Golden Bamboo

Clementine2010

Hi All

Just looking for some advice here, I planted Golden Bamboo along a back wall last October (some about 9ft tall but not dense) hoping it would take off and give us 6m of privacy. It seems to be ok but theres no new shoots, I assume it should start taking off soon as its spring. Anyone know how quickly it will grow? I've been putting normal plant food on them once a week, should I use something else?

ABout to buy more plants for the other side of the garden, can't afford large one's so going to buy 4 or 5 ones that are only 50cm tall, whens the best time to plant them, is now too early?

I want privacy in the garden so hence planting bamboo all around the borders, as its expensive I just want to make sure i get it right! So any advice from anyone who has grown bamboo successfully please throw it my way.

planetX

they should start to throw up new canes in spring - I just had a look at mine and there's no sign of anything yet so be patient. There's no point giving it liquid feed until you see signs of growth. If they're only in since October they have a lot of settling in to do, you might be a bit disappointed this year as they get established. Bamboo shoots stay at the thickness they start at, so you might get a lot of thin shoots until the plant gets strength to send up the big guys.
Do you know which species you have? P. aurea grows in clumps, P. aureosulcata is a runner and will probably go under the wall and invade your neighbour...

btw - when buying bamboo, don't necessarily go for tall unless you want the instant impact. A lot of bamboo have been hanging around too long and too dry, it's the thickness of the new shoots you want to look for.

Clementine2010

Thanks for that, its definitely the non invasive kind, was expecting great things to happen this summer but I suppose it might be next year before they really take off