1. 12" max

2. with runners, not much. Just identify 2 or 3 closly adjacent culms and cut them out as one rootball.

3. hurt your or hurt the rhizomes? When I cut 3 or 4 rhizomes entering/leaving a root ball of 2 culms, I heard/saw no pain from the rhizomes nor from me.

4. almost never true.

5. One method of propagating clumpers is to bury a culm, or culm segment, with the branches above ground. Runners normally don't grow from buried segments.

6. runners and clumpers are different. In general, runners won't grow from culm segments. Some clumpers are very amenable to growing from culm segments, some less so, some not at all.

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I've successfully dug a root ball of two Ph aurea culms, seen below, and transplanted them. The new clump is going great.

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For a clumper propagation experiment, I posted this project here in March 2005, an attempt to propagate Bambusa tuldoides from a buried culm:

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I sort of ignored the project until last week, except for watering, when I decided to severe the culm completely from the ground and main plant.

If the individual nodes had sprouted in each pot, they the branches/leaves would stay green after losing connection to the main plant.

If the nodes had spouted self-sustaining roots, the leaves would brown and die.

To my surprise AND EXTREME DELIGHT, not only did all the pots that had branches/leaves that survive up to last week maintain green leaves, but one pot that had no branch/leaves at its node even sprouted a branch/leaves AFTER I cut the link to the main plant, as if the separation caused the node to awaken in self-preservation and cause the node to bud.

On closer inspection, I can see through the transparent pots (40-oz polycarbonate containers from Costco fancy mixed nuts!) that there are roots in the pots, meaning I have new, independent plants propagated from one semi-buried culm.

Next step is to segment the culm between the pots.

I will post pics next week.

Bamboo guru Roy Rogers didn't know if my "amateur" technique would work, as he had never seen it done that way.

For my part, it was blind/beginner's luck. :)

First...
- I would like to hear more comments on the proper way to dig and transplant bamboo... and what I should avoid doing.
- I am particulary interested in transplanting fully grown clumns so I will have some "instant bamboo"

Second...
unautre, thanks for your note.
- Your experiment is quite interesting.
- I was unclear on weather each node actually rooted.
- How would this work if I just cut a clum and buried it as opposed to bending it over? (which I can't do because I'd be moving the cut clum from someone elses property to mine.)

"How would this work if I just cut a clum and buried it as opposed to bending it over?"

A guy from FL showed how planting segments of B. vulgaris vertically allowed the segments to sprout roots and become new plants. That worked with that specific tropical, clumping bamboo, I don't know whether it would work with my B. tuldoides or with whatever tropical clumper you have.

google for "tropical clumping bamboo division dividing propagaton".

For digging running bamboo, just dig a clump like the first picture above, 2 or 3 culms minimum. If the culms are too tall to transport, you can top them leaving 2 or 3 lower nodes that have branches/leaves. Protect from wind when transporting, and keep moist until and after the rootball/clump is planted in final location.

For digging clumping bamboo, your google search should show pics of how/where to dig down and cut the bamboo from the main plant.

I haven't had much experience propagating bamboo but from what I can tell, there isn't much you can do wrong from digging it up. Just make sure you have roots attached to the base and make sure you have viable nodes. Try not to damage them when digging them up because those little suckers are going to be your new bamboo.

Second, if it is a really tall bamboo, you will have to top it off. Depending on the weather of your climate, that will determine how much of it you will have to cut off. Or, you'll risk your plant dehydrating to death due to the water loss in it's leaves. Either top it off or severely reduce the number of leaves on the plant. I find the latter as being more risky.

and third...
if you cut down a culm and just bury it, you'll still risk your plant dehydrating to death. If you have it bent over and into the ground, the plant will still be helped along with water and nutrients from the connecting roots.

that's my 2 cents

Thanks for the note Genericboi.

That must be why unautre bent the culm over in the pic's... so it could continue to get some water from the roots.

I'll do a seperate post with pic's of the one of the bamboo's I have access to.

thanks again.

see:http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/forestry/Data/Timor/bamboo.html

unautre,

Glad to here that that experiment worked! Never hurts to try new things out.

I buried a culm of B. Multiplex 'Alphonse Karr' last year and it has now put up 2 shoots from one node area. I will be diggin it up this week for transplant and will post the pics here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bamboo Propagation

unautre, did each node in each container root ? If not then how many nodes actually rooted and sent up shoots?

thanks,

MB