. This is why the plant needs to have good energy stores to do so. The better those stores, the more and larger culms you will get. This is why it may be challenged when a small part is transplanted. I have successfully transplanted my bamboo, but some of it has taken a long time to get going.

So if you're transplanting, if you shorten the vertical height, you're removing the plant's ability to make sugar and limiting its height until it can produce new shoots to grow into new culms.

I consider myself an amateur at this stuff, but I have had some success with transplanting P. dulcis and P. nigra. My P. nigra has been blooming, but I have not seen any actual seeds forming. It may need a cross pollinator, or I may not know what I'm looking at, but so far my main plant and my potted version are still alive. Blooming normally kills the mother plant, but I have read of exceptions.