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I’ve seen an ad for clumping black bamboo for sale on the Facebook market place. It’s been chopped back so is just the root clumps with sawn off stalks. The seller doesn’t know what type it is, and neither do I. I believe the clumping types that are sold here in Australia are Java and Timor. Both of them are more suitable for the warmer climate in northern Australia. I’m down south.
My question to you experts is will a clump with the stalks cut back still grow? I don’t want to buy a lump if dying bamboo.

If only they would have left the first branch on some of those culms...if it was a bargain, I'd buy it but not if the price approaches that of a potted one with foliage. It probably will be fine but the seller discounted the product a little I think. Looks more like TImor than Java.

needmore wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 3:49 pm If only they would have left the first branch on some of those culms...if it was a bargain, I'd buy it but not if the price approaches that of a potted one with foliage. It probably will be fine but the seller discounted the product a little I think. Looks more like TImor than Java.

He’s asking $50 Australian per clump. It’s very cheap IF the bamboo doesn’t die.

The worst case of course is it dying, but I would expect that it would live but maybe have lower vigor and produce wimpy shoots at first which might translate into an extra year of growth needed to be the size that a more costly one would become in less time? Hope that makes sense?

I am WAY more experienced with running bamboo than clumping, and if this were running bamboo I would expect it to live but only produce 'survival' shoots due to less energy in the division and that would mean the extra year thing. Clumnpers? Maybe the same?

I once did a mistake and shaved off Fargesia's above ground growth completely. What I got was 20cm tall tiny shoots in place of 2m tall bamboo. It never properly recovered, its divisions are now much more vigorous.
By topping it completely, it loses a lot of vigor. With division it recovers after a year or so, on an established clump though, whole plant suffers and even the existing rhizomes take the blow so the recovery is really sluggish. The center of the clump is hit the most.

If it is cheap, go for it, it will recover. If the price is similar, I would get a division with at least some of the leaves remaining.

Unfortunately when I contacted the seller again it had all been sold.