dividing bamboo
 

I have 3 bamboo plants (clump forming Phyllostachys aurea or golden bamboo) and they are currently growing as 3 fat columns about a metre apart. I want to move them to another part of the garden and spread them out to cover a rather ugly fence. WHat I was wondering was, could I divide the bamboo into say 8 smaller plants and put them in a line with very little spacing between them. This way they would act like a screen and cover the whole fence. BTW - the bamboo is about 3m tall and each root is abou 40cm wide. Is dividing them a wise thing to do, or will I end up with 8 dead bamboo plants. Any tips on how to split them (roots are solid like a block of wood) and not wreck the roots. Also, any tips on how to give them the best possible start.
(I read on an american website that there should be 3 canes in each section and this should be trimmed to 0.5m high. And this chaps soaks the roots in a bath of rooting hormone! sounds a bit crazy to me. I have never trimmed the height of bamboo, just left it to grow tall. What happens if it is trimmed? does it carry on growing upwards, or does it just die back?)
that's all folks
(UK)

dividing bamboo
 

seneca wrote:
I have 3 bamboo plants (clump forming Phyllostachys aurea or golden
bamboo) and they are currently growing as 3 fat columns about a metre
apart. I want to move them to another part of the garden and spread
them out to cover a rather ugly fence. WHat I was wondering was, could
I divide the bamboo into say 8 smaller plants and put them in a line
with very little spacing between them. This way they would act like a
screen and cover the whole fence. BTW - the bamboo is about 3m tall and
each root is abou 40cm wide. Is dividing them a wise thing to do, or
will I end up with 8 dead bamboo plants. Any tips on how to split them
(roots are solid like a block of wood) and not wreck the roots. Also,
any tips on how to give them the best possible start.
(I read on an american website that there should be 3 canes in each
section and this should be trimmed to 0.5m high. And this chaps soaks
the roots in a bath of rooting hormone! sounds a bit crazy to me. I
have never trimmed the height of bamboo, just left it to grow tall.
What happens if it is trimmed? does it carry on growing upwards, or
does it just die back?)
that's all folks
(UK)




Phyllostachys are not clumping bamboo.

You have 3 distinct plants and each has 3 culms?

Me thinks it is best to not divide them. Moving them is OK. Bamboo is
a grass and yours will do best in full sun. Mulch well with rotted
manure if you have it or even just wood chips.

--

Travis in Shoreline Washington

Unfortunately most garden centres in Britain tell lies about bamboo - as Travis says P aurea is not a clumping bamboo. In places with mild damp summers it can spread like wildfire, and that includes SW Britain and the south coast. But in the climate most of us have in Britain, it doesn't usually wander much. It sounds like yours is doing a bit of wandering.

When you say 3 broad columns, I presume you mean 3 clumps, each clump made up of several culms. If so, absolutely no reason you shouldn't do exactly what you suggest. P Aurea is known to take easily from divisions - not all bamboos do. You can use an axe or a saw to help you divide them. Remember there are also fine filamentous roots as well as the fat rhizomes, get some of that also.

The US advice is I think good advice, especially the bit about having a reasonable sized section, and cutting down the culms to short size. When the plant is growing normally, you don't shorten the culms. But when you divide the plant, it is a good idea, the division may fail without it. The reason is that you are damaging the roots, and what is left cannot support such large culms, so you need to shorten them. The culms so shortened will remain short for the rest of their life, but new tall culms will soon grow up between them, and then you can prune out the shortened culms. A divided bamboo will generally revert to juvenile form, and need to spend some time rebuilding its roots. So it will send up some rather small thin culms in the first year, and it may be a couple of years before it gets back to sending up 3m culms again.

I don't know how helpful the rooting hormone is, I have successfully divided bamboo without it.

I would suggest you wait a bit for things to warm up before you do this, but make sure you do it some time before it wants to start shooting new culms. In a warmer part of the country that could be March, or for most places April. Autumn is even better, say September/October.

Thanks guys,
we recently had a mild weekend so I took advantage and divided them using an axe. I then placed them in a hedge like row with equal spacing between. Alos addes a lot of well rotted manure in the trench I had dug out. Had to move them now, because I needed them out of the way to let building work commence. Am now making sure they are watered every couple of days. They were covered with lush green leaves before splitting and now I notice that some of those leaves are drying and falling off. I'm hoping this is just the initla shock of the splitting/removal and they will reover in a few months.

thanks again for the advice.

dividing bamboo
 

seneca

Because your manipulations destroyed the balance between roots and top
growth go ahead and remove about 1/3 the leaves. Take your time and
remove only the leaves. This will bring the plant into balance and
make it recover and look better.

do you think I should remove the top 1/3 of each individual cane, or did you mean I should just remove the leaves and leave the canes at their original 3.5m height?

dividing bamboo
 

On Feb 21, 10:10*am, seneca wrote:
'beecrofter[_2_ Wrote:

;775104'] seneca

Because your manipulations destroyed the balance between roots and top
growth go ahead and remove about 1/3 the leaves. *Take your time and
remove only the leaves. This will bring the plant into balance and
make it recover and look better.

do you think I should remove the top 1/3 of each individual cane, or
did you mean I should just remove the leaves and leave the canes at
their original 3.5m height?

--
seneca

just the leaves, they will be replaced in another season if all is well

Hello

I have just bought a P.Nigra at a local garden centre. Stupidly I picked one up without a price and when I got to the till it was £90! I was too embarrassed to decline, so I bought it.

I'm wondering if it's too late in the season for dividing? The garden centre have trimmed the plant down to about 4ft for some reason. Should I wait til next spring?

Thanks

They've probably trimmed it down because they have dug it up and divided it off a larger clump, and trimming it down is the right thing to do when you damage the roots by doing that. If you plant it in the ground and then dig it up to divide it later, you yourself will be doing damage to it, and thus lose some of the benefit of the growth to that time. On the other hand, you need enough of it to make simple divisions you can just fling in the ground and expect to live - small divisions need more sophisticated horticulture to get them to take.

If there are new shoots coming up at the moment, then don't do it now, you'll probably lose the new shoots and set the plant back significantly. Wait until the autum. Autumn is probably a better time for major divisions than spring, because root damage is repaired over the winter. (Minor divisions, root cuttings, carefully cultivated in greenhouse, I am told are best done in Feb.) If it isn't shooting yet, and you have at least 8 culms and can carefully split it in half, then go for it and do it now, (and at 90 squid I would hope they have given you that much).

Thanks echinosum. I think I will leave it in the pot for this season and do my division at the end of the year.

thats a good idea. i love the way you think

i hope you put in a rhisome barrier in the trench before planting.
usually 'aurea' will be clumping in the uk but when conditions are right this bamboo will run like mad and appear in places you dont want and not in place you do!
i learned this the hard way!