How far north ,in the US, does bamboo grow naturally?
I’m looking to make a couple of long fishing poles.
I don’t know about the distribution of bamboo, but rather long bamboo poles can be purchased very cheaply (just a few dollars) from most of the big fishing retailers. Unless it’s just a project you have your heart set on (and which would be very cool) it may not prove to be worth your time and money to grow, cure, and lacquer your own poles.
There are some cold hardy bamboos that will survive down to zero degrees, which would be Zone 6.
Hey, some of us don’t get out much, so lacquering our own poles is pretty much our only choice.
Oddly enough I have a bamboo fact sheet right here (my uncle grows it, here in NE Ohio. No idea what variety)
The sheet lists these varieties as “hardy clumpers (10-15 feet tall)”:
Fargesia Nitida (to -20 degrees F)
Fargesia Muriale (to -20 degrees F)
Fargesia Dracocephala (to -10 degrees F)
Chusquea (to 0 degrees F)
Fargesia Rufa (just says zones 7-10)
The sheet is, I think, from a catalog from www.raintreenursery.com
Let me warn you that while bamboo will grow up north here, you MUST take precautions to be sure it doesn’t spread too far. You need to use an underground barrier (google bamboo barrier) if you are planting, say, next to a neighbor’s fence. It will spread and your neighbors will want to kill you (cite: my uncle’s neighbors)
Bamboo grows like a MF in Oregon. I wonder why it isn’t planted and used to make paper and other products instead of trees.
BTW, making a quality bamboo fishing rod is very involved. You need to split it into long “staves” and glue it back together.
If you’re going to grow bamboo (also used to make fences, trellises etc.), make sure you know whether the variety you have is a “clumper” (as noted in the list above) or a spreader. The latter can be a real plague, though some people take care of the less aggressive kinds by mowing whatever grows out of bounds.
And, indeed, everwhere that it grows. You know those segments that bamboo gets? Each of those is one day’s growth. I’m told that, on a quiet day, you can actually hear it growing.
Even if you don’t get out much, you can always invite others to a pole-lacquering party.
“What if they threw a pole-lacquering party and nobody came?”
Seriously – think twice about planting bamboo, it’s seriously invasive.
I’m serious.
I’ll second that opinion. A couple years ago I planed on starting a bamboo hedge in my back yard the problem was I didn’t dig deep enough for the rhizome guard. The next year my neighbor had more bamboo in his yard then in mine, which took alot of digging to fix.
Did you know if you want to remove a broken light bulb from its socket with a potato, you seriously need a piece of bamboo? 
They make floors out of it now.
And there’s such a thing as bamboo that’s noninvasive, you just have to be careful what you plant.
According to a Washington Post article in it’s Sunday Magazine section a couple of years ago, some species of bamboo can grow 4 feet in a single day. The article was both hilarious and terrifying as the writer expounds at length about the numerous failed methods to eliminate bamboo in the yard of his new house.
Message gleaned: don’t go there. Seriously, don’t go there.
Unless you wanna fuck over a neighbor. Then, plant spreading bamboo right at the boarder of your house and his right before you move.
BTW, I know what you’re thinking: just cut the shit down if you don’t want it.
Yeah? What’s gonna cut it? Go to Home Depot and ask the gardening expert, “what’s the best thing to cut down bamboo?” He’ll just laugh. Fun fact: in some Asian countries, they use bamboo to reinforce concrete like we use steel in this country. Just something to keep in mind.
Thanks for the replys guys.
Naw I ain’t gonna plant it.
I just found a pretty good looking fishing place and I’m trying to figure a good way to fish it.
Its a slough off the Iowa river about 10 miles from its mouth in the mississippi.
Anyway there is no way to put my boat in that slough so i was thinking of fishing brush piles near shore with a long fishing pole.
I don’t remember where zone 6 is and the gardening catalogs aren’t due for 3 weeks .
I’m really looking for where it grows wild so I can just go cut some.
I bought two “golden bamboo” plants last summer. We’ll just be seeing how they survive in the (unusual) snow…
They are in containers. I’ve been told to keep them in containers, or else.
Here in South Korea, you can see scaffolding on buildings under construction. Those scaffoldings are made of one of the following:
[ol][li]Bamboo[/li][li]Bamboo and steel[/li][li]Steel[/ol][/li]I see mostly the first type, followed by a more than incidental number of the second. I almost never see the third type.
Speaking of Bamboo. Go to this page of Twisted Tunes and select “Cane 'Em Good.”
I’m outside Boston ( lat. 42 degrees N), and I can confirm that bamboo flourishes here. I planted two plants 5 years ago, and my backyard is full of it. If it is a very cold, dry winter, you plants migh lose leaves-otherwise, mine survives winter just fine.