I have a bunch of bamboo that I planted inside of my fenced in run last spring. I made mini cages around each one to protect them from the birds until they got tall enough. I have 4 taller runners in there (2 phyllstachys atrovaginatas, a P. aureosulcata 'spectabilis', and a P. parvifolia. There's also a ground cover pleioblastus pygmaeus in there. I have 4 more plants on the way for this spring that will get cages as well. (2 P. nudas and some US native 'Macon' river cane.
Anyway....my concern is for the new shoots from last year's plants and how to protect those from the chickens. Since they're runners, they should have spread out a few feet in different directions outside of the protection of the original protected cages. I really don't want to take away more space from the birds, so I need to get creative in finding a way to protect individual shoots that are coming up. This past winter pretty much top killed all of the phyllostachys (the pygmy bamboo is still snow covered) so for the survival of the plants I'm going to need these new shoots to mature and leaf out. Any ideas? I was thinking about making tall round tubes using 1/4" hardware cloth....maybe something only 2-3" diameter. That would let light and air flow reach the shoots and keep the beaks off of them. But if I have 20 new shoots coming up it will look pretty ridiculous in there.
I'm pretty sure the birds would tear them up as well since they were already trying to scratch and pick at the rhizomes escaping beneath the protected caging. I'd assume the shoots would be even tastier.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Anyway....my concern is for the new shoots from last year's plants and how to protect those from the chickens. Since they're runners, they should have spread out a few feet in different directions outside of the protection of the original protected cages. I really don't want to take away more space from the birds, so I need to get creative in finding a way to protect individual shoots that are coming up. This past winter pretty much top killed all of the phyllostachys (the pygmy bamboo is still snow covered) so for the survival of the plants I'm going to need these new shoots to mature and leaf out. Any ideas? I was thinking about making tall round tubes using 1/4" hardware cloth....maybe something only 2-3" diameter. That would let light and air flow reach the shoots and keep the beaks off of them. But if I have 20 new shoots coming up it will look pretty ridiculous in there.
I'm pretty sure the birds would tear them up as well since they were already trying to scratch and pick at the rhizomes escaping beneath the protected caging. I'd assume the shoots would be even tastier.
Anyone have any other ideas?
