Plant them slightly higher than the soil level by and inch or two. If you can use enough soil, make little a berm all the way around about 6" away to hold the water in above the roots. You can add some Black Kow as a top-dressing with some granule fertilizer mentioned below, and then some mulch.
Mulch we recommend is pine straw which is high in nitrogen and also mixes well with the bamboo leaves, which are also great for mulch/nutrients (due to a high silica content). Other than pine straw, you should use pine bark mini nuggets or simply grass clippings/leaves. We don't advise using red cypress mulch, which isn't really natural-looking and is dyed.
If you have tall plants, you should be sure to run a long rope or cable about 6 feet off the ground and tie your new plants to it so they do not tip over in the wind. Or you can tie each individual plants down with twine and three stakes.
Since bamboo is indeed a grass, you may use the same feeding schedule as you would on your lawn. Of course, using organic fertilizers such as Milorganite or compost/grass clippings is the natural way to do it, but if organic fertilizer is not priority for you, then you may use the following:
Soluble Fertilizer to use year-round as much as you want:
Pour this directly all over the roots when you plant your bamboo and then use it often throughout the year. Use a "showering" watering can. A 2-gallon watering can works great.
Fertilome Blooming & Rooting Soluble Plant Food 9-58-8
Granule Fertilizer for the growing season (Apr-Sep) 2 feedings (or more if you’d like):
Lawn fertilizer (granule) that is high in Nitrogen (the first number). Scott's Turf Builder Southern Lawn Food is a good one and readily available at your big box stores.
Granule Fertilizer for the winter season (Apply in Oct/Nov) 1 feeding:
Lawn “Winterizer” fertilizer (granule) stimulates root growth through the winter months so that the grass is thicker in the Spring.
Over time, there will be older culms within the clump that get too shaded and will discolor or even die off. Your bamboo clump will look best if you regularly thin out any unsightly culms and branches. Regular thinning and branch trimming allows more light and air into your clump at ground-level which will promote new growth. If you want, you can trim all of the branches from the ground to above your head if you want to be able to walk around under a bamboo that has long branches, like Asian Lemon Bamboo.
Pull Saw or Reciprocating Saw for cutting off culms or pruning branches:
Only use a “fine-toothed” saw when cutting bamboo. A hacksaw works, but the blade will break/get stuck and it's hard to get a hacksaw between the culms much of the time. A pull saw is your best friend with pruning bamboo culms and branches manually. We have found the following pull saw at to be great and affordable:
Flush Cut Pull Saw 10" A corded or battery-powered reciprocating saw with a very fine-toothed blade will easily cut both culms and branches but may not be able to access between tightly spaced culms like a pull saw can.
Be careful when using a string trimmer (aka weed-eater) near the bamboo between June and December when the new, tender shoots are growing. If you knick them with the trimmer, the shoots will likely abort. It is best to hand-pull the grass and weeds that are within 6-12” of the outermost mature culms and then maintain the edge leaving enough room for the new shoots each year.
Bamboo Leaves and Culm Sheaths
Bamboo will drop leaves and culm sheaths (the protective sheath around the stem on new growth). Sheaths can be larger and chunky and so we choose to clean them up regularly. Leaves are excellent food for your bamboo, so allowing some to remain as mulch is a good thing. However, over a couple years are more, as with any mulch, it can become too much and may allow fungus to grow under the thick moist layer of leaves. It is good to refresh it by using a leaf blower to blow out as much of it as you can and then allow new fallen leaves to settle. This can be done in early Spring and followed-up with applying a granule fertilizer.
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