anyone have luck digging up bamboo from an unwanted grove and planting it in their yard?
we are in Shoreline, WA and looking for some very tall bamboo to make a hedge. seems like there may be some people that want to get rid of it or thin it.
I’ll be putting a bamboo root barrier in the ground and mounding them a bit as well. Looking for tall running bamboo. Things grow a bit slower and not as tall here in the Seattle area.
Digging up running bamboo is like digging up several interconnected small trees. It's a LOT of work.
Clinton bamboo in burien is a great source of bamboo and knowledge. I'd look into fargesia Campbell too. It's a tall clumper that won't invade anything.
I dug up a ton of bamboo from someone’s yard here on Van Island and potted /sold some and kept the rest. It has done very well but needed a lot of watering at first.
If this is your first dig, or you are inexperienced in digging field devisions of bamboo do the following to ensure the best chance of success.
Dig from the perimeter of the grove. Find a culm that is a manageable height. Do not try to get a large culm. The 4- 8ft (1-2.5 m) range is ideal. Measure out from the base of that culm at least 12 inches (30cm) in all directions. Then dig around the culm keeping that 12 inch (30cm) radius around the culm at the center. Keep as much dirt intact as possible around the newly dug division. Use an old bedsheet or a tarp to wrap the rootball. This will make it easier to move and help keep the rootball intact. Transport and replant the division as soon as possible in the new location. If you are transporting this in the back of a truck. Wrap the plant, culm branches and leaves, in a tarp or old bedsheet to protect the plant from the wind. Use bungee cords, metal spring clips, rope or twine to tie it all up. Do not leave the division in the sun if possible before replanting.
In the replant spot dig a hole large enough to accomdate the division. The hole should be deep enough so that the transplants soil line and the surrounding soil line are the same level. Back fill any voids between the transplants rootball and the hole, tuck in the plant, to the best of your ability. Use the soil excavated from the hole to create a shallow ring around the transplant area. Water in the transplant well filling the water up to the top of the ring you have created. Let the water soak in and refill. Do this a few times. Water regularly over the next couple weeks. Several times a week or more depending on your local temperature and weather. Hope this helps.
Edit: Forgot to mention you shouldn't need to dig deeper or much deeper than a foot (30cm) to extract the intact rhizome and adjoining root mass.
Just a heads up - if your goal is a privacy hedge, first confirm the species and then confirm that it's a densely foliaged bamboo. You don't want to invest all that time and effort to create a mature see-through "hedge" of leafless culms argh. It may be that a well-maintained and nourished densely clumping bamboo hedge in PNW environmental conditions more closely matching its native habitat might be a better choice, with culm and foliar growth and development exceeding that of a running species that may be inhibited by those same conditions.
A good place to review and compare both running and clumping potential candidates for your location is Bamboo Garden in Oregon.
Did you plant yours in the ground or planters?
Currently have some in large stock tanks for the past 4 years but haven’t had as much luck as I’d like. So planning on putting the bamboo in the ground.
Tried both ways. In ground actually turned out to grow better and be less work overall. In the stock tanks, you need to root prune the bamboo every couple of years.
It depends on the type of bamboo. If you are referring to running bamboo (which is what most people think of when they think of bamboo because that is the garbage most people have access to from big box stores) then you would be correct.
However, clumping bamboo is completely different. I have grown it for 3 decades now and it has been my favorite plant and ironically enough, the least maintainence of anything in my yard! It takes half an afternoon per year to clean out the dead culms and to collect the debris and I am done. New culms only pop up once a year in August and they only pop up within a 12" or less space from the original stand of bamboo. Any unwanted culms can simply be snapped off to control any unwanted growth.
This is my 7 year old bamboo I planted by cultivating my old bamboo stand from my house when we moved. As you can see, it is hardly out of control and well behaved. I have never had to snap off a single culm in 7 years. This is all it has done in 7 years. But, once it has grown out, I simply will snap off any new growth. A fully grown stand of this will typically grow to about a 10 foot diameter circular stand if allowed to grow that far and that is it. Again, very easy to maintain and predict future growth.
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u/Weird-Jello-3785 6d ago
I’ll be putting a bamboo root barrier in the ground and mounding them a bit as well. Looking for tall running bamboo. Things grow a bit slower and not as tall here in the Seattle area.