Any bamboo growers?

Anyone really into bamboo. Starting my first grove and could use some pointers.

Man, I got so much I had to buy a fuggin' panda to keep it under control.

better watch them pandas, they're endangered and sht, but once you get an infestation. man, they're worse'n cane toads. just look at china.

I was thinking about starting some, but got scared off from the way it spreads. I might still plant some clumping varieties.

A master gardener and homebrewer friend of mine told me that he'd never plant bamboo in his yard unless it was in a very strong plastic pot with the drain hole plugged up. Once that stuff gets into the surrounding soil, it will pop up in your flowers, and your mulch, and the yard, and the landscape bed that's 20 feet away... you get the picture. He suggests sinking a rigid plastic pot in the ground, with an inch or two sticking out of the surface. Cover the drain hole with rigid plastic, part of a clay pot, or something, and glue it into place. Plant the bamboo and it shouldn't escape. Every 5 years or so, you may want to dig it up and replace the pot.

Another thing. If the bamboo escapes, and takes over the lawn, its REALLY hard on your mower.

There is a variety of bamboo. You can get clumping bamboo that won't spread like the common bamboo.

I had some Madake (Giant Timber Bamboo) growing next to my koi pond at last house - was about 45ft tall, awesome and great to watch in the wind. If conditions are right it can get to 65ft I believe. Mine was in a concrete basin next to pond and filters - about 15ft across and to escape it would have had to dig about 8ft.

Love seeing it when it has the space to grow into a grove .... I visited a grower here in NC a few years ago just to see his Madake. He had one area where he had thinned it to a culm every 5-6 ft , very pretty

I'm guessing it won't grow well up here. We have a little bamboo plant in the house that is doing OK.

If anyone has ever been hiking in Hawaii, the sound that bamboo makes when the wind blows through it is pretty cool.

Edit: Holy crap this is an old thread.

Bamboo is just as invasive here as it is elsewhere in the country if you get the take over your property kind. Clumping bamboos can be very pretty and also grow well here.

Every time I need supports for anything in my yard I head over to hwmbo's parents' house and cut a bunch.

Here is a little insight. I currently rent (for two more weeks then I move into MY house) a house and my neighbor has a bamboo patch along the fence. Last summer it spread quite a bit. So, once fall hit, I cut a bunch down for my dad's garden this year and then the neighbor hired some guys to dig a 12 inch trench around the bamboo patch. They then installed a heavy plastic barrier and filled it in. My neighbor told me that this year, the bamboo will grow pretty heavy inside the barrier but may leak out. He said I needed to go out every other day and trample the bamboo shots outside the barrier. Sure enough, shots did start coming up outside the barrier and I trampled them out. That was like 3 weeks ago. I have not noticed any new shots outside the barrier. I think Bamboo is great, as long as you stay on top of containing it. The bamboo inside the barrier is easily growing 10-12inchs a day.

You could always cut the new shoots, slice and stir-fry them up with some chicken and chinese spices. Yummy!

So Tex, here we are, three years on. Did you pant it any? Did it take over your yard?