Lucky Bamboo that have spent their whole lives in water may reject soil. Not sure why. Also, my experience is that healthy plants make this transition better than distressed plants. If you want to grow in soil you may want to start with new individual stalks that have not spent years in a rock and water arangement. Make sure you use a container that drains. Start by packing potting soil(I use Miracle Grow Moisture Control) in the bottom of the container leaving about 3.5 inches of space to the top. Set your plants root system on top of this layer. Do not push the root system into the soil. This will make the roots point up. Roots want to grow down. Then pack another 3 inches or so of soil on top of the root system. Lucky Bamboo like packed soil. Keep the soil moist but not saturated with water for extended periods of time. Some drops of Green Green fertilizer may help. Sand helps drainage as well as a layer of rocks at the bottom. Good Luck

Hi. My friend gave me this small decorative pot of bamboo last year but i'm not quite sure if it is the lucky bamboo. How can I find out whether it is a lucky bamboo or not? And because one of my assignments in an english class was to bring in a plant and take care of it that whole year, I chose this plant. I watered it a few times per week and clean its leaves. And it's grown quite a bit. However, it stopped growing after a while. I think it's because the pot is too small. It's roots have even grown out of the pot! (This a=is a bamboo grown in just water by the way). Now that it is the end of the year, I can take it home again. However, I think it is best to transfer the plant to a much larger pot. But I am extremely new to taking care of plants. So I don't know how to do it without harming the plant. It also seems like it would damage the roots if I force it out since its roots have pretty much grown into the shape of the pot... Another problem is that I want to transfer it into a pot with just water. I really don't think I'm ready for a soil plant. I have absolutely no knowledge of soil quality or anything like that. I really don't know what to do or how to do it. This plant means a lot to me. I really don't want it to die. The way its roots are is really bothering me. It's pretty much upright, not down like most roots are. No room at all. Can someone please enlighten me to the techniques of transferring this bamboo and the methods of taking care of it such as amount of water and sunlight. Thank you very very much.

Growing bamboo in clear glass may allow more algae and other things you don't want to develop in the water. Otherwise, it is fine. I have heard of people growing the plants in fish tanks and other clear containers. You may have to take more steps to keep the water clean. If the top of the stalk is yellow, you can cut that part off. This will stop the spread if the stalk is dying. It may be just overexposed in that area. If you do not wish to cut it off, you can see if the yellow is continuing to spread down the stalk. If not, it can be ok to leave it. If it looks better without it, they why not? The black roots do not sound good. If the roots are red, that is ok. Black roots mean the plant is dying. There is some opportunity for the plant to regrow the roots. Your last option, if you think the top and the bottom of the plants are rotting, is to cut the plant up. You can cut the healthy part of the stems into sections, dip the sections into root hormone, and place them into soil or water to root! Here is a link that might be useful: See the root color?

you trimmed the roots in February, the plant needs time to recover and warmth and longer days. Now that it is the end of May the plant should be growing more root and maybe leaves too. I think being winter the plant was either dormant or growing very slowly unless you are in zone 11 that is.