Growing Bamboo in hugle bed?

Live in SoCal and thinking of a bamboo (Black) border on the western part of my property. Its down slope and do not want to water out there. 

Was thinking a buried huglebed (2-3 ft down) that rose above grade by about 2' may provide enough of a berm to easily containg the bamboo.  Any rhizomes shooting off would be seen out the side of the bed and whacked with a hoe. 

What are any thoughts of bamboo growing in a huglebed?

I would like to have this bed be about 4oo' long.  I have plenty of wood dead oak limbs and manzanita to fill it. 

Thanks,
       

You could use a clumping variety of bamboo if you don't want the running characteristic.  There's lots to choose from...

I suspect that bamboo would not naturally survive in your environment without irrigation. But it is quite likely to survive in a well planned hugel bed. This means that drought will be a natural fence so you should be able to get away with non-clumping varieties without the worry of them escaping into areas where they're unwanted.

   Exotics which are unlikely to survive in the natural environment don't pose much of a danger. If I could somehow get pineapples going on Vancouver Island I would not put myself or my neighbors at risk of spread. But if I was to bring things from other wet temperate climates and spread them around willy-nilly I would be a one-man environmental catastrophe.

   Bamboo is grown all over California so I'm sure you're safe in this regard. Black bamboo sells for quite a bit more than Golden bamboo so if you can make that work you'll have a profitable nursery before you know it, a very efficient one since once established your role would be simply to harvest as the bamboo would continually refill empty spots.

I'd be happy to come over and remove any unwanted bamboo shoots and keep the stuff contained.  Dems good eating!  

Most bamboo will want water in SoCal, I suppose the hugel will help somewhat.

I grow clumping Bambusa oldhamii in my Mediterranean climate here (500 mm rain) and I don't water it anymore.  I gave it a bucket of water a few times a month over summer in the first 2 years but now it seems to do fine by itself.  Oldhamii is a good variety as it is versatile, it makes good long poles but the shoots are edible as well.

Bamboo is quite expensive to buy here, I paid about $80 per plant.  I guess the running varieties could be better value - they'll spread themselves more vigorously, which can be a good or bad thing.

Jonchandler wrote:
Live in SoCal and thinking of a bamboo (Black) border on the western part of my property. Its down slope and do not want to water out there. 

Was thinking a buried huglebed (2-3 ft down) that rose above grade by about 2' may provide enough of a berm to easily containg the bamboo.  Any rhizomes shooting off would be seen out the side of the bed and whacked with a hoe. 

What are any thoughts of bamboo growing in a huglebed?

I would like to have this bed be about 4oo' long.  I have plenty of wood dead oak limbs and manzanita to fill it.   

Thanks,
       

You can easily do this if you line the 400' with something to protect the runner type of bamboo from spreading.  You will need a 2.5' deep barrier to stop this rhizomes.  However, if you are using clumping type of bamboo it will be much less of an issue.

Hugh Hawk wrote:I grow clumping Bambusa oldhamii in my Mediterranean climate here (500 mm rain) and I don't water it anymore.  I gave it a bucket of water a few times a month over summer in the first 2 years but now it seems to do fine by itself.  Oldhamii is a good variety as it is versatile, it makes good long poles but the shoots are edible as well.

Bamboo is quite expensive to buy here, I paid about $80 per plant.  I guess the running varieties could be better value - they'll spread themselves more vigorously, which can be a good or bad thing.

Hi Hugh,

i'm considering growing oldhamii as well here in central Portugal, but the last thing i want to do is introduce another invasive species. I know that it's a clumping bamboo, so that shouldn't be a problem, so I was wondering what your experience is (considering it's a hermaphrodite) with the bamboo spreading itself?

Kind regards,
W