growing bamboo

nodwah

Here's a daft question, I was opening a can of bamboo shoots for a chinese dinner tonight and wondered can we grow edible bamboo here? Does anyone know what species it might be? would it become a huge forest? It's prob academic as I have a wee garden, but just a thought, it might be preferable to transporting tin cans halfway round the world!

mrtg0525

I'm not sure which variety you'd need for that, but a word of warning regarding bamboo - the plants seem to be hell bent on world or at least garden domination and are very hard to contain, if at all.

Planting some varieties is a good way to annoy your neighbours once they've taken over their garden as well.

nodwah

mrtg0525 wrote:

I'm not sure which variety you'd need for that, but a word of warning regarding bamboo - the plants seem to be hell bent on world or at least garden domination and are very hard to contain, if at all.

Planting some varieties is a good way to annoy your neighbours once they've taken over their garden as well.

kinda thought that!

Poppycat

I was in B&Q today and MIL and I saw a large Bamboo plant, I said "I would like one of them", she replied "dont get one as the take over your garden" or something along those lines

alanobrien

mrtg0525 wrote:

I'm not sure which variety you'd need for that, but a word of warning regarding bamboo - the plants seem to be hell bent on world or at least garden domination and are very hard to contain, if at all.

Planting some varieties is a good way to annoy your neighbours once they've taken over their garden as well.

Indeed they do ! The place we moved into 2 years ago had a couple of large ones which i regularly have to do battle with to keep them contained. They look great though so i keep them and now have a lot more in pots
as a result.

The best way to plant new ones is to put them in a bin then bury that in the garden. That stops underground root wandering, then all you have to do is keep an eye on surface shoots.

annie123

this link may help you

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/asianveg/msg031920376027.html?13

I have bamboo in my small (10' wide and 35' long) garden. I dont know what types they are but I have no problem with them. There are a few clump forming varerties around. One of mine has been in a pot for 6 years now and is happy, the other is in the ground and again is clump forming not spreading.

I have never eaten them though, but I must change that this year!

good luck

nodwah

What I was wondering was can you eat any old bamboo or is it a particular type? I've had to battle with bamboo in the past so it was really just my mind wandering....

rls1973

don't know about the edible/inedible types, but re:taking over the garden:
i've planted 3 bamboo's in my (quite small) garden, in the ground not in pots, and although they've grown upwards really well, none of them have spread so maybe that's a bit of a myth-make sure it's labelled 'clump forming' rather than spreading and that should be ok.

clairefun

My m-i-l has three varieties of bamboo in her (oriental, but small) garden and they're all lovely but none have taken over. I've never asked if she's eaten it, but then considering she ha a fruiting olive tree that her boyfriend told her wasn't edible 'over here' and she spends a fortune on olives most months, I don't think I'll ask! (He's one of these know-it-all types...):rotfl:

angelavdavis

The edible bamboo is the real giant stuff (you can buy it for diy jobs - its a thick as your arm!) so unless you have a jungle, its a bit out of range for the average gardener! I went to Lost Gardens of Heligan a couple of weeks ago and they had it there.

nodwah

thanks Angela, so was was just my brain rambling on and on!