How High

[jordanM]

I am planning on making a raised bed for my bamboo. How high should i make it so i dont have any escapes?

[Flashburn]

if you really want to make sure you have to have an air gap.

I bought a P nigra in a large box and it was 10 years old. it had 4x4s under the box for an air gap.


But like all containment it will eventually need out or suffer root bound.


with the P nigra it had runners all the wat to the bottom of the box. that was around 2 and a half feet deep I think. Might have been 20 inches i dont recall.

Thats my best advice.

[Alan_L]

In Zone 5, I wouldn't create an air gap. He needs connection with the ground for additional cold protection.

There are other things you can do with a contained plant, such as keeping it thinned, and removing rhizomes. I read somewhere that somebody who installs rhizome barrier suggests removing any rhizomes that run along the barrier.

I have a couple of Yellow Groove planted in raised beds (less than 1 year). I plan on rhizome pruning around them too.

[needmore]

Unless your pour a solid concrete bed or mortar the sides & bottom, there will still be escapees - but they are much easier to control. In your area I'd go for 16 inches deep minimum.

[Mark_NoVA]

You need to look at what species of bamboo you're planting, too. Some genera run deeper than others.

[ShmuBamboo]

You need to look at what species of bamboo you're planting, too. Some genera run deeper than others.

+1...

For example, Phy. nigras and Semiarundinarias tend to run deep rhizomes.

[needmore]

I would not bother to try and build a bed so deep that no rhizome can go under. If it does so, the shoots will be easy to cull. I'd build the bed to have enough soil to keep them winter protected, prune the rhizomes that find their way through the sides of the bed (they will), and snap off shoots from the deeper ones that made it under/out.

[jordanM]

I am planning on planting some bamboo on a 3 foot hill and putting the raised bed ontop of that hill to keep my different bamboos seperated. So i think i will make the raised bed about 1 1/2 to 2 feet.