Gardening with Gary

Gardening Advice from an Expert

Bamboo

Q. I received a friendship bamboo plant for my birthday. It came in a small ceramic pot filled with marbles and a small bamboo plant in the middle. There were no instructions on how to care for it. Would you help me out? Thanks.

A. These bamboo gifts are pretty for a while, then tend to falter. They need constant water below to keep moist. The stalks grow green sprouts from all parts of the bamboo stick out of the water. Always keep at least one inch of water in the bottom holding saucer. No fertilizer is needed. Change the water weekly, to avoid a bacteria buildup. Do not use soap. Give the plant plenty of bright morning sun and filtered afternoon sunlight, behind drapes or blinds. If you live in a tropical locale, you can plant outside.

Q. I want to try some bamboo in Houston, but I know nothing about their care and which to try. Could you help?

A. Bamboo is a native of tropical and subtropical Asia, hardy in zones 9 to 12. It is usually propagated by digging up part of a clump of existing bamboo and moving it elsewhere. The vast majority of propagating is done that way and it results in most plants of most species in the U.S. being clones. If you divide a bamboo plant and put it in a new location, it usually doesn't do much for the first few growing seasons. The first two years it puts out roots in its new location and usually by the third year it starts putting out larger culms. By the fourth or fifth years it's putting out culms as large as that plant ever will in that location, with that much sun and that much water in that kind of soil.

Bamboo has become a popular ornamental grass. Gardeners should be aware that bamboo may be classified as clump-forming or running types -- the latter of which spread by rhizomes that can quickly get out of control.

All bamboo need full sun to partial shade and grow phenomenally fast during their short growth period. To achieve rapid growth, water frequently, and fertilize with a lawn fertilizer. To restrict size, water and fertilize less. To contain bamboo, dig a trench around the clump, and when a rhizome moves into the trench, cut it off. Thin the patch by removing whole stems.

Bamboo grower Adam Turtle has a passion for the plant. Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys heterocycla pubescens) (figure A), he says, is the most popular type worldwide. A running bamboo, it reaches a height of 40' to 60' and is harder than hickory wood.

Palmleaf bamboo (Sasa palmata) (figure B) has leaves like those of a palm. It grows larger in moist, cool-summer climates. A rampant spreader, it prefers shade and grows 4' to 5' tall.

Black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) (figure C), a clump-forming species, reaches 4' to 8' in height. It is coveted for its beautiful black stems, and where summers are hot it needs afternoon shade. The canes of black bamboo darken as they age.

Yellow-grove bamboo (Phyllostachys aureosulcata) (figure D) reaches 12' to 15' in height and is clump-forming. It is most common in the Southern states.

The spreading Narihira bamboo (Semiarundinaria fastuosa) (figure E) grows 8' to 10' tall and is thought to be the plant that provided Thomas Edison the filaments used in his first light bulb.

Shibataea kumasasa: (figure F) is small, growing just 2' to 3' tall, and easily contained. It requires acidic soil.

The thicket-forming arrow bamboo (Pseudosasa japonica) (figure G) is thought to have been used by Japanese samurai as a source of arrows. Most of the foliage is held near the crown of the plant. The stems are 12" to 18" long and very straight.

http://www.diynet.com/DIY/article/0,2058,1272,FF.html
American Bamboo Society
http://www.americanbamboo.org

Julles writes~ I found some bamboo growing nearby and am bringing along a knife and shovel, hoping to dig up a small chunk of bamboo with some live roots on it. Any ideas on how to get this started, once I get it home?

A. Please check out this cool diagram before doing the deed:

http://www.americanbamboo.org/images/DividingBamboo.GIF

A transplant is more likely to succeed if you provide these things:

1. rhizome with healthy buds
2. roots
3. culm with leaves

You can dig up a transplant in spring, the shoot will likely die but no worries, the new shoot is not the part you want to send anyway. It's just a flag, telling you dig here to find a rhizome with viable buds. Dig up the shoot and rhizome carefully, don't pull it up, you may rip off the roots, you want them too. Dig back to the next culm, it should have developed branches and leaves last year.

A clump of bamboo increases in size by rhizomes. The point at which to divide bamboo growing in a container should be selected to insure that plants on both sides of the dividing point have sufficient roots. Favorite tools for dividing bamboo are a handsaw or an electric reciprocating saw. Once divided, the clumps can be planted in other containers and thoroughly watered.

The hardiest species will survive in zones 5, 4 and sometimes even 3, with winter protection. Bamboos like plenty of water and well-drained soil. They need summer heat and good garden soil. The ground should be kept well watered and fertilized with a product that promotes foliage growth (fertilizer for foliage, nitrogen = plants, for instance, with 20-20-20 or 10-5-5 on the label).

You will need to protect them in winter, with straw, piles of snow or a protective cover. Otherwise, they may lose some of their leaves and stems, and perhaps even their rhizomes.

Bamboo can be propagated by taking some of the underground shoots from the mother plant, by dividing the stalks (removing a clump containing a few culms and their rhizomes) or by dividing the rhizome (removing a part of the rhizome containing buds).

Dwarf bamboos make an original ground cover that can be used in place of grass. Some of them are very hardy and require little maintenance.

The tropical species make good indoor plants if given plenty of sun. Their clumping rhizomes, which form tight clumps, are easier to grow indoors than are the temperate species, whose running rhizomes will quickly outgrow a pot. Some varieties make good bonsais.

Assistance from: forums.gardenweb.com/forums
www.griffin.peachnet.edu/ggarden http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/jardin/en/chine/bambou/cultiver.htm

Q. How do I propagate my bamboo here in Houston, TX? I cut some off at the ground and tried to root in a soil mix, but only one made it.

A. The bamboo plant consists of three morphological parts - the aerial part (the culm) and two underground parts (the rhizome and root). A bamboo propagule must develop all three structures. Failure in development of any of these structures leads to failure of a propagule.

Here is a good write-up for you and a very fine website I found for tons of info on bamboo:

Bamboo is usually propagated by digging up part of a clump of existing bamboo and moving it elsewhere. The vast majority of propagating is done that way and it results in most plants of most species in the U.S. being clones. If you divide a bamboo plant and put it in a new location, it usually doesn't do much for the first few growing seasons. The first two years it puts out roots in its new location and usually by the third year it starts putting out larger culms. By the fourth or fifth years it's putting out culms as large as that plant ever will in that location, with that much sun and that much water in that kind of soil.

Bamboo flowers only rarely, (sometimes there's more than a person's lifetime between flowering) and when it does it takes so much energy from the plant it often dies. People try various things to save them, like cutting back the culms and fertilizing generously, and sometimes that works.

It can also be propagated via germ plasm. A small number of cells are taken from some part of the plant and grown in glass dishes. Ordinary people don't do this, of course. Finally, with some tropical species, it's possible to take a section of culm (the cane) that has several nodes on it and plant it partially under the earth.

http://www.americanbamboo.org/FAQ.html

And a more technical article:
www.inbar.int/publication/txt/tr05/a5-2.htm

Bree writes~
In your bamboo section you talk about mainly the outdoor type of bamboo. What type of potting soil, etc., would you recommend for planting a bamboo plant in the house? I also have the plant in the marble filled vase and would like to plant it as it has 3-4" roots now.

A. Bamboos are really no different from the more “usual” houseplants, and require the same amenities: well-drained and nutrient-rich soil, sufficient light, adequate humidity and fertilizer during the growing season. True bamboos cannot grow in standing water; also they are grasses, and grasses love to eat. As flowering is rare and sometimes detrimental (consuming the plant' s vigor) in bamboos, it is best to feed with a high-nitrogen, low potash fertilizer, i.e., water-soluble 30-10-10, although really most any balanced N-P-K fertilizer or slow-release fertilizers like Osmocote 28-14-14 which can be mixed into the soil for a complete feeding as per manufacturers directions. Remove unwanted, withered culms by cutting off at soil level. Control the height of any culm by cutting just above the node (the place on the stem just above a branch). If the bamboo is stretching beyond what your home ceiling allows, it will not suffer at all from being “topped.” Simply cut the culm just above the topmost branch. Use a container large enough to have a space at least 2" between the edge of the root ball and the side of the container. Squatty tub-like containers are generally better than tall ones. Keeping bamboo happy with the higher the air temperature, the brighter the light must be for successful indoor culture. This applies mostly to the temperate bamboos in the winter, which like a rest. Since the light intensity is low in the winter, they prefer cooler temperatures. Coolness seems to offset low humidity. To increase humidity, place containers on a bed of pebbles with a little water under them.

Portions from the booklet, Landscaping Indoors, Bringing the Garden Inside, #165. Published by the Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Lori writes~
I would like to grow some bamboo, so where do I get it and how to go about it?

A. This site below will be growing and changing throughout the year. Originally BambooSource was intended to be a starting point for finding other bamboo related sites on the Internet (see the "Resource List" where there are hundreds of links to choose from). Plans are on the drawing board for something more extensive. There is extensive information on culture and buying shoots.

http://www.bamboosource.com/index.php

www.tropicalbamboo.com