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new2zone9a

Non Aggressive Clumper with Weak Rhizome Wanted

new2zone9a
13 years ago

I'd like to plant bamboo in an area sensitive to root intrusion due to a PVC waterline from the meter by the street towards the house.

Does anyone know if there is a clumper suitable to zone 9a that would have the least likely chance of damaging the pipe?

From what I've dug up from my last garden and transplanted here, I wouldn't trust any of them to do no damage with the exception possibly of seabreeze (and maybe the bali which I don't think would survive a cold snap in that exposed area of the garden).

I recently added new varieties to the garden but I do not know what these will look like below ground when mature.

What I've transplanted here from my last garden:

Bambusa chungii (tropical blue)

Bambusa malingensis (maling aka seabreeze)

Bambusa lako (Timor black)

Bambusa eutuldoides 'viridivittata' (Asian lemon)

Bambusa pervariabilis 'viridistriata' (sunburst)

Bambusa textilis var. gracilis (graceful)

Bambusa multiplex "Alfonse Karr"

Bambusa vulgaris 'warmin' (dwarf buddha belly)

Bambusa vulgaris 'vittata' (golden hawaiian aka painted)

Dendrocalamus brandisii (teddy bear)

Schizostachyum brachycladum Yellow Form (sacred Bali)

Gigantochloa atroviolacea (tropical black)

and the newly acquired

Otatea acuminata ssp. aztecorum (mexican weeping)

Thyrsostachys siamensis (monastery)

Dendrocalamus minor 'amoenus' (angel mist)

Bambusa textilis 'Kanapaha' (royal)

Bambusa nana

Bambusa oldhamii (oldham's)

Comments (7)

  • kudzu9
    13 years ago

    The rhizome is unlikely to do anything to the pipe. Bamboo rhizomes do not try to get into piping. The only thing that might happen is that the rhizome could grow around the pipe if the pipe is very shallow...which I doubt. How far down is the pipe buried?

  • botanicalbill
    13 years ago

    This will keep the dirt under the pipe very dry so roots will not grow agressivly by the pipe unless you get a leak.
    Also, roots do not grow upward as agressivly.
    ===
    === layers of dirt (aka soil)
    ===
    /^\ plastic tented over the pipe
    :0: pipe draped with plastic

  • new2zone9a
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Edit: I meant to write that the Graceful bamboo doesn't seem to have as strong a rhizome system as some of the others. Or at least so it seemed when I divided a large pot of them. The Seabreeze rhizome can be pretty substantial which I found when transplanting a truck load of mature clumps.

    Thank you for responses. I realize that the rhizome would not grow into the pipe (at least not initially) but I am worried about a nearby growing rhizome putting too much pressure on the pipe and cracking it as it is only PVC. The pipe is just about 2 feet below grade.

    And so the layering idea, while otherwise interesting, might not be suitable to this purpose. I have to be concerned with possible hurricanes and so I would not want a strong wind leveraging bamboo below ground into the pipe.

    I'm probably better off not planting bamboo near that line. Or as I divide my newly acquired species I guess I'll find out then if any of those might work.

  • kudzu9
    13 years ago

    With pipe 2' below grade, I doubt there is any worry. I have about 60 bamboo planted in my yard and may of them are in close proximity to my PVC irrigation system, which is 6"-10" below ground. I have never had any root/PVC issues, but most of my plants are runners. I don't have much experience with the clumpers you have, but I just don't believe clumper root systems grow that deep. However, you need to do what you are comfortable with. You might also post in the forums at www.bambooweb.info, where there are a lot of serious bamboo growers and quite a few live in your geographic area and grow your kind of clumpers.

  • new2zone9a
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I wouldn't be as concerned with runners in this regard though I only grow clumpers, having seen the trouble an old friend had (unaware back then of the need for barriers) with a runner running into her neighbor's yard in south Florida. When I bought property there for many years I wouldn't grow bamboo until I later learned of clumpers.

    The clumper rhizome, though obviously less intrusive, can be quite substantial in both size and strength. Going down 18 inches-2 feet is not unusual, especially for a mature clump. The strength also is remarkable. When I was transplanting my bamboo to this new zone, I brought most of it but could only get at some of my Tropical Blue as it had gotten so large. That thing went through three chain saw blades just to get a couple of chunks of it (sadly only one survived but at least I've that).

    But also I've seen what can happen during a hurricane. I had a coconut palm which I was afraid was growing into the electric lines behind the house. But after a night of Wilma circa 2005 I think it was, the tree was upright, away from the electric lines. The Timor black bamboo was over at about a 30 degree angle from verticle, lifting the ground up around it.

    Considering the size of bamboo above ground, the depth and strength of the rhizome and now add a night of 50-100 mph winds leveraging on that?

    Probably would not have damaged a 1/2 inch irrigation line which has some flexability to it, but possibly could have cracked a more rigid main water line. If you've ever been through a summer hurricane in Florida, you do not want to be without water when it is all over, or certainly you'd want it restored just as soon as the utilities can manage. Dehydration is too dangerous a risk.

    Though as long as keeping in mind what's also underground, bamboo can be a great plant if you live with hurricanes. After all, it grows tall and provides wonderful shade. And if it falls on the house during the storm, who cares: it's just bamboo.

  • kudzu9
    13 years ago

    newzone-
    Thanks for that info...very interesting. I've sometimes wished that I lived in an area like yours where I could grow the many beautiful clumpers you have available, but after your weather report I'm sticking with the rain and the earthquakes in the Pacific NW!

  • new2zone9a
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Hurricanes and earthquakes and bears. Oh my. A story on safe real estate recently ran in an otherwise respected rag. Some of their "disaster-free" places were low lying Pacific islands, susceptible to sea rise.

    Hurricanes are tolerable as long as they don't kill or maim you and the garden loves all that water.

    I don't know if runners do it too but the clumpers down here have highly active transpiration systems. At night, many of my plants form droplets on probably all the leaves (I've noticed this less in zone 9a than I had happen in 10b but my plants are just settling in here).

    Maybe not related to transpiration, but when we go through a hurricane, the leaves dry out like someone freeze dried them. I've seen that with some other plants too but not to such extent.

    I'm between temperate and semitropics now so planting is a little tricky. My last garden was way tropical.

    Here I will chance a few bamboos which might die above ground if we get a cold spell but on those I'm hoping their rhizomes survive. Mostly I'm planting only what survives well the 9a zone.

    There's plenty of bamboo species which will make this place lush and varied soon enough, though I am limited as to the palms I can plant here. I had over 30 species in my last garden. Here I probably can have less than 10.

    I understand that the Pacific NW is stunning but too cold for me. I was fascinated to learned you have rain forests, thinking they only existed in the tropics.

    Also I think it is funny how so many think bamboo is just a tropical plant. Whenever they bring that up, I bring to their mind the picture of a panda playing in the snow while munching bamboo.

    So I guess I'd consider giving up hurricanes and our lush landscapes to deal with the snow and earthquakes and all that rain and runners instead of clumpers if only you had pandas too.