How to Propagate Bamboo from Cuttings

How many things can you use bamboo for?  If you live on a farm, eat Chinese food, walk on alternative floors, wear eco-friendly fabrics, then you know the list never ends. I know a bunch of native-plant-nazis are going to call me out on it, but in my new book, I promote proper bamboo planting.

In a garden design that I’m working on in Haiti, a huge noise and privacy issue is going to be solved by giant clumping bamboo.  Here’s the situation: next door, a peanut butter plant makes a horrid noise and soaks everything in bright light reflected off a big concrete parking lot.  To shield it quickly and without using expensive, unsustainable building materials  (wooden fences, block walls, etc.) we wanted a 50′ tall, 20′ wide hedge of giant bamboo.  In addition to noise protection, the bamboo will be used for garden structures, stakes, shade houses, handrails and such.

Sometimes I work in situations where a garden owner can say, just order it; get it shipped in giant sizes, in air-conditioned trucks from California.  But that’s just filling orders; not much of a challenge.

In this situation, I’m working with an agricultural school in Haiti.  We couldn’t afford to have giant plants shipped in even if they were available.  Nor could we afford to pass up this teaching opportunity.  While propagation of running bamboo is easy (you just dig up some runners) propagation of clump forming bamboo is more of a horticultural challenge.  Actually, its just a challenge to our assumptions and norms.  Once I learned it, it was a ‘Doink’ and a thump on the head and a ‘why didn’t I think of that’ moment. Besides teaching bamboo propagation, this project also can help students learn how to grow bamboo in pots, how to care for it, how to sell it, and how to plant it once ready.   Lessons in biology and business.

Bamboo from cuttings  was all new to me.  A good old country boy, Bernard, the Haitan guy who helps out in the school nursery,  taught Knox Haynsworth and me the simple trick.

Here’s how we propagated two different species of giant clumping bamboo from cuttings:

1. We chopped two 50 foot long culms (canes) of giant timber bamboo.  (Strapping these to the roof of a borrowed car was a whole different matter.  But we did it.)

2. With those culms laid flat, we chopped a silver dollar size hole in every other segment — between the joints.

3.  We filled those wholes with water.

4. We put the water filled culms in a shady place and cover with leaves or straw.

5.  Over weeks, we kept it full of water.

6. In a few weeks of hot weather, little bamboo shoots will emerge at the joints.

7. In a few months, we’ll break those off or cut that section of the culm and pot the new plantlets up.

8. Within a year, we’ll have a full, gallon pot of bamboo.  (In cold climates, protect in winter).

Small bamboo plants, just six months old, were planted out to start the hedge.  For their protection, we planted them in raised beds, made from banana ‘tree’ trunks.  You can read about the planting here on Knox blog.