Aesthetics. Not a true tree, creeping rootstock is where growth originates. Culms reach full height first year.

Hi ron
Normaly we do not cut down any of small weak bamboo for first 3~4 years or until strong bamboo shoots are developed. ( botanical reason). since you did not tell what kind of bamboo (s). If you can tell what kind of bamboo you have ,General location/ USDA zone map, type of soil you have,etc. you will get better response..................mike

Ron,
I prune out old culms, as well as any scraggly new ones, selectively to open up the clump of grove and allow more light, rain and air to circulate in the inside of the "grove." It also allows the plant to give more energy to producing bigger, stronger shoots.

As for individual culms, I might remove dead swigs and top a culm that has been winter damaged, pruning off the dead top portion down to the beginning of live tissue.

Bamboo isn't like a tree at all. A culm grows just once - ZOOM... in two or three weeks it will be at it's final size. You can't "encourage" it to grow bigger because it won't.

Keith
I can encurage bamboo grow bigger.Knowing and understand how bamboo grow also I can controle its size as well...mike

I have black bamboo and Fargesia in my garden. Thanks for dealing the information that bamboo is something really different than trees. I wait for the reaction of Keith on Mike.... its interesting. I grow bonsai like pines and junipers as well, but I know very little about growing bamboo.

Cane bamboo can be made into bonsai forms as well, Ron...

No, you can not make an individual culm grow larger. It's not like a tree. Once it has grown it is done, both in height and in diameter. I'm not a bamboo expert, but this is pretty basic stuff.

Hi ron
I had 23~25 diffent bamboos in in my back yard.( Not Now. My exwife ate it all)I also had leased land to grow Moso bamboo for bambooshoot production for commerical porpose, As hoby I had bonsai bamboos 1" to 10" tall in abot 3" to 10" pots. My bonsai bamboo was moso,Kumazasa, okame zasa, black bamboo. Hachiku, oroshima chiku, yadake ( arrow bamboo) hime hachiku,and Narihira chiku. Two to Three inch diameter moso to 8 to 10 inch diameter bamboo, it took me for a while to learn how to grow bamboo bigger or smaller.

unlike tree bonsai,bonsai bamboo do not take many years to establish. I have lectured how to make bamboo bonsai at Bamboo soceity meeting. I am member of bamboo soceity on and off since 1979. Being Japanese gardener we use bamboos offten in Japanese garden. beleive me, if some one know how to grow bamboo, his bamboo is lot's biger than someone who don't know how to grow bamboo.
Bamboos are wonderfull plant to have.

Like keith said ,once bambooshoots break out ground, bamboo stay same size rest of life of the cane . But if manage bamboo groove propery, Bamboo groove develope large size shoots. I can't make it bamboo grow bigger which already grown. but next generations . ..........mike

Mike
Is this bamboo society meeting an Internet forum ? If so, what is the URL ?

Have different kinds of bamboo different techniques to grow (like pines) ? Are there common techniques to learn first for the novice ?

I'm not trying to make bamboo as bonsai. My bamboos are in large containers, burried in the garden soil, because I'm worried about its rampant growth. I've made drainage holes as well to allow access water to drain. The black bamboo is already tall, about 3 metres, but the trunks are not so thick. I wonder if this can grow thicker and taller, but Keith says it will not grow anymore, right ? How can I treat the new shoots ? I've seen a couple of it.

Ron, Bambooweb.info is a website that has a lot of American Bamboo Society members participating. Everyone is very helpful with information about bamboo - growing, care, propagation, purchase, all that.

Also, GardenWeb has a bamboo forum. There is a quick link to it here on the Japanese Gardens page (scroll up).

The American Bamboo Society has it's own website as well. If you Google them, it will come up (can't remember off the top of my head).

My old sensei used to cut the outer sheath off the bottom node of a new shoot when he wanted to stop the growth. He would select a shoot he wanted and wait until it was to the size he wanted. His treatment (usually) stopped further growth without cutting the TOP of the shoot...

Scott

"My sensei said such and such..." Please spare us the lame karate kid stuff. If it is a good technique it will stand up on it's own merit. You don't need to try so hard to make yourself sound exotic.

bb,

stfu! (I stoop to your level...)

id

The code that these psuedo-intellectuals speak in is just well above my head.

In reality this is a food fight between Scott, who has a web presence as the "helpful gardener" and the Journal of Japanese Gardening. Apparantly they believe that the way to promote an interest in Japanese gardens is to crank up this competition they have going on. Meanwhile, Mike Yamikama, who might actually know some stuff, is treated very badly.
As a premise for the advancement of this, perhaps too far gone, forum show respect where it is due.

I read JOJG and I feel it is head and shoulders above any other source of information on the subject. Internet sources (and most books) are rather lame in comparison. Anyway, I don't see how there's any kind of "food fight" going on. I just feel that the "my sensei" stuff is pretty lame and embarrassing.

Well b/babe this demonstrates just how wide the gap is. Traditionally knowledge is passed on orally, that is a respected person (a sensei) helps a receptive apprentice by passing on what he knows. The sakuteiki talks about oral 'transmission' implying that this 'passing on' carries some weight and is not available to everyone. In case I have not made this clear, you could never be the recipient of this kowledge because you already know too much.

My experience has been that people respect information more when they pay for it. And, words in print (books, journals) also get more respect because of the psychological power of the printed word. Unfortunately, there are a lot of printed words that express incorrect information.

Free information on a public Internet forum gets dissed because the source isn't known unless a person reads a forum for a long time and gets to know the other people posting. Then, you can start to appreciate who has knowledge, and who doesn't. My suggestion is that folks stick around long enough to get a sense of who is sincerely trying to offer info gained through experience and training, and who is just posturing or pushing an agenda.

I've learned a lot from this forum, and met some really knowledgeable people in "real life" as a result. It's worth sifting through the offerings with an open mind, and see what we can learn from it.

Bahama: no matter what you say there will always be a ton of people out there who are overly influenced by that "Zen master/sensei/guru" hoo-ha. I find it embarassing, too. They make it sound as if reading a book is worthless.

Here's a book worth reading!

Japanese Garden Design
by Marc Peter Keane

He is a landscape architect and gardener specializing in Japanese gardens (many of which he has designed and installed for influential members of Japanese society), and has lived and worked in Japan for over 20 years, teaches at Kyoto University and is on the Japanese Gardens expert staff -- When Japanese experts respect a non-Japanese, you know he's gotta know something.

It's got basic history and explanations behind the traditional designs, and more. Good read.

ron.
Try to be member of bamboo soceity. membership fee is well worth to get lot' of information.
I don't mind to spend time to write for you, but there are so much of crapy posting recently on jgarden forum. I don't write in this forum amymore.
visit to www.jgarden.org site and post it again in there. I am happy to answer to your questions at the jgarden.org , they will monitor contents of posting time to time.
mike

The guru bit is indeed embarassing. If an uneducated Japanese truck driver shows up here, some people start calling him sensei.

About bamboo: I saw a booklet by the American Bamboo Society that looked very nicely done. I agree that a bamboo society like ABS might be a good place to go to learn more about bamboo.

ABS materials are great because the info is from multiple sources ... people growing bamboo around the U.S. The only caveat is that the cold hardiness charts are not accurate. When they were put together, the sources (people growing bamboo) were more limited. Unless it has been updated recently - I'll check - a lot of the info is outdated. Many species have turned out to be hardier than the temperatures listed on the charts.

Otherwise, the ABS site is one of the best sources for info.

Another really good book for newbies and a good reference for everyone is Ted Jordan Meredith's "Bamboo for Gardens" (Timber Press). It covers all of the basics, including dividing and propagating bamboo, using it in the landscape and maintaining it. Worth checking out.

Sensei ONLY means teacher. All the kids in school in Japan call their teacher *sensei*
It is really not an exotic term at all. Only those who have either not been to Japan or studied a Japanese art, of any kind feel the word so exotic.

It isnt exotic, but it does convey respect. I fail to see what could make some one uncomfortable with that. Books are great, and its nice if you can find them on the cheep, or read them in the gardening section of Powels, or possibly a library may have one that has something you need, but this forum also has some good stuff. Its up to the reader to go to as many sources as possible and sift through the info to get an idea of what might work. I wouldnt know if the Journal of Japanese Gardening was good or not, because I woudnt pay that much money for something that I may be able to find out in another way. One way or another, it seems that if you like things like Bonsai, and other Japanese cultural nuances, it might be good to take a page from the social skills/maners side of things. I wondered what the exodus was all about a while back, now its pretty clear. Thats too bad, Id still like to learn something.

AS Well, If something was lame and embarrassing, it would be having to go by "Bahama Babe" thats not real dignified,
for how ever little that counts. Id take "karate kid any day to, ......well what would that be any way?

Dear BhahamaB Obviously this forum is not monitored.
In other fora your posting would have been removed.
A sensei is a Japanese teacher. To call him sensei is normal. Do you know for sure that the advice was NOT given by a Japanese teacher?
You say that a good technique stands up on its own merit. Well your posting is not about bamboo pruning at all. It just adds aggravation.