Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
hdesousa_gw

Trimming bamboo

hdesousa
12 years ago

For a number of reasons, (birds roosting, shading vegetable beds, obscuring view of a pretty tree, etc) I would like to limit the height of some of my my bissetii and nuda to 10-12 ft (4 m), about half its usual height around here.

I've been using loppers from a step ladder as well as a pole pruner from the ground.

Shooting is just 'round the corner. Is there anything I can do to the new shoots to limit their final height? Thanks.

Comments (6)

  • kudzu9
    12 years ago

    You have two options: 1) break them off when they first surface, and get nothing, or 2) let them reach full height and then top them at the height you want.

  • hdesousa
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks.
    What would happen if I took just a bit off the end of the shoot when it was say knee high? Could I regulate the final height that way?

  • MiaOKC
    12 years ago

    I am new to the bamboo world but FWIW, I think if you cut it off at knee high it would die. It cannot leaf out (I think it does this when it reaches full height) so then it cannot photosynthesize. We're working to control an out-of-bounds grove and cutting it down before leaf out is one of the methods we are employing. Those little tiny leaves at the top of a new culm are not true leaves and will not suffice for sustainability.

  • captjay
    12 years ago

    Trimming bamboo is going to become a sport for you I am afraid.
    Each time you cut it the plant will send up more shoots to make up for the loss.
    I suggest you make different species' choices or you can painfully limit food and water to control size. However, the appearance and overall health will be noticeable.

  • kudzu9
    12 years ago

    captjay-
    With all due respect, that's not my experience after growing about 80 species of bamboo over a 10-year period. Pruning bamboo or killing off shoots does not cause the plant to put out new growth. In fact, if you kill all the shoots that come up, you lose all the new growth for that year. And, if you prune it, it is not like a shrub that will send out new growth: you've lost that growth permanently and nothing will come back in its place on that particular culm.

  • hdesousa
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I have limited the ultimate height of new shoots by severing the rhizome between the new shoots and the 'mother' plant.
    Surprisingly, the new shoots don't die but are stunted.
    But it's tough to do with rhizomes/shoots growing within a thick grove.

Sponsored