topic Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please in Garden

Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

DowntonAbbey — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 03:05:31 GMT

When I moved to my latest place last year a lady that lived here for 15 years planted bamboo and it was gorgeous last year and it was all green in one area in a corner of my patio.......well, I did water it and so this winter it went gray and now there are gray shoots or brown shoots the old ones and from the ground are coming up new stripped bamboo and they are beautiful and some of the old bamboo is like I said a brown color and some of them have green so I have not bothred them but wondering it the ones that are all brown and just break off do I cut those down to the bottom and just let the new ones grow? Do you know why those turned brown as my lanlord said it has been beautiful for 10 plus years but I watered it today and just thinking to wait and see what the brown bamboo does and let the new bamboo come up??? Does anyone know about bamboo and what would you do? I guess these new shoots are coming just from the ground not from a bamboo that is brown. It has kind of circled around the old bamboo.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

Kachina624 — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 04:34:22 GMT

@DowntonAbbey Google is your friend. I'm sure there's a wealth of information about bamboo online, more than anyone here could give you.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

Desertdi — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 04:51:15 GMT

The old brown ones should come up easily if you just pull on the stalk.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

gardenman — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 11:19:33 GMT

Bamboo is one of those plants that I've never been brave enough to plant. I've heard too many horror stories of it trying to take over the world. I think it's a gorgeous plant and I think of all of the things I could do with bamboo, but I've dealt with a few invasive plants in my life and the problems they caused me make me leery of trying anything else invasive.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

Icegoddess — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 17:40:13 GMT

@gardenman, I am one of those continually fighting my neighbor's bamboo that is planted right up against the fence row. It's a running bamboo vs clumping, so it sends out long runners underground which then pop up far from the mother plant. Luckily, that are of the yard is an unused part of our yard, but I don't want it taking over there, so every spring I have to start looking for those darn shoots and then I try to dig up as much of the runner as possible because the runner will put out more shoots. You can dig it up and just plant parts of the runner and start new plants. Ugh! My understanding is you need to plant a barrier at least 2 feet deep to stop running bamboo. That ain't happening in my clay and rock soil.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

lulu2 — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 21:41:01 GMT

Bamboo is almost impossible to kill. Break off the old brown stalks so it looks better. I would not water it as it will take over everything and anything without any outside help.

In our son's development, they are not allowed to plant bamboo because it is so invasive.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

RedTop — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 01:34:42 GMT

I would not be encouraging this plant to grow.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

granny me — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 02:48:56 GMT

Bamboo and honeysuckle both seem like great ideas but turn out to be horrible. They both invade everything and it is impossible to kill out.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

Kachina624 — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 04:38:33 GMT

@Icegoddess wrote:
@gardenman, I am one of those continually fighting my neighbor's bamboo that is planted right up against the fence row. It's a running bamboo vs clumping, so it sends out long runners underground which then pop up far from the mother plant. Luckily, that are of the yard is an unused part of our yard, but I don't want it taking over there, so every spring I have to start looking for those darn shoots and then I try to dig up as much of the runner as possible because the runner will put out more shoots. You can dig it up and just plant parts of the runner and start new plants. Ugh! My understanding is you need to plant a barrier at least 2 feet deep to stop running bamboo. That ain't happening in my clay and rock soil.

@Icegoddess Sounds exactly like trumpet vine.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

gardenman — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 11:49:35 GMT

About the only way I'd plant bamboo these days would be if I bought a house with an old in ground pool that I'd be filling in. I might then put a good pond liner in to protect the concrete from the bamboo roots, or spray it with polyurea to form an impenetrable barrier, and then fill it to within a foot of the top and use it as a giant bamboo planter. Even then I'd be a bit nervous. Bambo shoots are tough little dudes that can push their way through things that seem impenetrable.

About ten years ago I started to hear whispers that some of the clump forming bamboo wasn't really clump forming bamboo over the long term. It would grow in clumps for five years, ten years, twenty years or more, then suddenly start sending out runners and spreading like wild. That pretty much convinced me that even the clump forming bamboo was a bad idea. It's just too scary a plant for me to deal with. I love the idea of all of the things I could do with bamboo, but the risks far outweigh the benefits to me.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

Icegoddess — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 19:23:34 GMT

@gardenman, you might be right about that. We have been living in this house for a little over 20 years and the bamboo was there before we moved in. Never had a problem with it until a few years ago.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

DiAnne — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 00:39:31 GMT

I love bamboo, think it is beautiful and have always wanted it in my yard but the horror stories have stopped me. I wonder if you could grow it in a pot on the patio? Anyone know?

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

JustJazzmom — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 01:42:54 GMT

It would work being in a pot, but might crack that pot eventually. Why support buying a plant known to cause havoc in the environment? It's just supporting the bamboo plant industry. I would not buy it at all. Many communities across the nation are starting to enact laws banning the sale and planting of this highly invasive plant. This is a non native plant.

Don't buy it!

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

jackthebear — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 01:48:53 GMT

this is an invasive plant, and you should not plant it, it is not allowed for sale in some areas

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

DowntonAbbey — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 00:46:16 GMT

Hello IceGoddess........well what was planted here at the back door into the patio over 10 years ago is not going anywhere it is staying in the same place???? New shoots are all around it but only about 9???? I see some green in the bamboo on the ones that are brown so I hate to do anything to them. These were so beautiful last year and now they look awful except for the new stripped ones coming up from the ground and they are not hooked to any brown one? I did google and did not find out information and what I found did not make sense to me. Thank you for your input but I want more to grow??? This again has stayed in one little area and not gone out and its not all over..........I wish it was.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

Icegoddess — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 01:57:20 GMT

@DowntonAbbey, the neighbors who planted the bamboo next door are long gone and the current neighbors don't do anything to it. I don't remember ever seeing the people who planted it (before we moved in next door) ever doing anything to it, so probably just leave it alone.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

DowntonAbbey — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 02:00:01 GMT

Thank you I am so surprised it is staying in one section and now all over the yard??? I am also sad that there are brown shoots in the center and around the dead shoots are stripped greens ones coming up...........I am going to start watering every day as they probably love water. I need to call the cooperative extension and see if they will come out and look at it.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

gardenman — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 12:00:33 GMT

@DowntonAbbey wrote:
Thank you I am so surprised it is staying in one section and now all over the yard??? I am also sad that there are brown shoots in the center and around the dead shoots are stripped greens ones coming up...........I am going to start watering every day as they probably love water. I need to call the cooperative extension and see if they will come out and look at it.

Some perennials grow outwards in a crown type shape with new growth occurring on the outer edge of the plant but the center largely dead or inactive. That could be what's happening with your bamboo. I don't grow bamboo so I can't say for sure, but that's largely how it sounds. In the perennial plant world we fix that by digging up the plant in the early spring or fall and cutting out the dead section in the middle, divide the ring of live growth into manageable sections and replant those sections wherever we'd like them to be. From one initial plant purchase you can end up with quite a few plants in this manner.

Re: Bamboo Grrown OUTSIDE Questions please

Icegoddess — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 14:06:53 GMT

@gardenman wrote:
@DowntonAbbey wrote:
Thank you I am so surprised it is staying in one section and now all over the yard??? I am also sad that there are brown shoots in the center and around the dead shoots are stripped greens ones coming up...........I am going to start watering every day as they probably love water. I need to call the cooperative extension and see if they will come out and look at it.
Some perennials grow outwards in a crown type shape with new growth occurring on the outer edge of the plant but the center largely dead or inactive. That could be what's happening with your bamboo. I don't grow bamboo so I can't say for sure, but that's largely how it sounds. In the perennial plant world we fix that by digging up the plant in the early spring or fall and cutting out the dead section in the middle, divide the ring of live growth into manageable sections and replant those sections wherever we'd like them to be. From one initial plant purchase you can end up with quite a few plants in this manner.

Or, it might be like this ornamental "grass" someone nearby planted next to a telephone pole many years ago. It's a very large grass that grows like 10-12 ft tall. It dies back every winter. This year is the first year I have ever seen them cut back the ded foliage and I'm not sure how they did it. It's a huge circle and there is no hand tool that I can think of that would reach to the middle of it, maybe a pole saw. It probably takes a saw of some sort to cut it. Anyways, It regrows every year from the base of the dead stuff. It's kinda like my Mexican Petunias which do the same thing (also rather invasive btw, but I didn't know that when I planted it).

However, I don't think my neighbor's bamboo dies in the winter. If it does, it leafs back out on the stalks that are already there. Don't know if different bamboo acts differently as far as dying back in winter though.