Bamboo

[anthony20031]

Alright in continuing my home projects and trying to get them done before the baby arrives here is another off topic subject lol

Has anyone planted bamboo? I am thinking about trying to plant it rather than a typical hedge to seperate my yard and my neighbors. From what I heard maintenance is pretty easy. Anyone have any experience etc?

[ss1]

My parents house had them planted in the very early 80's. They were low-maintence however, the original bamboos all died at the same time about 10 years ago and the off-shoots died periodically after. Turns out bamboo has a very short life span and unless you allow new shoots to grow or plant more, the original bamboos will all die in 10-20 years depending on the age when planted and species.

[anthony20031]

Yh I plan on letting new shoots grow and then as the old ones tie cutting them out. Bamboo I know has a life span of 7-150 years depending on the type. Some types actually survived in Hiroshima and actually continued to grow. I plan on planting them and letting them get relatively thick ie 3-4 feet in width and not sure it i will just let them grow to mature height or keep them around 6-2 ft and grow as a hedge and let most of the new shoots grow...just cut out new shoots that try to grow either in the neighbors yard or too far into my yard and cut any shoots that turn brown, ie are dead. Planning on planting them about 5ft apart and let them grow into one another.

[anthony20031]

This is the type I am looking at. In the picture they obviously had ideal sun and water conditions and grew to their max hieght of 20-25' (that is the max height of this variety)....however once a culm (a shoot) gets to say 10 ft you can cut the top off and then the culm will never grow any higher...but it will sprout leaves etc. These grow in pretty dense clumps and then I can cut some culms to a really low height to get their leaves low and others a little higher. That should give me a pretty good hedge that I really won't have to maintain much except kick over new culms that grow in locations I don't want or cut new culms to the size I want them as they sprout and grow. It beats having to trim a hedge every couple weeks lol

http://www.holmesbamboo.com/websiteupdates/textilis_gracilis04.html