Bamboo Care

The first step, and perhaps the most important step, is to pick the right spot.
Tropical bamboo does not like wet feet. Some varieties like a lot of water--when its hot and they are growing, but they don't like to stay wet.

If the bamboo variety likes sun, give it sun! That said, a window of sun overhead for part of the day is often sufficient, and often times the bamboo will look best in that situation.

Give your big bamboo some room to grow. Don't put it under an eave, don't put it right next to a fence (unless the fence has a solid concrete foot at least two and half feet deep), don't put it by your pool (unless you have the time or the help to skim the leaves out). Tropical bamboo grows in a circle which sometimes reaches, over time, ten or more feet in diameter. You can control the diameter of your circle by eating* or stomping your new shoots as they come up. The more space, the less you have to pay attention. I have seen huge bamboos in tiny yards, controlled by yearly culling of shoots and culms( the bamboo "stalk"). Once the bamboo is established, you may remove old and unsightly culms up to a quarter, and even up to a half of the stand (watch the response of the stand if you cut away half). Always leave at least six culms of different ages in the larger variety bamboos, more in the smaller.
*only certain varieties are usually eaten

Planting your bamboo:
Dig a hole. Big is good.

Go to Home Depot or similar store and buy a fifty pound bag of "Black Cow." The bag is bright yellow and the numbers are .5 .5 .5 (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium). Throw in a rich mixture of the Black Cow just below the roots (about 1/3 Black Cow to 2/3 of whatever your garden soil or rock is) . As you fill in the rest of the hole, keep throwing in shovelfuls of the manure along with your garden soil. Use up the whole bag, top dressing with whatever's left. The object is to put organic matter into the soil.

We've also had good success throwing in a few handfuls of chicken manure fertilizer or Nature Safe 8-3-5 (organic fertilizer available at Atlantic Fertilizer Co) in with the backfill. Once again, use a generous amount below the roots, so the roots can grow into it, but not directly touching the roots (put a couple of shovelfuls of unfertilized soil between the roots and the fertilizer), and use less as you fill in the rest of the hole. Tropical bamboo likes to eat.

Water your new plants with a moderate amount of water every day for two or three weeks (this assumes good drainage--don't drown them!), then two or three times a week until they're established, which usually means they've gone through one summer. Watch the leaves: they may curl a little during the heat of the day, but they should open up completely in the evening. Not all bamboos need a lot of water. The golden bamboo (B. v. Vittata) with which we started our collection was watered only when it rained. In general, the bigger leafed bamboos need more water than the smaller leafed bamboos.

It's a good idea to fertilize. Palm Special with micronutrients reportedly works well, four times a year; also, "Dynamite" slow release fertilizer is good, but pricey. We personally, however, do all my in-ground plants organically, using Nature Safe 8-3-5. It's somewhat expensive, but the bamboo seem to love all its dead and rotten stuff . We fertilize about every six weeks during the spring, summer, and fall, using moderate doses, but lay off in the colder months (December, January, early February). That's when we like to top dress with well composted manure and mulch. Remember, Bamboo is a grass, and it will grow pretty much like your lawn--fast in the summer, slowly in the cooler, darker months.

As for pests, bamboo will get some scale, some species more than others. If the plant is healthy, it will grow through them. Ignore them or knock them off with a high pressure hose. Look for a little black lady bug with two red dots ('Twice Stabbed'). It and its fierce looking larvae are eating the scale. They are good bugs, don't hurt them!