Comments on: How to Prune Medium-Timber Bamboo

By: philinshelton

philinshelton — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:18:56 +0000

It sounds like you have one of the “big clumpers”. Since it is too cold for us to grow those here, I don’t have much experience with them, but the pruning should be much the same. I would take extra care, however, not to remove too many canes at once. The rule of thumb is to remove no more than on third of the canes per year, so start by removing the dead and dying canes and see how your plant reacts.

By: Constance Thayer

Constance Thayer — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:10:28 +0000

Hi there: Any difference in pruning a very tall timber bamboo that is about 30 feet high? We are planning to prune next week and was told remove “second and third” year growth. Considering that our bamboo has only been pruned around the perimeter, this will be the first time going into the interior of the clump. Any ideas or guidance? (We live in Santa Barbara,CA).

By: philinshelton

philinshelton — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:13:00 +0000

One of my bamboo friends told me that he takes a big hammer and smashes them down. I haven’t tried that though, I just live with the stubs

By: Pete Bray

Pete Bray — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:41:38 +0000

How to remove the stubs that are left over after pruning? Pruning to the ground is great, but there is still a potentially dangerous very hard stub left just under the soil.