Heather

You may want to contact Kinder Chambers at the link below. The TBS is having its Annual Bamboo Festival in Aug should be interested in you bamboo for its sale. He may be able to get some TBS members from the Houston area who have the right tools to divide your clumps in half without doing too much damage to the part left in the ground.

Mike near Brenham TX

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Bamboo Society Officers

Find a way to contian it. You could try digging a ditches around the four bamboo stands and then dropping barriers like wood or sheet metal down into the ditches. This may be a lot of work, but it should be well worth the time considering the value of the bamboo. Good Luck.

Heather,

How far from the fence is your bamboo? The new culms will probably appear several inches out in a concentric circle each year if left unchecked. AK will also grow to be 25' tall. (I hope you knew that when you bought it.) Because AK is a clumping bamboo, I wouldn't worry too much about trying to contain it with a physical barrier. It should take about 5 years for it to reach its mature height, but there are some things you can do to slow it down. First, cutting down culms, and removing branches will decrease the amount of leaves providing energy for the plant to grow. Each year, the culms shoot all at one time and the energy they need for rhizome growth and culm growth is provided by the leaves. So, fewer leaves, fewer new culms and shorter new culms. The next thing you can do to aid the process is remove many of new shoots before they ever grow. It will save you all the effort of cutting it down later when it's all bushy. You should be able to snap them off at the soil level with a swift kick or a sharp pruning knife. Do this to *every* new shoot on the fence side over the next few years and eventually the plant just sort of "gives up" trying to grow in that direction. If someone comes to dig out part of your bamboo, make them dig out the half closer to the fence. Digging out the bamboo yourself is not a very good idea, unless you have a huge amount of energy and the right tools. A rhizome saw is a huge help, and I do a lot of digging and moving and hauling of regular garden things (I spread 400lbs of manure this weekend), but dividing bamboo is beyond my physical capabilites.

If you leave all this bamboo unchecked, the number of culms is likely to double each year. The old saying goes, the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps! You should be able to cut at least 50% of the culms off at the base and have the plant be totally fine. It's a very vigorous grower, especially here in Houston. And if you're leaving town, you could probably get someone to come over once a year and do the same thing for you.

Good luck!
-Maggie

hgalindo:
do you still have the bamboo and want to give it away? what kind ? where? i am new bamboo convert and need new pets. i am in houston too.
cbabo

i am interested if you still have the bamboo to give it away.i am here in houston and i am willing to go and dig the bamboo roots myself.i am very much interested w/ clumping bamboos only.

benjie

Okay, well, I never heard back from the Tx Bamboo Society folks, so cbabo, since you asked first, shoot me an email with your email address and we'll figure something out. I've got a crazy month coming up, so it probably won't be until August before I have time to deal with this.

Maggie, thanks for all that. 3 of the clumps are probably 6 inches to the fence, but the 4th has culms maybe 3 inches away. Next year, they're gonna come up under the fence for sure.