Does very young bamboo look like grass, or am I fooling myself?

last year

last modified: last year

I dug up two culms of my bamboo some time ago (like last spring.) I cut them down to about an inch above ground and put them in an air prune box to grow them out and see if they took. They aren't growing anything that looks like bamboo, but each one has what looks like grass. I don't recognize the kind of grass from anywhere else on the property. It doesn't seem to spread away from the bamboo roots. I transplanted them into pots this spring and a few sprigs got separated. I put the sprigs back into the air prune box. They aren't spreading either, though they're getting a little taller. I'm trying to find out if these are going to become new groves of bamboo in time, or if I'm wasting my time on some kind of grass and need to dig new bamboo starts. I'll attach a picture or two. Let me know if I can help folks answer better with more or better pictures.

(I'd offer the botanical name, but I've lost it. It grows about 12- 16 feet tall. The stems are yellow. The fattest culms are about 1/3 the diameter of my wrist. It's growing in zone 6 in South West Missouri.)

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Comments (4)

oldmobie
Original Author
last year
More picture. First, the bits that came off, back in an air prune box:

Then the roots/ stumps in their pots. (At least these will have value if it's grass. I hadn't known yet that black locust grows from root cuttings. I accidentally made two new ones.):
kudzu9
last year
I've grown over 100 species of bamboo, and I can reliably tell you that those are not bamboo. You probably had some grass seed from somewhere that maybe a bird dropped in the dirt and you were successful in growing that. If you are trying to grow bamboo from that grove, you need to dig out a large, rootball, preferably basketball size or larger, for which you would need a root pruning saw of some type, and a pickax and pry bar. If all you planted was a culm, or a culm with a small bit of attached rhizome, your chances of being successful are vanishingly small.

I can't tell what species that is, but it's a running bamboo and likely in the Phyllostachys genus.
oldmobie thanked kudzu9
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oldmobie
Original Author
last year
Good to know. I'll start treating them like black locust seedlings that need the grass pulled out.

I have a meadow creature broadfork and a pick. I need to buy an axe. I have saws, but I don't know a root pruning saw. (Is it specialized, or just a handsaw you don't mind dulling on rocks, dirt and bamboo roots?) I'll try to gather new starts.
kudzu9
last year
This is a root pruning saw: Saw

You need to be able to penetrate the ground, which you couldn't do with a handsaw. Alternatively, a battery powered Sawzall would help. You can't just dig out a rootball with a shovel. You need to be able to cut all around in a circle to sever the woody rhizomes and then use a pickax and/or pry bar to pop the rootball out of the ground. Bashing away with an ax is not ideal and can lead to a lot of damage to the rootball. You want to get it out as intact and undisturbed as possible, with as much dirt retained as you can.
oldmobie thanked kudzu9