Bamboo

[andygates]

Would it be daft to try to grow big, 1"-2" bamboo poles in my garden?

I like the idea of growing my own trailer. 

[Si]

Dunno, but if you think that slugs are bad just wait until you get an infestation of pandas!

[clarion]

You need to keep bamboo well contained - it ramps like crazy!

[andygates]

Ramps?

And where can I get hold of a variety that makes six foot 40mm poles? 

[clarion]

Ramps = spreads to take over your garden very quickly.

I had a friend tried to grow his own kite bamboo, but he couldn't get a variety that grew fast enough - the distance between nodes was too short

The diameter wasn't too bad, though...

[Jon P]

There might be a thread on this at Allotment Growing: Vegetable, Fruit and Herb Gardening on an Allotment, IIRC there are 2 types, ramping and self-contained.

[andygates]

Thanks, mostly "aiee! it's spreading! " tales there...

[Gandalf]

I have had several varieties of Bamboo for the past 14 years, including Phylostachys Nigra, Phylostachys Aurea, Pseudosasa Japonica and an Arundaria I can't remember the name of.

None of this lot get out of their pram, well, not too much.  I usually have and annual cutback to stop it going silly. 

Probably the worst one is the Pseudosasa Japonica because it tends to pop up in a different location.  Good for getting extra plants to use in another part of the garden or give away though.

You'd have a long wait to get the sort of diameter you are talking about though, unles you wemt for something nutty like Phyllostachys pubescens Gramineae, which is about the fastest growing Bamboo that you can get away with in the UK.

[Ian H]

There's some of the kind you want in a friend's garden in Brittany. It makes sturdy ten foot poles quite quickly. However, it also colonises the adjacent lawn — lie down to sunbathe and it could spear you, Chinese torture style, by the time you awake.