photograph by Rick Gush
Arundo , also know as river bamboo , is abundant in Italy .
I cognise this plant is a pestiferous grass that really has caused some serious bother by out - competing aboriginal riparian ecology , but I still remember of it as a craw industrial plant that I look after in connection with my garden . River bamboo , Arundo donax , is also known asarundo , though everybody here in Italy calls itcannaor cane .
I apply genus Arundo as garden stake and , although I need more than my own little stand can allow , I still manage the small genus Arundo stand up that is grow above my garden as if it were a forestry project .
The first affair to remember about genus Arundo is that it is a pest that should not be disseminate negligently . The cut off piece of etymon will re - mature very easy , so the roots or stems should never be disposed of in a waterway of any kind . ( Not that I can think of much that I recollect is appropriate to be cast aside of in a watercourse … maybe a glass of weewee or perhaps some breadcrumbs brushed off the front of my perspirer ? )
The most important fact about genus Arundo harvest direction is that there is a relationship between the mass of stem and the capacity of the plant to produce full - size of it shoots . The biggest shoot can be about 2 inch in diameter at the base , and those bad shoot make the generally most suitable garden stakes . An overcrowded patch will reduce the leaning to bring forth full - size cane , so good genus Arundo forestry practice is to prune out all of the undersize and crowding shoot . A cane ’s sizing is shape by the size of the shoot when it first emerges from the roots . Smaller cane will never increase in summit nor diam .
Another problem with arundo is that the retentive stems are often curved , and sometimes highly so , but the straighter stems are much more utilitarian . The curved stems are caused usually by overcrowding , so pruning of arundo stands is a honorable practice .
Arundo canes will mold from shoots that rise from the solution mass in bound and grow to their full height by midsummer . These tall cane can be glean in the fall , but if they are left to overwinter and then harvest the following bound or summertime , the cane will be well baffling . Yearling cane are fairly weak , and waste very quickly when used in garden soil . Canes that have passed a winter while still attached to the ascendent mass are much stronger and also more resistive to rotting in moist soil .
Back in California , I would sometimes go out in the spring and cut out some arundo tooth root pieces that have fat Modern shoots just come out . These sections of ancestor could then be plant into nursery pots and the young shoot would then develop very nicely and thickly . I made some very inexpensive , tall , temporary houseplants in this way , as the canes would rise to more than 6 foundation tall , promptly . I particularly wish the variegated arundo for temporary houseplant use . But this was n’t a foresightful - term solution because the following year , the new shoots on those flora would all be petite , since the base masses were so severely reduced .
Actual arundo farming is a still a big tidy sum just up the seacoast in Cannes , France , and the industry that cater cane sections to be used in woodwind musical instrument is headquarter nearby . To produce the best cane for melodic - pawn use , growers will inundate bundles of cane in the river for a few year to make grow the desired combining of toughness and flexibility .
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