[chickpeacurry]

Looking to get some bamboo plants. I noticed you can buy seeds has anyone grown the seeds successfully. If so what seeds did you use.  I have 2 established plants and I am looking to feed them is tomato feed ok. Thanks

[New shoot]

I have never tried growing bamboo from seed, but if you want a few plants, you could buy one decent sized one and split it.  It would work out cheaper that way and is easy to do.  I used to work at a plant nursery where we did this quite regularly.

The rootballs on the larger clump-forming ones has a hard woody lump in the centre and this is the food reserve of the plant.  Buy a cheap woodsaw and saw through into pieces, so every part has a chunk of the woody lump at its base.  Re-pot the sections into a decent soil based compost like John Innes no.2 and they should all take with no problem.   The smaller spreading ones are usually fairly easy to split, just like a herbaceous plant, with a well aimed strike of the spade.

Sometimes they do go into shock and drop all their leaves.  Don't panic - just keep them watered and in a sheltered place out of the wind as far as possible and they will almost always re-shoot. 

Is the bamboo you want to feed in the ground or in a pot?  If in the ground, I wouldn't bother to feed at all.  They can get tatty over winter but perk up in the spring.  If they are potted, tomato feed is OK, but to get a good show of new leaves, a higher nitrogen feed is better.  I used to chuck pelleted chicken manure onto the tops of the pots in the nursery, but Miracle-Gro would do just as well 

[chickpeacurry]

Thanks I will give it a go.