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Bamboo After Care
Twice a week after planting give your bamboo another deep
watering. Thirty minutes minimum. Hand watering is generally under done.
Squirting the leaves helps establish your plant plus it knocks off mites and
other critters that want to eat your plant. After the first three months and
growth is evident you can scale back or even stop watering. The Florida
summer rainy season (June through September usually) lessens or eliminates
the need for you to water. Curled up leaves on a bamboo tell you the plant
is desperate for water. Step up your watering schedule. A properly prepared
planting hole allows the bamboo to be self sufficient after three to six
months.
Fertilize once every three months by broadcasting a slow release turf
fertilizer within a few feet of the bamboo. The first year a few big
handfuls will do per application. As it grows older you should spread five
or six large handfuls within five to eight feet of the plant base. The roots
grow down and outward to gather water and nutrients. To the extent they are
successful your bamboo thrives and gives you the look you desire. Never use
fertilizer products labeled Weed and Feed. Nasty long lasting stuff in it
that you do not want in your drinking water. Twice a year add Ironite
fertilizer in addition to a turf fertilizer. It is loaded with iron,
calcium, sulfur, magnesium, and other minerals your bamboo needs. Apply it
like a fertilizer.
Typically a purchased bamboo has been situated in a semishare area prior to
purchase. Moving it immediately into full sun may bake the chlorophyl out of
the leaves to some extent. Leaves will yellow and fall off. With care
(water) the branches will sprout new leaves and grow strongly. A few bamboo
prefer filtered light. Most do best in full sun but do fine in half day or
even less sun. Soil and water are more important. Four hours of sun is
enough.
At some point you will want to prune your bamboo to remove a sideways
hanging culm in the mower path or blocking a walkway. Limit pruning to 25 %
of the foliage or less. Understand that when a bamboo culm is pruned it can
not form a double leader and extend the growth. Nodes below where it was
pruned, if any, will have the urge to add branches and leaves. Prune to
taste.
Typically a newly planted clumping bamboo puts up a set of new culms (canes)
within a month especially if given a decent planting hole and water. Once
established expect your clumping bamboo to put up new culms during the wet
summer months June through September. If your bamboo only puts up one set of
new growth per summer it is telling you to improve the care.
New culms will be on the outside perimeter. Typically they will be a bit
thicker and taller than previous growth. A new culm takes about sixty days
to reach the height it will reach that year. Then it begins to branch out
and leaf out. Photosynthesis occurs, the bamboo has more energy reserves so
it may then erect another set of culms again a bit further out, thicker and
taller. This process continues for three to six years until the bamboo
reaches it's height and culm diameter maximum for that plant in that
environment. By the end of the second year a reasonably good screen is in
place. A few years later it will be even thicker and more opaque. Much
cheaper than a comparable size fence, looks better, won't blow over in high
winds and should last as long as it is having it's need satisfied. |
