How to grow brilliant bamboo

How to plant bamboo

Need bamboo to plant? We have healthy seedlings ready for you!

  • Dig a hole 60cm wide and 60cm deep

  • Add the dug soil that was the top layer (30cm)

  • Add a layer of organic compost

  • Place your seedling & fill in with soil from the bottom

  • Water 20 litres

  • Surround with mulch and leaf litter

Where to plant bamboo

  • Planting Position

    Plant your bamboo in free draining soil.

    Plant giant bamboo about 4m apart to allow for growth.

  • Home Use

    Bamboo is not only useful at home as a source of fuelwood. The planting location brings extra benefits - use as a living fence or to act as a wind break. Plant where there is excess water, like a tank overflow, to prevent standing water and help your bamboo grow well.

  • An Ecosystem Tool

    Bamboo is a great tool for ecosystem service designs including watershed management, with root structures that stabilise soil and riverbanks. Use in landscape structures such as swales and dams.

Learn more about bamboo for watershed management

How to care for bamboo

  • Water

    Water your bamboo a minimum of 5 litres per week.

  • Mulch

    Add 10cm of leaf litter around your bamboo every six months. Add manure once annually.

  • Protect

    If planted where animals may reach it, protect your bamboo with a tree guard. GGD can provide these with your seedlings.

Order Tree Guards

How to harvest

Every year your bamboo will have new shoots that grow into new culms (poles). A culm grows to its full size in only a single rainy season and then will strengthen and toughen, ready to harvest after 3 years. As the bamboo plant matures the new shoots will grow taller and wider - giant bamboo will reach up to a staggering 30m high and 20cm wide! As the bamboo gets bigger and bigger there will be more uses for the harvested culms.

From year 3 - Fuel Wood

From year 4 - Furniture

From year 5 - construction

Harvest your more mature culms first. Harvest your bamboo in the early morning in the dry season. Cut the culm neatly and evenly immediately above the second node (ridge) up from the ground.

Bountiful Bamboo Harvests

 

Active bamboo management and specific harvest techniques can maximise your bamboo growth and harvest, and protect plant health. Get in touch to discuss the training GGD can provide to give you the maximum benefit from your bamboo.