That sounds like a good experiment! If it were me I wouldn't do it to my best specimen -- I'd try it on a smaller pot placed in the same location and see what happens. I'd be surprised if it worked though, but I'm no expert.

It will definitely get filled up with rhizomes, but I wonder 1) how long that will take, and 2) will the result really be any different than rhizome pruning? (When you rhizome prune you're probably cutting off the freshest rhizomes, leaving the center full of the older ones.) You should probably use...

I bet you don't miss dragging huge pots into the house each winter then back out each spring either!

Without big-leaved plants, bamboo doesn't have the same impact IMO.

We and Bamboos are doing fine -- been thinking about reviving INWIG too, maybe with weekly posts? I think it would be nice to document the changes in the garden over the last few years... Back on topic, this year we've had a super wet fall and winter, and it was quite mild up until the last couple o...

I remember Brad ("Needmore") posting years ago that he thought that culms stored a significant amount of energy for shoots, and IIRC he thinned some groves a little too much and saw the same sort of thing? (Maybe I'm misremembering...) I think a good rule to follow is to not remove any cul...

The height thing is always a tough one as it's so dependent on specific conditions, so I'll just point out that I've seen some nice pruned bamboo screens if that's an option for you to keep it at a specific height. Pruning would also keep them much more upright I think. I will also add that 360-degr...

Maybe this has been discussed before, but I've now got some pretty good data about this, so thought I'd post again. If you live where it gets pretty cold even for a short time, your bamboos will really suffer if they are drought-stressed! For the last two years, here in St. Louis we've had pretty dr...

The "problem" is Facebook -- that's where most of the bamboo discussion is these days I'm sure. Not to hijack the thread, but we have mostly mild winters these years, but with possible (probable?) brutal cold snaps. Like last year -- we had at least 2-3 days in a row with lows in the negat...

I don't grow humilis, but those nodes do not look like the top photo in the link you posted.

Very helpful! Here in the midwest we got more of that arctic blast than you did out east -- I've got very few green leaves left on any Phyllostachys, although most are leafing back out. I suspect dulcis is KTG (killed to ground, or "top killed"), and it looks like arcana was too, and rubro...

How long will the tiny bunches of leaves that form beneath the mower level stay alive? It seems that when I remove a shoot that's in the lawn, that little tuft keeps growing forever. Or is that only because the main grove is still feeding it?

I don't have experience with a grove of this scale and age, but I have one main question: how likely is it that every single rhizome will be removed, especially the ones far from the grove? Maybe that's not a concern, especially since they'll be removing the great majority of them, but still... It s...

Don't assume it's dead yet -- there have been years when every leaf has gone brown (like this year), but then the culms leaf out again in the spring. One it starts warming up a bit (March maybe) take a look at the branches to see if leaf buds are expanding. If so, don't cut it down as it's not dead!

Just let those create whatever little branches or shoots or leaves that they want to -- it's a good thing and shows that the plant is alive! (And wanting to store energy so it can start getting bigger again)

I'm about to undertake a digup-and-move of my Ph. nigra -- which I know other people have said is starting to flower. I had a nice little grove of this some years back, but it topkilled during a harsh winter so I removed it, and replaced with Ph. heteroclada. As you may know heteroclada takes a looo...