How much room do new bamboo culms need?

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samtobuk
Posts: 103
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:24 am
Location: Cheltenham

How much room do new bamboo culms need?

Post by samtobuk »

Another bamboo question I'm afraid! :lol:

I have just had a real hack at another Fargesia clump that I bought. It is several years old and had clearly never been thinned at all. As a result, it was jam-packed with short or loads of old dead culms. No light would be getting in there at all. There are a few taller thicker culms around the periphery, around 4ft or so.

I've cleared out loads of the stumpy old culms, but it is so solid in there now that there doesn't look like there is any room for new growth within the clump. :(

Will new growth make it's way up through, or will the plant effectively 'not know' that there is now space and keep pushing out culms around the edges of the clump? Have cut the culms down to stumps just above ground level, but they are so packed together there is no room - is it worth trying to dig out the very top level to create some space?

Any thoughts welcome, don't want a 'bamboo ring' with nothing in the middle! :lol:
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Adam D
Posts: 3574
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:47 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: How much room do new bamboo culms need?

Post by Adam D »

Cut it in half and cut out the 'dead' middle.

I have had to 'core' one or two of my Miscanthus as they have done effectively the same.
samtobuk
Posts: 103
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:24 am
Location: Cheltenham

Re: How much room do new bamboo culms need?

Post by samtobuk »

Thanks Adam.

Do you think it is possible to somehow remove the culms down to the rhizome and allow the established system underneath to remain and put up new culms?

I'm a little worried about coring out the entire centre and taking the rhizomes and roots wholesale. Appreciate in time the mature outer will repopulate the centre, but worried it will look pretty ropey for the next season or two (and I'm impatient!).

Still, if the centre is too packed for any new culms to push through, I guess nothing will come up anyway, so nothing to lose!! :roll:
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