t year. This treatment is needed each year as long as the nursery is in use.
Weeding should be done carefully so as not to damage the rhizomes. Most of the weeding will have to be done by hand pulling or use of herbicides. Do not hoe around the young plants, because this will damage the rhizomes.
Excellent control of annual grasses and weeds was obtained at Auburn and at Camden by spraying with simazine at the rate of 3 pounds active ingredient per acre after the rhizomes were set. One application controlled the broadleaf weeds and grasses until about July 1. Another application of about 1 pound per acre was sometimes necessary to control the weeds until frost. No damage was apparent to the bamboo plants.
Setting Permanent Areas
For planting large areas it is desirable to use clumps of plants from a nursery. Plants survive better and require less care than do rhizome cuttings. Rhizome cuttings may be used for small areas. The plants should be removed from the nursery and set in February or March when soil is moist. If the plants in the nursery are too tall, cut them back for easy handling. It is desirable to dig a hole larger than the divided clump with its attached roots and soil. Set the plants a few inches lower than they grew in the nursery. Carefully fill the hole so as not to damage the buds on the rhizomes. The hole should not be completely filled, leaving a depression to hold water. Watering plants to settle the soil around the roots is desirable.
SPACING OF PLANTS. Spacing will vary with purpose of the planting, cost of planting material, and the earliness desired to cover the area. Developing a grove or a plantation requires 10 to 15 years to bring the plants to a desirable size. Bamboo culture is slow work and little can be done to speed up the development. Therefore, little can be gained by going to the expense of close plant spacing. Planting 15 to 20 feet apart in each direction has been satisfactory at Auburn and Camden. On the other hand, a planting for a hedge or screen or for ornamental purposes can be brought to the desired use rapidly by a spacing of 2 or 3 feet.
CARE AFTER PLANTING: If possible, protect bamboo from drought and competing vegetation. During the first year after planting water every 7 to 10 days when there is no rain. In large plantings, weeds and grass between rows of plants may be kept at a minimum size by mowing frequently or using herbicides.
FERTILIZATION. Apply a complete fertilizer such as 80 pounds N, 35 pounds P, and 50 pounds K per acre.
PRUNING HEDGES. Hedges should be pruned once or twice a year. Canes are allowed to grow to their full height in the spring, and then cut back to the desired height before the branches put out leaves. Cut the canes 1 or 2 inches above a node and branches on the sides of the hedge to the desired length.
THINNING GROVES. Thinning is necessary to produce desirable canes for market or home use and for best appearance. A grove should be thinned when the plants have covered the area and reached a height of 15 feet. Thinning should be done in the winter, and never when new shoots are putting up since they are easily broken and damaged. The first thinning should consist of removing the small canes and crooked canes, leaving enough canes to shade the ground. Never thin enough to allow the sun to dry soil around the plants. If too many canes are cut and large spaces exist, the stems turn yellow, good canes decrease in number, and the planting becomes thin and impoverished. If canes are unthinned, the plants get too thick and are small in size and the grove becomes filled with dead, fallen, and poorly shaped canes and does not present a handsome appearance.
Culms 1-2 years old have thin walls and do not produce desirable poles. The best poles are from 3- to 4-year-old culms. It is not advisable to leave stems older than 4 or 5 years, therefore, older canes are always removed in thinning. Never remove more than one-fourth of the canes at one time. Some system of marking the new canes each year is desirable so that age of the cane can be determined at time 