Is it bad to plant bamboo by windmill palm tree?

[maskedmole]

I've had a phylostachys vivax Chinese Timber Bamboo planted behind my house for a few years. I thought the south side of my house would provide a nice shield from northern winds in my 6b/7a climate. Recently I planted a windmill palm tree and I want to plant several more cold hardy palms in this area. My question is will the bamboo basically suck up all the water and nutrients and kill any palm trees around it? It is a runner bamboo. I am barely within it's growing zone and so far it hasn't been much of a runner only putting out 1 or 2 culms per year and also it's shaded. We get ample rainfall like 56 inches per year but recent years we have gotten more like 80 inches. Also it is a forest behind my house.

[BeyondTheGarden]

I'll let you know in a year or two. 

[Allen]

Running bamboo will probably hurt or possibly kill a palm as the bamboo roots are so aggressive and the palms roots are very fragile.  Once the bamboo invades the root area of the palm you won't be able to remove it.

[ZPalms]

If your up for the task you could put in a deep barrier to control running bamboo or design a planter big enough to hold them. A barrier would be safest bet though so they don't go nuts and your palm won't have to deal with it's roots down the road 

[maskedmole]

30 minutes ago, Allen said:

Running bamboo will probably hurt or possibly kill a palm as the bamboo roots are so aggressive and the palms roots are very fragile.  Once the bamboo invades the root area of the palm you won't be able to remove it.

Thanks. Do you think clumping bamboo would be a good replacement or will it harm palm trees also?

[Chester B]

I have Fargesia growing up against palms with no issue in 3 different areas. Both seem to thrive but Fargesias are very manageable bamboos. 

[maskedmole]

1 minute ago, Chester B said:

I have Fargesia growing up against palms with no issue in 3 different areas. Both seem to thrive but Fargesias are very manageable bamboos. 

Fargesia is a clumping bamboo I think. So it seems clumping bamboo would be okay around palms? I was thinking about replacing this bamboo with the clumping kind.

[maskedmole]

22 minutes ago, ZPalms said:

If your up for the task you could put in a deep barrier to control running bamboo or design a planter big enough to hold them. A barrier would be safest bet though so they don't go nuts and your palm won't have to deal with it's roots down the road 

Sadly the rhizomes are already right around the palm tree so I would have to move it first before I did the barrier or cut the rhizomes. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to plant right beside the house anyway. Maybe I might transplant the bamboo deep in the woods on the other side of my creek and that will act as a natural barrier. 

[Chester B]

16 minutes ago, maskedmole said:

Fargesia is a clumping bamboo I think. So it seems clumping bamboo would be okay around palms? I was thinking about replacing this bamboo with the clumping kind.

Yes clumping. Fargesia rufa which is also a smaller bamboo. Mine are less than 7’ at the moment. 

[Allen]

Clumping bamboo don't deal with southern TN heat as I remember.  A guy a few miles from me has 150 varieties but no clumpers.  

[floridaPalmMan]

13 hours ago, ZPalms said:

If your up for the task you could put in a deep barrier to control running bamboo or design a planter big enough to hold them. A barrier would be safest bet though so they don't go nuts and your palm won't have to deal with it's roots down the road 

@maskedmole This should be done anyway to make sure it doesn't grow into those stones in your back yard and under your house foundation.

Bamboo is a nightmare if you don't have barriers for control. Trust me, I bought a house with over 8+ clumps that are all over a decade old. I can't control this stuff. It feels like every couple weeks I'm cutting back bamboo to keep it from growing through the screen of my pool house or through the roof of my car port.

As far as growing it next to a palm, I have two palms that were already here when I purchased the property.

One (washingtonia) is not doing very well, but it appears there was some bacterial infection in the trunk at some point so I can't definitively say whether or not it's the bamboo disrupting the health. It's recovered pretty well in the last year and is putting out new growth regularly as of this summer.

 

This sabal palmetto is doing just fine and it's right next to the large clump of bamboo. The fronds do however stretch as far as they can to get sunlight since the bamboo covers much of the palm. I've got to constantly cut it back to allow sunlight in for the palm. I do use fertilizer stakes and palmgain for both palms to make sure they have nutrients rather than allow the bamboo to suck it all up.

 

Of course this is all clumping bamboo, not sure what effect running bamboo will have near your palms.

Edited September 27, 2021 by floridaPalmMan

[Scott W]

@maskedmole yeah, planting them next to each other will most likely cause problems for the palm.  However, they may find a symbiotic relationship and it'll continue not survive, but I'm not sure the palm will reach it's true potential.  As I mentioned in your other post, when my brother and I wandered through the bamboo on his old property we found numerous palms in pots still growing withing the grove, but they were not that big, especially considering some where over the years old.

@floridaPalmMan do you know what bamboo you have?  I ask simply because I have ten clumping varieties in my yard and I typically only do one maintenance cut back per year.  Most clumpers have just one shoot season, though a few occasionally put up a second round later in the year.

[floridaPalmMan]

@Scott W My yellow-green stripe bamboo only has shoots once per season. It's a much larger bamboo (not sure if that makes a difference) but the thinner, solid green bamboo (still have no idea what kind it is) constantly grows from May to Nov. It's always putting out new shoots and I'm losing my mind!

[Scott W]

1 minute ago, floridaPalmMan said:

@Scott W My yellow-green stripe bamboo only has shoots once per season. It's a much larger bamboo (not sure if that makes a difference) but the thinner, solid green bamboo (still have no idea what kind it is) constantly grows from May to Nov. It's always putting out new shoots and I'm losing my mind!

The thinner green one might be a multiplex variety, of which I don't have any anymore in my collection.  Most are hard to identify just from the culm alone mostly because of similar coloring, but are better identified by the shoot tips when the new culm is growing.  

When you cut it back, are you cutting the culms off at ground level or digging up the rhizomes associated with each culm as well?  When I do my maintenance I take full divisions, digging up the culm and associated rhizome, then potting them up and selling them once stabilized.  If you're not digging the rhizome mass up this is what's allowing it to continually grow outward even though you think you cut it back...

[PalmatierMeg]

When my son lived in Rockville, MD, the block where he bought his house was infested with running bamboo - species? who knows? MD winters didn't faze it nor did hot, humid Mid-Atlantic summers. It was 40-50' tall and had invaded every back yard and a ravine/creek that ran between yards. That stuff was a terrifying, impenetrable nightmare that encroached on the entire neighborhood. No other plant life existed inside that mess of stems that I could see. If unleashed in FL it could take over the entire state. Any palm in its path would be a goner. I've got a patch of dwarf buddha belly bamboo in a corner of the Garden Lot and made sure it was a clumper before I bought it. I'm not sure running bamboo is even sold in FL But if I still lived "up north" I wouldn't allow running bamboo within a 1/2 mile of me.

[Manalto]

I second what Meg said. Running bamboo can be controlled but it's a catch-22. You have to quit your job in order to have time to work on it but then you wouldn't have money to hire somebody for the help you would definitely need.

Edited September 27, 2021 by Manalto

[Fallen Munk]

Doing that is just asking for trouble.  Earlier this season I planted an expensive hybrid palm in a raised planter somewhat near some bamboo that is typically clumping.  Because the palm got regularly watered, the rhizomes migrated to the raised planter and invaded the root system of my palm.  Last week I had to dig it up and relocate it.  When I did so, the roots were so intertwined that there was no way to untangle them without damaging the palm's root system.  I got it done, but the palm is now sulking.  I think it will pull through, but I've probably set it back a season's worth of growth.  Very depressing, because it was doing very well until that happened. 

[Hutch]

I have had zero problems with palm in bamboo...

[Hutch]

Here is another palm smothered in large leaf bamboo...sasa palmate I think...