I have bamboo along the side of my property to provide privacy from the neighbor. I am not sure when it was trimmed (if ever) but it was more than 8-12' above the fence line and leaning onto the neighbors property. The landscaper thinned out the groove and trimmed it at least 4-6'. After 2 weeks, I notice SIGNIFICANT growth from numerous culms. I've read that bamboo can grow rapidly but it seems to coincide with the trimming and almost as if I shouldn't have trimmed it at all. Is there a certain way I should have trimmed this?
You do not "trim" bamboo. After a stalk has grown to it's full height it doesn't grow much higher and if you cut it it will will not regrow. So, if you cut it off part way up. That's pretty much it for that stalk. If you cut it off at the ground the plant will send up a new shoot nearby but the one you cut will not regrow.
Depending on where you are located spring is when bamboo sends up it's new shoots. Here in NC the shooting season is coming to a close but it can still be going strong elsewhere and depending on the bamboo species. I see a lot of new shoots in your photo. They are likely just normal seasonal shoots and not caused by the pruning.
Those tall, thin stalks that haven't leafed out are new growth from this season. They emerge from the ground at their final diameter and with the number of layers inside determines how many nodes it will have. So, no matter how old the bamboo is the stalk will not get any bigger in diameter. Height growth happens during the shooting stage and once they achieve their final height that's pretty much it. Then they stop growing taller and leaf out and harden with age.
What happens depends on when you cut them. If you cut a fully developed stalk it will not regrow. If you have a shoot that had 20 layers it will develop 20 nodes. If you cut the top 10 nodes of a shoot off the bottom will continue to grow but only grow 10 nodes high. If you have a shoot appear in your yard you can use a shovel and sever the shoot 4-6" below ground and if you got it deep enough that shoot will never reappear... but another one will come up nearby.
If you look at the picture, you can see where the stalks were cut evenly across. I'd like to prevent them growing taller to avoid trimming them 2-3X a year. Is there a way to do that? Or are the taller ones always going to re-grow to that height? If so, I'd have to cut them at the base, correct?
Wait until summer or fall to prune. After the spring shooting stage bamboo will not send out new branches or leaves so make sure you leave enough plant and leaves behind so it can survive.
OK -- But, I will still need to trim yearly, correct? I am trying to understand how this new 4-6' of growth occurred in 2 weeks or so and not in previous years.
4-6' of growth in two weeks is nothing. I have one variety that grows several feet a day in spring.
I suspect your bamboo is young and still getting established. Each spring expect another increase in stalk diameter and height until the plant is fully established and growing at it's adult size.
If you have a spreading variety I hope you have a very good perimeter barrier underground. Once it gets established it sends out runners and without proper containment can be a test of your patience each spring to keep contained.
The previous owner did a major pool reno including landscaping and it wasn't in the list of landscaping items so I am NOT sure. It looks very established with complete perimeter barrier. I've only lived here 3 years and it was well established when I bought the house. It didn't seem to grow THAT much but the new growth is literally 2 weeks old. I wonder if that was growth that wasn't cut and just happen to sprout up. No way to tell I guess but I am trying to avoid doing this every year.
Why not rope off a 5 foot parcel and cut it to the ground now. Rope another parcel and cut mid-summer and another parcel, cut in the fall. See what happens. This might be your guide for the future.
I have a patch surrounding my electric transformer. It got to be about 20' tall and full of honeysuckle. I had my yard guy prune it to about 6' It stayed there, but now in the spring it's shooting up again. I think if you prune it in the middle of summer, like about now, it may stay there. I like it shorter, it's easier to keep the weeds out. there are many varieties. Mine is about 1/2 to 3/4" diameter at the largest part, the bottom.
I am still confused about how to trim it. I've read that once you trim it, it will not grow again but that cannot be true as I have a TON of growth above where I trimmed the bamboo and it cannot be new growth as it is 20-25' high.
It will grow again, believe me. I've been trimming mine for a couple years now and it tries to revert to it's natural state, mostly in the spring until about now. Then it stops growing. I have 20' shoots again right now and need to whack it back. Only way to get rid of the stuff is to dig it up or poison it. I think my yard guy just used a Stihl battery hedge trimmer I have. Have to get it before it gets too big for the cutters. I keep mine at about 5', just taller than the electric transformer in the yard so I don't see it.
One year I tried to cut the stuff to the ground with my 7' sickle bar on the tractor, it was too big for that, the guys cut it to the ground with machetes and it came up again. You can't kill the stuff cutting it.
Of course there are many varieties of it, you'll have to see what it does. The strange thing about bamboo is it all blooms at the same time throughout the world, the same variety that is. Not that I've ever seen a bamboo bloom.
I had a friend that had some stuff that was as big as my arm. I wanted to get some but never did. That stuff was about 50' tall or more. Talk about fishing poles.
Given I've never seen this growth, it must just be bad luck. I will take off literally 10' next time to avoid having to spend 3 hours trimming it yearly.
Don't take off more. Just don't prune in the spring. Wait until summer, fall or winter to prune. Still, once bamboo is mature it will send up shoots every year so expect the fast growing shoots every spring.
And, in spring it's a good idea to keep an eye on the area 50+ feet around the bamboo for escape. Spring is when any new bamboo will emerge and you want to kill it before it has a season to get established.
We've noticed 3 trees on our property that are shedding / losing their bark. I've tried looking online at tree identification websites. I think these are either oak or ash? I think oak? the peaks of the bark have more of a plateau? . Ash seem to have more distinct peaks?
Anyway, there's no leaves yet and the branches are up to high to see how they branch off.
Anyone know what these are?
I hear about the emerald ash borer. Is there a treatment for them? or it's just inevitable that they are done?
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Many years ago, like 30+ I lived in MD, near Bowie. Ground was sand down about as far as you could dig. We had 5 acres, fenced it and had a couple horses. I had a garden behind the barn, really a run in shed, and I would grow all sorts of stuff. I made a large patch for Silver Queen and after the 3rd planting it finally came up. I would take the horse manure right out of the shed into the rows of corn and just pile it between the plants. If weeds came up, I would just throw more manure on them. The stuff grew about 8' tall and my mother and I picked corn late in the summer for about 2 days. When the stuff started coming on, I would go out in the morning and just pick an ear and eat it raw. Best corn I've ever tasted. So my mother and I shucked the corn, threw 3 of them into a freezer bag and right into a freezer. That corn lasted well into the winter when my wife gave a party around Christmas and we ate the rest of it. If that hadn't happened we would have had corn on the cob for 2x a week the rest of the year.
Anyhow now I live in VA, Fauquier county. I have a small unused garden about 20 x 8'. Plan is to put a 10' fence around it for the deer, raccoons, and rabbits and dogs. Deer are prolific here and so is the 300 Savage.
Big question is it's so late in the year this may be the last time to try to get it to germinate, it's a 90 day maturity,. I remember in MD, it took planing 3 times to get it to come up, wet spring and it rotted in the ground even in the sand. I'm wondering given the small plot I have if I should just try to germinate the stuff inside for a small root and then plant it? I bought about 200 seeds from Seed Needs. I just got them and they look OK.
06-13-21, 09:08 PM
