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Days to maturity
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Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-323
Bamboo Shoots
Bambusa vulgaris
Common bamboo is a towering clumping grass that can reach roughly 65 feet, grown for its young shoots - cooked and eaten with rice - and for a strong, sustainable timber used in construction, furniture, fencing and tool handles. Its leaves also make good livestock browse, especially for goats and cattle. It needs steady tropical warmth, heavy year-round rainfall and acidic soil to thrive, and a hard freeze kills the visible stems outright, regrowing from the rhizome only if the frost was mild.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–12
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- 4.5–6.5
- Plant type
- Grass
- Mature height
- 65 ft
- Mature spread
- 32 ft
- Plant spacing
- 3–5 ft
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Root
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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