A moderately large bamboo with tightly clustering, straight, bluish green culms to about 17 m (56 ft) tall and to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter. Dendrocalamus sericeus is widespread from northeastern India to Indochina to 1200 m (3900 ft) and is easy to cultivate in tropical and warm temperate climates to USDA Zone 9. The thick-walled culms are one of the best for making laminated bamboo lumber products such as beams, floors, cutting boards etc. The young shoots are edible. It is also an extraordinarily beautiful bamboo and makes an excellent ornamental. Pre-soak bamboo seeds for 24 hours in lukewarm water (about 86 F). For sowing please use Jiffy 7 Peat Pellets, soak them in water and put in a plastic pot. Sow the seeds on the peat pellets and cover the seeds with a thin layer of peat (about 2 mm). Then put the plastic pot in a ziploc bag – with a pot size of 6 cm , a ziploc bag of size 12 x 17 cm is recommended . Fill in the ziploc bag as much tap water with a few drops of universal fertilizer, so that after the absorption of the substrate a few mm of water remain on the bottom. Then close the ziploc bag – Ready! More watering is not required because no moisture evaporates through the ziploc bag . Location: on the windowsill or in a small greenhouse in partial shade, daytime temperatures at about 80–90 F, somewhat lower at night at 77-83 F. The resulting micro-climate provides ideal conditions for germination. The germination time for bamboo seeds, depending on the species, will be between 10 and 40 days.