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Bamboo

turmericturmeric Posts: 830
in Problem solving
A friend has bamboo in her garden.  Yes it's invasive, she knows and she's sorting that out but some pieces that come up in her lawn look like very thin green bamboo canes that I presume will eventually thicken to create the classic bamboo cane - these look normal, just like thinner versions of the fully grown canes. 

But some pieces that are coming up (like the one in the picture) are like the colour of a pale purple bruise and about two inches in thickness and come to a point with what look like sprouts/shoots at the tip!  They look very different and I wondered if anyone knew what they were or why they're appearing?  Many thanks


Posts

  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    That's quite normal. The green tip is the first set of leaves for the new cane.  Bamboos send up new canes in varying sizes - some spindly, others thicker.  How they start is how they continue.  The spindly ones won't get any thicker.  I selectively prune all the spindly canes off my bamboos when they get to a stage when they don't meet my acceptability criteria!  The colours of the canes also deepen as the canes mature.  Personally, I would take the canes already cut right down to ground level to make the plant look neater and more natural.
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • turmericturmeric Posts: 830
    Thanks Plantminded.  She's in the process of removing it, hence the shortened canes.  So it will all be gone eventually.  But thank you for your advice.
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    It will take some time to get rid of a bamboo totally. We love our bamboos but know that they are invasive (even though we are told certain ones aren't). We have used different controlled membranes...and the bamboos just going under. You have to be very on the ball and keep checking as bamboos will grow under concrete paths/pathing slabs and come up where you wouldn't think they should.
    Still we have fabulous canes that we use around the garden and give to others in our village for their beans etc.
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