With running bamboo...impossible. With clumping bamboo...extremely unlikely. I think you've read too many urban myths about bamboo. If it were that easy to propagate, it wouldn't cost $50 a pot, and the earth would be covered with it.

LOL! Thanks for your hilarious reply!
BTW,any idea much soil would an individual cane need to survive in?
My mother in law wants a screen of bamboo along her fence,but my brothers bamboo is the running type(I think, he has to mow it down ,10 feet from the grove, every year)so I am thinging about containers.

Ronyon-
Thanks for taking my reply in the spirit it was intended!

You can easily grow it in containers. Bamboo plants are generally created by making a division off a bigger plant and then potting it up. I've bought bamboo in every size from 1- to 25-gallon pots and they can stay in the pot for several years before they need re-potting (the root structure begins to fill up the pot). Bamboo in pots will not get as big as in the ground, but they can do just fine. Just make sure you don't plant it in a nice ceramic pot where the top curves back in, as you will never be able to re-pot it, when needed, without using a sledge hammer on the pot. For my potted bamboo, I often have them in a regular, plastic utility pot, and then just stick that pot inside a more decorative one. When it's time to re-pot, it's easy to get it out of the utility pot, divide it, and re-pot. The main downsides with bamboo in containers -- besides them not sizing up as much -- is that they are more sensitive to cold, and they need to be kept well-watered. It would be good to know what Zone you live in, becasue there are many bamboo, and some are quite hardy and some won't make it through a mild winter.

I'm in zone 6.The bamboo is growing locally already , but the containers would get colder, as you have said.
I was thinking of using 55 gallon drums,split in half-do you think this would allow for full growth?
Maybe I should just scale up to that size, and start with 5 gallon buckets...

Two points:
1. As a rough rule of thumb, bamboo are about 10F less hardy in containers than in the ground, and since you have a relatively cold climate, your bamboo may not do as well in containers as your brother's does in the ground, That could mean that you would get more foliage loss than he does in the winter, or it could mean the whole plant in the container dies. It will just depend on the actual temps, the species, and the location. If you can take divisions from your brother's yard, that would be the cheap way to find out. Just make sure you take the divisions before it gets into shooting season (late spring); get a decent size rootball, and choose a division where the culm is at least a year old...not something that is just emerging this year.

2. I would discourage the use of drums because they have straight sides. When the roots spread out to the edges and circle around, they will exert a lot of pressure against the sides: when you want to remove the plant for re-potting at some time in the future, you will find that the pressure and friction of the root system against the sides will not allow you to remove the bamboo. You always need to pot bamboo in a container with smooth, tapering sides.

Hey, thanks for all your help! People like you make for a nice forum, you have been very welcoming and sharing.