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Bamboo exhibits pretty amazing growth habits. “If you want an affirmation of growth in the spring, it’s a pretty dramatic expression,” Meredith says. A bamboo culm will attain about 90 percent of its height in 30 days, he says, and that applies equally to three-foot or three-story plants.—Meredith has seen a culm grow 14 inches in a single day!
Once the bamboo culm attains its full height, side branches appear first, followed by leaves. Keep bamboo clipped to the height you desire. Meredith maintains his front-yard bamboo hedge at eight feet to block noise and wind.
Controlling Bamboo
Since most of the bamboo grown in the U.S. tends to be running bamboos, it’s important to put down barriers. For a privacy screen, Meredith suggests creating a barrier of 60 mil high-density polyethylene buried 24 inches into the ground along the fence line. It’s important to check barrier health each year to avoid penetration and escaping rhizomes.
Another way to limit growth is to trim the rhizomes yearly. Some of the most desirable bamboos have the shallowest rhizomes and are the easiest to control, Meredith says. In late summer or early winter, a gardener can walk the perimeter of the bamboo area and spade about six inches down. When a rhizome is encountered, it can be cut off and removed—stopping the expansion.
Turtle advises pruning the perimeter rhizomes twice a year or annually if you live north of I-40, the major west-east highway that runs from Barstow, Calif., to Wilmington, N.C. He also suggests digging a trench along the perimeter and filling it with sand to mark the area for future pruning and make it easier to accomplish. Groundcover that doesn’t get more than boot-top high can be mowed to ground.
Another way to control bamboo is to pot it. Meredith notes that the gardener should be aware that the plant’s rapid growth may require frequent repotting so it does not get potbound.
Bamboo Products and Applications
Bamboo is very versatile and has many uses worldwide, as flooring, fencing, woven mats and blinds, or food with tender shoots that can be boiled and eaten.
When used for fencing, people must be careful. Bamboo is very dense, hard, and holds its edge, says Adam Turtle, a bamboo consultant who operates Earth Advocates Research Farm in Summertown, Tenn. “Work with it, not against it.” Splitting bamboo lengthwise takes almost no effort but widthwise cuts are very difficult.
Use bamboo culms to stake tomatoes and beans. Bamboo leaves, which can contain up to 22 percent protein, are fed to cattle in some parts of the world.
Bamboo is becoming popular as a flooring material because it is a green or environmentally responsible product. The crop matures quickly, regenerates without having to be replanted, and requires little fertilization or pest control. It can be dried and laminated into solid boards that are then milled into standard strip-flooring profiles. Bamboo wears and ages much like oak and maple flooring.
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Text by Maureen Blaney Flietner
© 2005 BobVila.com
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