When and how to plant bamboo: tips and method

Belonging to the Poaceae family, like grass species, bamboo is common in southern regions and hardy as far as Ile-de-France on condition that it offers it a sheltered location.

• Material:
• spade
• potting soil
• sand
• lawn fertilizer
• watering can
• claw
• mulching

Advice:
To be sure of the recovery of your bamboo , choose a subject raised in a container. Also wait until the frost has passed. There is nothing wrong with intervening in April, or even in May, to put it in place.

Good to know:
It is not necessary to stake the bamboo; it takes root quickly. Few new stems develop during the first two or three years, with all activity occurring underground during this time.

Dig a planting hole

Bamboo is a very easy plant to grow, sometimes even invasive when it finds a good location.
Start by digging a planting hole whose volume is twice that of the root ball.
Decompress the bottom with the spade.

Fertilize

If the extracted soil is a little too heavy and clayey, add sand or potting soil to lighten it.
In the bottom of the hole, throw a few handfuls of lawn fertilizer. Cover with a little soil.
Take the bamboo out of its container without breaking the root ball.

Place the bamboo in the ground

If the roots adhere to the container, do not hesitate to cut it to avoid damaging them.
Place the bamboo in the middle of the hole, the top of the root ball should be a few inches below ground level so that it is covered.

Cover, pack and water

Slide the earth around the root ball, tamping down regularly to eliminate any risk of an air pocket, which is detrimental to recovery. Cover the root ball and continue to tamp with your foot.
Water abundantly, even if it is raining or the soil is wet. Regularly renew this watering.

Scratch and mulch

In order for the soil to retain all its moisture and also to hamper the emergence of weeds, cover the soil with mulch after taking care to scratch it to decompact it. A thickness of 5 to 10 cm is necessary, depending on the material used.

Contain bamboo

When planting the bamboo, install an anti-rhizome barrier around the perimeter of the planting hole.
Slightly tilt this obstacle outwards: the rhizomes will butt against the barrier and rise again. It will then be easier to eliminate them.
If this precaution was not taken when planting the bamboo, it is still possible to dig a trench around the massif of this grass to install this anti-bamboo barrier.