Need help choosing clumping bamboo for hedge.
jamey9695
16 years ago
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kentuck_8b
16 years agokudzu9
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Please help identify our bamboo as clumping or running
Comments (23)Thanks! The tight space is misleading because of the odd camera angle. You are seeing part of the smaller clump. This picture was taken during the home inspection to show the general side area looking back along a patio wall. 180 degrees around and it is more open. The second, larger clump is much bigger and has more area around it. I will post something on Craigslist when I dig it up later. I'm just not a fan of the way it looks, plus having to trim it. Also it tends to shed leaves a lot, which may or may not be normal. I'm sure the previous owners liked the bamboo though. I'd rather have some evergreen shrubs or small trees in that location. I will probably end up putting a couple of pineapple guavas there. Thanks for the postings and replies :-) Ed...See Moreclumping bamboo(s)
Comments (16)OK, first of all, on the plant you just bought, do you see a 1 segment culm in that pot laying on its side? If so, that is how they started that plant. Before I start, let me explain one reason why some bamboo is expensive. Some of the Bambusa species propagate easily by cuttings and some do not. Some need special combinations of root chemicals to make them root. If you look through some price lists, you will see that Bambusa pervariabilis viridistriata is more expensive than Bambusa eutuldoides Viridi-vittata and that is because people are having a problem producing them in mass by stem cuttings and have to split them up. So, keep in mind that all of these might not start from cuttings, BUT ventricosa and oldhamii both start easily by cuttings. Many people can do a cutting with 1 segment but an old man 20 years ago who was very good with bamboo told me how to do it and it has been better for me to do it this way. You take a full sized culm and cut it off at ground level. The bottom part will start a new plant, so you won't lose anything in the long run. The top part of the culm, may not have enough hollow area in it to root in, so I only use the bottom part that is more hollow. You start by cutting the culm just below the node. Then on the next cut you go past the next node up and make the cut just below the second node. So, what you have is at the bottom there is a node and this is where your roots will come from. Then you have a complete section that is intact. Above that node you have more or less, a vase that is the full length between nodes. Just above that is the other node that starts your next cutting. Can you picture what I am trying to describe? OK, so this is why this works so well. You fill the top part of the cutting with water and this will seep through the top node of the cutting and go into the intact section and will feed and moisten the node where the roots will come from. Because the lower section never gets dried out by being exposed this will increase your success as opposed to the 1 node cutting that can get dried out if you forget to put more water in the "vase". If you put cuttings in a mist bed with a timer, you can get away with a 1 node cutting, but the average hobbiest doesn't have a setup like that so the 2 node cutting works a lot better. Keeping them in shade and giving them lots of water will help increase the number of cuttings that work. All the cuttings might not work, but this should do just fine. You could probably use a rooting hormone on the bottom part, especially if you use one of the liquid types of rooting hormones, but I have never needed that on the types I have done it on. They take several months and it is always best to do it when it is warm, like now is a good time....See MoreCan someone tell me about clumping bamboo
Comments (7)I'd be interested in knowing what sources you researched, as IME most will provide almost identical information :-)) There's several different species of clumping bamboo but the Fargesias tend to be used very widely as they are commonly available, tend to be some of the most cold hardy and come in various species and cultivars that offer different mature heights and habits. 1. No, they are not invasive and you do not need a root barrier to contain. That's why they are considered 'clumping' rather than 'running' bamboos. They do not have the very aggressive, monopodial rhizomes that can produce culms at great distances from the mother plant. Rather, they have a sympodial rooting system, producing dense clusters of new growth, with a slowly increasing overall clump size. This is the same way many other types of popular ornamental grasses grow, like Panicum or Miscanthus. And bamboos are just tall growing, woody based ornamental grasses :-) 2. How many you would need to fill that area depends on the specific selection, what kind of growing conditions you can offer, how big your plant budget is and how long you are prepared to wait for full privacy screening. It won't be immediate......even running bamboos take a few seasons to fill in. 3. Height again will depend on selection. Once established, each new culm will achieve a mature height in a single growing season. So yes, it grows fast. 4 &5. It is both deer resistant and evergreen. The American Bamboo Society is an excellent resource. And of the commercial sites, Bamboo Gardens provides very good information on the types of bamboos and preferred growing conditions as well as answering a whole raft of bamboo growing issues. Both of these are my go-to sources for info on bamboo....See MoreZone 7(b) Clumping Bamboo Suggestion For Road Screen Needed
Comments (6)You're expecting too much from a clumping bamboo hedge (or even a running bamboo hedge), I'm afraid. First, bamboo is not going to provide much if any noise reduction from road traffic regardless of whether it's clumping or running. I grow about 80 varieties of bamboo and the ones that form hedges simply don't buffer the sound noticeably. Maybe if you had a hedge that was 50' deep you would get some sound reduction, but not enough to warrant the cost. Second, to simply get a visual privacy barrier with clumpers would also be quite expensive because clumping bamboo does not spread quickly, and only expands a bit every year. That means to have a barrier now -- rather than 10-15 years in the future -- you would to plant rather large clumpers very close together, probably in a couple of rows. I wish I could be more encouraging, but I would hate to see you spend tens of thousands of dollars on bamboo and have unrealistic expectations....See Morekudzu9
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