What is the best way to get bamboo to thrive?

Where do you live? Here you plant it, and then keep hacking it back!

All the info online says otherwise but I have a bamboo in the office and it loves the artificial light. It doesnt get any sunlight at all but is nearly triple the size from when I bought it. I also always keep the water level to the top of the pot.

Its so big that I’m considering replanting but I’m hesitating because I’m afraid it will die. Advice on replanting would be greatly appreciated!

Be careful. It is an invasive species. Check with your State Dept. of Agriculture.

Google for pruning or repotting.

if you plant it anywhere it will grow. Its next to impossible to get rid of.

i would start it off in tap water and let it produce a few new leaves. that jump-starts the plant. once it establishes and you can see spindly roots, transfer it to good potting soil indoors so it can just take over eventually like “little shop of horrors.” once the plant is potted, it will grow like crazy and will be a part of your office like a true friend who does not need much attention—just routine watering and/or “drouty” periods to avoid over-watering.

HGTV has this article suggesting the types that thrive best indoors and growing tips.

We have some bamboo in a pot outside. It loves insane amounts of water. Flood the thing. The one we have is in a really big pot. Maybe 30 inches around. The stuff is hard to kill, but it will thrive with tons of water.

Maybe if you watered it every once in a while! How do you kill bamboo?

With GREAT difficulty. Once it takes root, it is like kudzu or Japanese knotweed, a bane for the Highway depts.

Perhaps, raise a flock of Pandas. Don’t they eat only bamboo?

In my back yard, we hack at it and it keeps coming back.

It’s nice, though.

@gailcalled: A flock, eh? The name of a group of pandas is still under debate, since they don’t often group at all, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t classifying them as birds, goats, or sheep. :)

@RH; you caught me red-pawed. How about a pair of Pandas? Many people here keep herds, collections, plethoras? of llamas, but they don’t eat bamboo, do they?

Plethora of pandas it is. I quite like that, actually.

Really? A wild guess, that. What about llamas? (You do the research since you have the master list at hand.)

A superabundance of llamas, is the correct term.

Getting back to Pandas; how about two’s company, three’s a crowd?

There are two cultivars of bamboo. One basically clumps and does not spread. However, the other is very invasive. If you plant bamboo outdoors, you might prefer the clumping variety.