Complete Guide to Growing Tall Bamboo Inside
Bamboo is one of those plants that are versatile all-round plants that can look stunning inside and out. Unfortunately indoor bamboo options are limited to small lucky bamboo sticks, or small pots of pygmy bamboo. But what if you want to grow tall bamboo indoors? Is it possible?
Yes – growing tall bamboo indoors is possible. However, there are particular growing techniques that you will need to apply to encourage vertical growth. For example, using
- a large-sized pot will encourage a bigger root system that will produce bigger bamboo shoots.
- Regular pruning also encourages stronger, taller growth.
- At a bare minimum, you will need to set your bamboo up for success with the optimal conditions, like lighting, humidity and air flow.
We’ll cover the optimal ambient and care conditions for your indoor bamboo in a bit. But before we do, let’s find out more about how to grow tall bamboo indoors.
How To Grow Tall Bamboo Indoors – The Facts
Growing bamboo indoors is achievable, but it isn’t like growing your typical indoor plant.
Bringing an outdoor plant, like bamboo, indoors requires certain adaptations to be made to accommodate for the lack of stability in resources an outdoor plant may have access to.
Start on the Right Foot – Use a Mature Bamboo
Usually, when bamboo grows outdoors, they have vast root systems that can stretch for meters around the main plant to support the tall bamboo shoots. When they are grown indoors, they only have a small planter container, meaning they are less likely to produce such tall shoots.
This means if you try to cultivate young bamboo into a tall plant, it is unlikely to achieve the same height that it would normally have outside.
The easiest way to overcome this height challenge is to transplant bamboo that has matured outdoors, into your home.
This way it will have an instant impact on your room with its skyscraper-like shoots, and you can be certain of achieving the height that you envisioned.
Give it Some Time Outdoors
If you do choose to relocate an outdoor bamboo plant inside, we suggest, now and then, giving it the occasional recreation time outside to reinvigorate it.
After all, you have moved a plant that is used to outdoor conditions, inside to a neutral setting.
Repot Your Indoor Bamboo Regularly
Bamboo plants tend to become root bound when they’re potted up too early in their life cycle. They may also experience nutrient deficiencies if they’re grown in poor soil conditions.
It’s important to water your bamboo regularly and make sure the roots aren’t getting too crowded. For this reason, we recommend you repot your bamboo at least once a year to avoid problems.
When you go to repot, it will also give you an opportunity to divide the root ball to propagate new plants and plant them into more pots.
What is the Best Tall Bamboo Variety to Grow Indoors?
There are so many varieties of bamboo available, sometimes it is hard to know which one is right for your circumstances.
For tall indoor bamboo we suggest the following varieties:
- Pseudosasa Japonica – also known as Arrow Bamboo. It is a fast-growing bamboo that can grow up to 4 meters in height, and is known to throw out runners in every direction. Since we are growing bamboo in containers, runners won’t be a problem. Arrow bamboo can grow in dense clumps, which is perfect for indoor growth, and they are suitable in pots. Arrow bamboo is also known to grow in low light conditions.
- Bambusa Multiplex – also known as Hedge Bamboo. This particular variety of bamboo is also know to grow well in pots, with thick foliage and a dense growth pattern. In the ground they can grow up to 10 feet in height, however don’t expect to achieve this indoors. They are extremely hardy and are particularly popular when growing a green screen in backyards – hence the name Hedge Bamboo.
Common varieties that grow indoors in containers include Pleioblastus viridistriatus, dwarf green stripe bamboo, and Pseudosasa japonica, or arrow bamboo. Dwarf green stripe bamboo grows to 4 feet tall but usually stays about 2 1/2 feet tall indoors. Arrow bamboo grows taller and does well in shade or full sun, and can thrive in shade better than most bamboo species.
Of course, all these tips for growing bamboo indoors would be a fruitless exercise without providing the bamboo with the ideal growing conditions. Which is exactly what we will explore in the next section.
Ideal Conditions for Growing Bamboo Indoors
Okay, let’s get into our tips for providing the best conditions for bamboo to thrive and grow tall inside.
Water
The one element that you need to get right with bamboo is water. As long as their water requirements are met, a bamboo can survive.
When you are growing bamboo indoors, it is even more important that you keep up your watering game. They are thirsty plants that require a good deal of moisture for their roots.
We recommend watering your plants in small but consistent amounts to saturate the root system. It is key to find the right balance with bamboo, because too much water will create a soggy soil, which can lead to rot. Note – this will also depend on the type of soil you use, but more on that later.
Lighting
In order to grow nice and tall, bamboo needs an abundance of light. They will thrive in positions that receive plenty of indirect sunlight. If your bamboo is kept well hydrated, periods of direct sunlight will benefit indoor bamboo, as it will speed up the photosynthesis process and provide more energy for growth.
Because we are indoors, the amount of light we can provide can be a bit restrictive. As the sun moves across the sky, the different aspects of the house will impact the type of sunlight available for the bamboo.
Your indoor bamboo should adapt well to an indoor environment. Don’t be surprised if your bamboo loses a bunch of leaves when you initial move it indoors. Your bamboo may be adjusting to the transition, and will produce leaves that are more adapted to the new conditions.
Soil
A good quality soil can mean the difference between a thriving tall bamboo versus a stunted and diseased bamboo plant.
Using the right soil can make a huge impact on the growth of your bamboo. The perfect bamboo soil would be one that is light and airy to allow oxygen to reach the roots. While also possessing good water retention properties that will hold moisture for the roots to draw down on when they need. It will also have excellent drainage, so any excess water is expelled via the drainage holes, to prevent rot.
We use a 3 part soil mixture:
- 1 part regular potting mix
- 1 part sphagnum moss
- 1 part perlite
The potting mix provides a rounded soil mixture with nutrients and organic materials. While the sphagnum moss delivers the important water retaining properties to the soil. Finally, perlite is a porous material that creates air pockets in the soil to allow the necessary air flow for the roots.
Humidity
In their natural environment, bamboo thrive in humid environments, which creates a plenitude of available moisture for the bamboo to grow.
Unfortunately, we don’t like to live in such humid conditions. Which is why we recommend compensating for the lack of humidity by regularly misting your bamboo.
Another popular solution to boost humidity levels around your indoor plant is to keep your bamboo on a humidity tray. You can check out the steps involved HERE.
Potting
As we mentioned earlier on, choosing the right correct pot-size is critical if you want to achieve a tall growth from your indoor bamboo.
Your container needs to have sufficient room for your bamboo’s roots to institute a strong and supportive root system. With such tall and thin growth above the ground, the root system needs to establish a wide enough base that has a strong grip on the surrounding soil.
More to the point, your tall bamboo plant will also become top-heavy. Without a heavy and wide pot as a base, even the slightest breeze may topple it over causing accidental breakages.
Fertilizer
To encourage strong and healthy growth, we suggest using a good all-round fertilizer once a month. With their rapid growth, it isn’t hard to imagine that bamboo are hungry plants, which therefore require regular feeding and plenty of water.
This is particularly relevant in their growing seasons, which are in the Spring and Summer months.
Pruning and Maintenance
Some resources do not recommend pruning bamboo. However, in our experience we have found regularly removing the older thin canes has promoted faster stronger growth of new shoots. These new shoots also tend to be thicker and taller, which is exactly what we hoped to achieve.
Closing Thoughts on How to Grow Tall Bamboo Indoors
Growing tall bamboo indoors is achievable, but is not without its challenges.
Trying to assimilate outdoor conditions inside your home is next to impossible. But with some careful planning and research into the growing requirements of your bamboo plants, you can achieve a healthy and tall indoor bamboo plant.
We suggest beginning by transplanting a matured bamboo plant inside. Make sure the potting conditions are correct with a large pot-size and the perfect soil. Regularly watering and feeding your bamboo will help it remain healthy. Finally, ensuring you repot your bamboo annually and give it some outdoors time, and it will be thriving indoors with little problems.
Show us some of your tall indoor bamboo plants for inspiration!