My mother planted Bamboo to harvest the shoots. Should I cut the canes down?

I have never tried it, but I understand that they are harvested when the shoots first appear above the ground, when they are about 6–8 inches high. Once the cane is big and hard, it is no good. In other words, they are just that the shoots, not the mature canes.

Let me know how it goes.

I know nothing of harvesting shoots, but I trust you planted in a manner so as to contain its growth. If allowed to spread, bamboo will soon overgrow your yard and that of your neighbors. See ya…Gary/wtf

There are so many different varieties of bamboo, some are clumping and don’t try to take over the world, but I know a lot of types do. I love it, but it is so dirty always dropping leaves, does make nice mulch though.

It’s generally thought of as being quite invasive, depending upon the strain. I would pull it up and replant each Spring.

Ditto on containing it’s growth; it can be very invasive. And—pulling it up and re-planting may not be enough to contain it. After only a few years of bamboo, my father in law is having to hire someone to remove it. It started out a few years ago in a small clump in the back, and it has now taken over the entire large backyard, and has spread to the neighbors yards, and is starting to spread to the front. They have to pull out his deck, dig out his entire yard to a depth of several feet, haul in new fill dirt, and put in concrete barriers around the borders, so the roots won’t grow back in from the neighbor’s yard. The stuff grew up through the rocks—big rocks; the barely seems to even need dirt—and through the deck, and through the fence . . . looks real pretty at first, then takes over like an alien invasion. I really can’t recommend growing this stuff. If you do, make sure it’s in containers that are solid, and doesn’t have any cracks to let the roots grow through.

I think we took pretty good precautions against growth and after four years it has held pretty good. I may have made the containment area too narrow. I used a ditch witch and trenched 32 inches (as deep as the one I rented) then lined the sides and bottom with tyvek. so there are no seams and gave us some left on the surface where I mow the lawn. we anchored the tyvek with plastic edging that is driven in. The ends are still open, but for some reason the bamboo hasn’t sent runners out there yet, so we have room for the experiment to grow with an eye towards expansion for a natural deer fence. We are an asian family and highly prize bamboo shoots but when I didn’t cut any down last year we didn’t get any shoots. The bamboo was only about 4 feet tall last year. this year it almost 15 feet tall, so I assume it is happy in it’s new home. I’ll get a couple fishing poles out of this year!

@majorrich—excellent, sounds like you’ve got it covered. Too bad the people my father in law bought their house from weren’t quite so far-sighted. :-(

I had the ditch witch for a day to bury my cable and phone, Had to do something else before I took it back.