Check out these lucky bamboo plant care suggestions to prolong the life of your plant as much as possible:
- 1. Wash the developing vessel. To stop algae growth, wash the container every few months and give it fresh water once a week.
- 2. Provide ample light for it. Due to its tolerance for mild shade and indirect sunshine, lucky bamboo is a fantastic indoor plant. However, intense light will cause your bamboo to expand in size. This doesn’t imply that you should place your plant in full sunlight, but it does imply that maintaining it in a bright setting can lengthen its life.
- 3. Use a water filter. Both soil and water can be used to grow lucky bamboo. Filtered or distilled water is your best bet for keeping the roots of your bamboo plant moist and strong if you’re growing it in water. Chemicals in tap water have the potential to burn the plant’s stalks. If you need to water your plant, always use clean water.
- 4. Select the appropriate container. A fortunate bamboo plant typically arrives in its own container when you purchase or receive one, frequently atop pebbles or pearls. You might need to move your bamboo into a new container if it outgrows the one it was originally planted in. Dig up the bamboo plant gently, then transfer it to a new pot after washing the pebbles. Add the bamboo plant, making sure the roots are entirely hidden by the pebbles by carefully re-burying them there. Don’t let the water level go so high that it wets the bamboo stalks; just enough to cover the roots.
- 5. Have effective drainage. Make sure the container has sufficient drainage if your lucky bamboo is growing in soil. Lucky bamboo enjoys moist soil, however too much watering can hinder the growth of the plant. When the top inch of the soil is dry, water the area.
Can I move my lucky bamboo from the water to the ground?
When transplanted into potting soil, a lucky bamboo occasionally exhibits negative behavior at first; be ready for the possibility that it may also drop a few fresh leaves. When a plant adapts to aquatic conditions, its roots must reintegrate into a terrestrial growth pattern because they have spent their whole life submerged in water.
Are rocks or soil necessary for lucky bamboo?
False bamboo is known as lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderana). The actual bamboo, which is a member of the grass family, needs soil to grow; this hydroponically grown bamboo grows in a container packed with rocks. The moniker “lucky bamboo” stems from the Chinese idea that the plant bestows luck on its owner. Lucky bamboo can easily be grown indoors by novice gardeners. You can choose between a beginner set with green canes that are grown in a straight line up and down or a set with canes that have been grown in a spiral pattern.
Soil requirements
Whether the soil is sand-based or clay-based, bamboo can thrive there. Because their roots only extend a very short distance (30 cm for tiny bamboos and 50 cm for larger bamboos), the kind of soil is not particularly significant (though good top soil obviously helps). Instead, it’s crucial to regularly fertilize the bamboo and to apply a decent layer of mulch on top of the soil to “feed” it.
The majority of bamboo species like moderately well-drained soil, and they don’t do well in swampy or frequently submerged locations.
Receiving the bamboo plants
It is best to plant your bamboo plants as soon as you bring them home or have them delivered to your property. Place them in an area that is somewhat shaded and away from strong winds if you are not ready to plant them straight away. Make sure you give the plants a thorough soak because they may have gone many days without water during transportation. It is quite obvious that the leaves are in dire need of water if they are wilted and folded up.
There are different stages of water stress, the first of which is leaf curl, where a thorough watering would typically cause little harm to the plant and cause the leaves to unfold in an hour or two. The next step would be when the root ball had dried out enough to permanently harm the leaves, which would manifest as yellowing or browning of the leaf tips. The leaves are irreparably damaged, but as long as the bamboo receives adequate hydration, the bamboo will heal without suffering any long-term repercussions. Damaged leaves may fall off, but new leaves will replace them in a few weeks. The third stage actually occurs if the root balls have totally dried out for an extended period of time; in this case, all of the leaves will fall off, the culms will entirely dry up, and they won’t produce any new side branches or foliage. If the plant reaches this point, it might die. Cutting the bamboo’s tops off can help prevent water loss, and if you’re lucky, the bamboo may still be able to recover by sprouting new shoots from the ground, even if this would slow down its overall growth rate.
Planting
Create a hole that is approximately the same depth as the pot or planter bag and twice as wide as the pot or bag’s diameter. Due to the shallow rootedness of bamboo, which prefers to grow its roots out horizontally rather than downwards, there is no need to dig deep holes. The topsoil should consequently be the primary focus of any soil enhancements.
Digging in manures, compost, mushroom compost, or garden soil will help improve deficient soils and give the bamboo a healthy start.
It may be necessary to work some quality compost or organic matter into clay soils to help break them up a bit. To break up any extremely tough clay soils, use dolomite or gypsum.
Compost or heavier garden soil can be added to very sandy soils to increase the soil’s ability to retain water.
Plastic planter bags are used to sell the majority of our bamboos. The bags can be taken off most effectively by cutting them open and pulling. It is not advisable to tease the roots out because doing so will just harm the root system.
Backfill the dirt around the root ball before giving it a thorough watering. Any air pockets around the roots will be eliminated by the water’s ability to induce the loose soil surrounding the root ball to settle. This action is crucial. The root balls may dry out and put stress on the bamboo if the soil is not properly backfilled if there are air pockets around them.
Plant it at ground level, leaving a little moat around it to collect water. There is no need to slop the soil up around the plant. The only exception to this rule would be if the area you are planting in has damp, swampy, or heavy clay soils, in which case it would be a good idea to mound up the area nearby to prevent water logging.
When planted and exposed to wind, the culms of the bamboo plants we sell occasionally may not stand up straight. This is unimportant because the plant will continue to grow from new branches that emerge from the ground rather than the original culms (stems) and foliage that were present at the time of purchase. If you like, you can drive a stake into the ground and connect the bamboo to it, but this is more for show than for practical purposes.
Bamboo can be planted at any time of the year, however it is recommended to avoid planting during the winter if you live in a region that experiences frequent frosts. Since spring and summer are when bamboo grows the fastest, planting during these seasons will result in extremely noticeable effects very quickly. The time it takes for the bamboo plants to become established is substantially shorter throughout the spring and summer since growth happens much more quickly during these seasons. Thus, spring and summer are the best seasons for planting. The bamboo plants will still be sprouting roots and establishing themselves during the winter, but there won’t be any visible above-ground development, so you’ll just need to be a little more patient. The bamboo will begin producing new side branches and foliage from its existing culms as soon as Spring and its warmer temperatures come. This is followed by new shoots emerging from the ground.
Watering
After bamboo is planted, it is vital that they receive adequate water for the first month or two. By adequate water, we mean a good deep soak every couple of days. If you plant in the middle of the summer and the ground is dry, you might need to water it every day. Less frequent watering is needed once they are established (after a few months). Water should be placed right on the root ball because it takes time for the bamboo roots to bury themselves in the surrounding soil. In the summer, roots spread out swiftly; in the winter, they do so much more slowly. Although bamboo plants (once established) are incredibly hardy and won’t die if left unwatered, they do enjoy routine watering and will undoubtedly provide more fruitful results if done so.
Don’t assume that the newly planted bamboo is receiving enough water just because you have an automatic irrigation system set up. Every day, look for any indications of withering foliage. Remove mulch and dig down the edge of the rootball to determine how deep the water has penetrated if you notice any signs of dry plants. If the root ball’s bottom is still dry, extend your watering period or use more water. For the first few months after planting, using drippers directly on each rootball is OK. However, when the bamboo roots spread out, it is recommended to use above-ground sprinklers to water the entire area around the bamboo. Above-ground sprinklers are the greatest option from the beginning since they thoroughly moisten the topsoil area, which stimulates roots to spread from the original root ball.
Bamboo does well when grown in locations with pump-out soaker systems, on top of infiltration beds, or when irrigated with grey water (home wastewater).
Mulching
As was previously indicated, bamboo enjoys a good mulch layer that is 50 to 100 mm deep. Three things are accomplished by mulching the ground surrounding the bamboo:
- cutting down on moisture loss
- supplying the plant with organic material (which decomposes and ‘feeds’ the bamboo).
- preventing the growth of weeds or grass surrounding the plant.
The ideal mulch is essentially anything organic that may breakdown and replenish the soil, supplying nutrients to the bamboo. A excellent place to start is by raking up leaves surrounding the plants. Mulch made from sugar cane, hay, or straw are further alternatives. Even fresh grass clippings will work if they are scattered sparsely around the bamboo or composted a little first.
Bamboo does not care if the mulch is kept away from the stems (as is the case with trees), so don’t stress about it. Any new branches that appear from the earth will pierce the mulch.
Fertilising
All grasses, including bamboo, adore nitrogen; after all, bamboo is a form of grass.
All of the bamboo at Bamboo Land is fertilized with QLD Organics Eco88s. Incitec Pivot CK88 (Crop King 88) and Katek SuperGrass are two additional fertilisers that can be used. Basically, bamboo will benefit from any fertilizer that is good for lawns, grasslands, palms, etc. The SuperGrass and Eco88s are organic mixtures with additional nitrogen.
These fertilizers contain granular nitrogen, therefore they must be applied to the soil’s surface and then soaked in (ie. top dress applications). They shouldn’t be used in the planting hole because they could harm the roots.
Use the equivalent of a heaping spoonful of fertilizer when planting our smaller-sized bamboo plants, spreading it out within a foot of the plant (this encourages roots to grow outwards).
You can use five to ten handfuls around each adult bamboo clump (1 to 2 meter radius from the clump).
Both immediately following planting and during the primary growing season are ideal periods to add fertilizer. Fertilizing around September or October gets them off to a good start for the year and you may fertilize again every one or two months up until about April because the most of the growth takes place between November and April.
Although manures, seaweed fertilizer, Blood-and-Bone, Dynamic Lifter, and other organic fertilizers are safe to use, they will still benefit from additional nitrogen.
Clump Maintenance
Like any plants, bamboo requires some maintenance to maintain its best appearance. After a few years of growth, the oldest culms in the bamboo clump may start to die, potentially giving the clump an unsightly appearance. It’s time to get creative with the old pruning saw and secateurs at this point. Your bamboo will look renewed and as it was designed to after only 30 minutes. The gardener decides how much of the clump should be removed. In other cases, it could be preferable for the clump to be as bushy as possible (for screening purposes), in which case you wouldn’t take much out. In other cases, a more minimalistic appearance can be desired, in which case a number of the shots could be eliminated, leaving just one year’s worth. This type of clump thinning out should be done annually and is best done in the winter. The optimum time to accomplish this is during the winter when the clump has no new delicate shoots that could be harmed in the procedure.
The easiest way to remove culms (at ground level) from a clump is with a straightforward pull-action pruning saw since you can easily reach in between culms to remove plant material from the center of the clumps. Secateurs are well for trimming off branches. Check out our selection of Japanese tools if you need any. A chainsaw might be the solution to make the job a little easier if you’re working with a large bamboo.
Cutting the bamboo’s tips to reduce height works effectively for the smaller, bushier bamboos. Usually, they have enough foliage to hide the removed stems, preserving the plant’s aesthetic. However, if the tips are removed, larger bamboos often appear a little strange and deformed.
Branches can also be removed to achieve the desired appearance. Pruning off as much as you like is perfectly acceptable if you want the culms to be more visible and your bamboo has low-hanging branches.
It is possible to “sculpt” a bamboo to fit the garden or use for which it was planted.