Bamboo Growth Chart
Bamboo's growth speed has to be seen to be believed. We photographed a single Moso shoot — the largest temperate bamboo on earth — pushing out of the ground and rocketing into a giant cane in just over three weeks. Here it is, day by day.
Phyllostachys edulis ‘Moso’ puts on this show every spring. In China it's the most-used bamboo of all — food, paper, plywood, furniture, flooring — and because it replenishes itself so fast, it's a remarkable green resource. The grove pictured here was 14 years old when we shot it; larger, older groves tend to shoot later, since the ground takes longer to warm. We keep giant bamboo in stock and ship year-round.
Single cane: one shoot, one month
Moso is the first timber bamboo to shoot each year in Zone 7 — usually late March or early April. We followed one new shoot for a month. (As with all temperate bamboo, some shoots naturally abort; about 20% is normal.) The ruler is marked in 12-inch intervals for the first six feet, then one-foot intervals above that. Once a shoot clears about three feet, it starts gaining several feet per day.
Day 5
Day 9
Day 12
Day 15
Day 16
Day 23
Read more about how bamboo grows →
Double cane example
This grove was started in 1992 and planted out over the next three years with large 5- to 10-gallon field-dug divisions. Bamboo is a supreme provider — and the Americas actually host more bamboo species than China and Japan, part of the 1,400+ varieties loved worldwide. Here are two shoots over the same window:
Day 5
Day 9
Day 12
Day 15
Day 16
Day 23