Bamboo, plant breeding and trellis construction

Behold our timber bamboo babies, which arrived today via UPS from Bamboo Garden in North Plains, Oregon. We chose four species of the genus Phyllostachys: P. nigra Henon, P. vivax Hvangwenzhu, P. rubromarginata and P. atrovaginata. Ten plants altogether. Does this look like $300 to you? Of course it does - did I mention that these are timber bamboo? There's a business plan in our future, we just haven't figured out what it is yet.

I signed up for a two-day course called Fundamentals of On-Farm Breeding. That's plant breeding, of course. I didn't notice the title and thought it was a class about saving seeds, not about how to develop my own varieties. But I have always wanted to understand this stuff, so now's my chance. I'm going to need to do some studying before I get there so I don't embarrass myself. Dennis Pruitt was a good teacher but high school botany was a very long time ago. Check out seedalliance.org if you want to join me.

Meanwhile, the kiwi trellis is in progress. It will have six 4x4 posts, held up by some expensive metal bases (CB44s) set in concrete. Mark dug the first two holes today and filled them with EIGHT 60 pound bags of concrete mixed in the wheelbarrow. Guess we'll be running down to Home Depot later since we have only two bags left for the remaining four posts. Any guesses on which lasts longer, the trellis or this house?