Growing bamboo in middle Tennessee?

[Volzfan]

I'm thinking about planting bamboo behind my back property line. There are clumping kinds that are not as aggressive as the "runners". There is a house a couple of blocks away that has some and our winter weather doesn't appear to have any effect on it. It stays green all year. I stopped one day to talk with the resident and to my surprise (no, not really!) they are Mexicans and could not speak enough english to get any information from them.

I'm wondering if these can be grown from seed easily and then plant the seedlings or if I should just stick the seeds into the ground with some fertilizer.

Surely someone here has some information on this and at the very least someone has recently stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.

[gregintenn]

Ask at the Nashville Zoo. They have it everywhere, and I have considered planting some as well. It looks really nice.

[Dennis1209]

Not trying to stir anything up but, would it be legal to plant a non-native species?

 

I believe it's the fastest growing grass on earth and I would have a dozen uses for it. Looking forward to the responses...

[Garufa]

Don't do it! 

 

It's nice and dense and you can build things out of it but it's the Devil's plant.  My mother has a crop in her Memphis backyard that is a scourge.  I'm talking 20' beasts with 1.5" stalks that grow like wildfire.  Her's have the runners.

[UncleJak]

I got some neighbors I'd like to block.  I have thought about bamboo for a while..

[Volzfan]

Garufa I don't believe that is an issue with the clumping variety. I've been watching this house that I mentioned and it doesn't seem to have spread much at all but has gotten thicker.

The other thing is that I'm planning on planting it on the property of the apt. complex behind me. When I look out off of my deck I'm even with 3rd floor windows on the back of the closest building so there is almost a 2 story drop-off just past my line and quite a few trees. It will be borderline as to whether they would have enough sunlight.

[Mike.357]

think twice about planting bamboo, then think about it a third time then just don't do it.

 

It has to be the worst plant ever devised.   People want proof there is a god,  this plant might just prove there isn't.

 

You will regret it.

[Volzfan]

Not trying to stir anything up but, would it be legal to plant a non-native species?

 

I believe it's the fastest growing grass on earth and I would have a dozen uses for it. Looking forward to the responses...

I would think that if the Zoo has it then it's legal but I'll call to be sure.

[Mike.357]

BKelm could probably shed light on what the zoo does.

 

Seems their plants would be in beds with small chance of escape.

[Volzfan]

think twice about planting bamboo, then think about it a third time then just don't do it.

 

It has to be the worst plant ever devised.   People want proof there is a god,  this plant might just prove there isn't.

 

You will regret it.

Thats why I'm hoping to get more info before I do it and also make absolutely sure that I'm getting the clumping style and not the running kind. Hoping that someone here actually has the type I'm hoping to get. I would NEVER plant the running variety! Be nearly as dumb as planting kudzu!

[R1100R]

I have heard it's as bad as Kudzu from a friend in Georgia.

[Caster]

Where does one get the runner type? I have a very good use for it.

[itchytriggerfinger]

Don't believe everyone.  A well managed bamboo grove is beautiful and very containable.  The clumping variety still has rhizomes that "run", but they are all connected to the mother plant.  The plant sends its runners out far enough to send up enough shoots to support the plant.  With that said, a clumping variety doesn't mean it's not going to get to be 20' around, it will.  What is good about a clumper is that you can sever the rhizome and the extended plant will die.

 

Then there is the running type.  This is still a manageable plant, or you can let it take over.  If you have a specific area you want it in you must develop a containment system or you'll have to constantly cut rhizomes. 

 

So how to contain it? 

 

Natural barrier.  Pond, cliff, road.  There is one side, then you have to figure out the others.

 

Well it depends on the area you are putting the plant.  If you have grass all the way around your potential grove, just make a plan to mow it each week when you mow the grass.  The rhizomes will try to shoot up, and you'll mow them down with the rest of the grass. 

 

Let's say you want to plant it along a fence with your neighbors yard on the other side... you have to create a containment system unless either A) your neighbor likes the bamboo and doesn't care to mow it, or B) you just want to piss them off.  There are lots of ways to do this, but a common way is to dig a trench along the fence at least 15" deep, but no need to go to 20", and use thick rubber lining or cut strips of corrugated roofing for the barrier.   The rhizomes only run at 15" deep.  You could trench all the way around your grove and do this same thing.

 

The other trenching option is to dig the same 15" trench and fill it with sand.  The rhizome will go through the sand, but it is very easy to take an 18" spade and go all the way around your grove once a year.  This will sever the rhizomes from the mother plant and keep it contained.

 

If you want to get some great advice and good plants, call the Alamaville Bamboo Company.  He is very reasonably priced and has many selections for you to choose from. 

 

http://abcbamboo.com/

[Mike.357]

I am pretty sure my sister has the clumping stuff on her property.  It was put up as cover and it took over.  I know her husband bitches about it all the time.

 

Might be containable but it is high maintenance.

[AU_88]

Don't do it!!!!

[z0mbies fear me]

think twice about planting bamboo, then think about it a third time then just don't do it.

It has to be the worst plant ever devised. People want proof there is a god, this plant might just prove there isn't.

You will regret it.

This sounds like my theory on kudzu

[Volzfan]

Don't believe everyone.  A well managed bamboo grove is beautiful and very containable.  The clumping variety still has rhizomes that "run", but they are all connected to the mother plant.  The plant sends its runners out far enough to send up enough shoots to support the plant.  With that said, a clumping variety doesn't mean it's not going to get to be 20' around, it will.  What is good about a clumper is that you can sever the rhizome and the extended plant will die.

 

Then there is the running type.  This is still a manageable plant, or you can let it take over.  If you have a specific area you want it in you must develop a containment system or you'll have to constantly cut rhizomes. 

 

So how to contain it? 

 

Natural barrier.  Pond, cliff, road.  There is one side, then you have to figure out the others.

 

Well it depends on the area you are putting the plant.  If you have grass all the way around your potential grove, just make a plan to mow it each week when you mow the grass.  The rhizomes will try to shoot up, and you'll mow them down with the rest of the grass. 

 

Let's say you want to plant it along a fence with your neighbors yard on the other side... you have to create a containment system unless either A) your neighbor likes the bamboo and doesn't care to mow it, or B) you just want to piss them off.  There are lots of ways to do this, but a common way is to dig a trench along the fence at least 15" deep, but no need to go to 20", and use thick rubber lining or cut strips of corrugated roofing for the barrier.   The rhizomes only run at 15" deep.  You could trench all the way around your grove and do this same thing.

 

The other trenching option is to dig the same 15" trench and fill it with sand.  The rhizome will go through the sand, but it is very easy to take an 18" spade and go all the way around your grove once a year.  This will sever the rhizomes from the mother plant and keep it contained.

 

If you want to get some great advice and good plants, call the Alamaville Bamboo Company.  He is very reasonably priced and has many selections for you to choose from. 

 

http://abcbamboo.com/

Think I may take a little drive out to Almaville!

There is a video about how easy it is to keep some varieties of bamboo under control.

[itchytriggerfinger]

Give him a call before you go as he does everything by appointment. Be sure to go see the grove of 50' specimens while you're there. The culms are about 3" in diameter. Awesome!

[enfield]

I wouldn't.  I've been fighting Japanese Honeysuckle, Multiflora Rose and Ailanthus trees for years.  All non-native, all invasive.  

 

You may manage your bamboo plot while you live there, but what about afterwards?

[Jonnin]

the trick is to NOT grow bamboo.  

Seriously, we have some and its a chore each year to keep it contained -- it can pop up and grow 2 feet tall in under a week, thankfully it is very soft when that young so you can still easily cut it down or even mow over it but it spreads like mad and LOVES the climate in TN.

 

It does a great job of growing up tall in a hurry for privacy, but you will have to maintain it a lot esp in the spring.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Jonnin

[Guest PapaB]

Volunteer Gardener just had an episode (2105) on bamboo types featuring a place in Summertown called 'Our Bamboo Nursery'. Here's the link they provided;

 

http://www.earthadvocatesresearchfarm.com/

 

I found bamboo on my property when I bought it 12 years ago. It's at the edge of a field, near the creek, in a fairly small area. I don't know which type it is but I do know it doesn't cover any more area than it did then and I've done nothing to hinder it. Some (many) types are a nightmare as others have noted, but there are types that are very manageable. Talk to the experts.

[Volzfan]

I wouldn't.  I've been fighting Japanese Honeysuckle, Multiflora Rose and Ailanthus trees for years.  All non-native, all invasive.  

 

You may manage your bamboo plot while you live there, but what about afterwards?

Thats not my problem! I would probably leave instructions on how to deal with it. the clumping style doesn't seem to be a problem and thats the only kind I would get.

[Volzfan]

The place that I'm thinking of planting is not actually on my property! My back property line backs up to the apts that are on Apache Trail that can be seen from I-24 and Haywood Ln. The picture below isn't that good but it shows my privacy fence, then a row of 12 year old Leyland Cypress trees. They have been a wonderful screen but in the last couple of years the lower limbs have been dying and thinning because the trees are shading themselves and causing the die-off of these lower limbs. Last summer I decided to trim the lower limbs off enough to install the wood fence. There is also a chain link fence between the privacy fence and the trees. The bamboo would be placed just behind the tree line on apt property. I believe that as long as I get the correct type, like what PapaB has, then all will be fine. I just want to fill in the gaps left by the thinning branches. The picture isn't that great but the apts are too visible for me.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Volzfan

[Peace]

You've gotten some great advice.

I might put it like this: When I was a kid, I overheard a boat owner trying to get a car dealer to say that a certain mini-van in the showroom would pull his boat. The owner of the dealership asked how much the boat weighed and then got a kind of pained look. "Yes, it will pull it; that won't be a problem. Now.... stopping it..... that's another story."

Yes, you can grow it, and it will cover the sight line, but it has been known to grow through all kinds of barriers (including steel drums sunk in the ground).

Good luck! Edited February 28, 2013 by Peace

[Guest PapaB]

The biggest problem I see is planting on property you don't own. I hope you get permission or this could lead to, at a minimum, a costly civil action.