LUCKY BAMBOO FAQ

Lucky Bamboo is in the Bamboo family of plants but is not bamboo. It's botanically name is Dracaena Sanderana and is part of the lily family. Bamboo is a fast growing plant. Lucky Bamboo will tend to grow slowly and can be managed to stay compact. It's normal habitat is the floor of an Asian forest and it is used to getting very little light but likes it's feet wet.

Lucky Bamboo likes very little light. Growing it in direct sunlight will spur unwanted growth which will result in a tall plant with little bottom foilage as the plant will put more energy into the new growth and the old will wilt and fall off. A room in your house with one window is fine not directly in the window especially if it faces the sun. The plant does very well in an office or dorm room environment where the main light source is florescent lighting. Keep the plant away from a furnace register or heat source as it will evaporate the water more rapidly. Also do not place it on your TV or stereo equipment as they generate heat and you wouldn't want to accidently spill the water into your equipment.

Lucky Bamboo do not need anything except water in most instances. No fertilizer is needed and will actually hurt the plant if it is too strong. What type of water determines the health of your plant. Never use distilled water. There are no nutrients in it and the plant will eventually die from malnutrition. Tap water is fine, rain water is best but not everyone is willing to collect it. Well water is fine but you will need to replace the water more often because of the excess amount of hard metals. City water also contains things like flouride that collect on the roots. Replacing the water is vital to a healthy plant.

To water (feed) your plant, put the entire pot into your sink and turn the water on to a trickle. Anything more powerful will wash out the stone in the plant. Let the trickle of water run into the pot for several minutes once every two weeks, one week if you are using well water or have a smaller volume pot. The reason for doing this is to replace the water in the pot with fresh water which will remove most of the calcium, salts and other heavy metals that tend to accumulate on the plant's roots and choke it. If you are just adding water to the pot to replace what has been used by the plant and eveporated, you are allowing the metals and salts to build up to a point where the roots will not get to the water and the plant will starve. This will also make the plant produce more roots to compensate for the existing roots that are clogged. A large rootball means less water and again a starving plant. This type of feeding is essentially hydroponics, meaning the plant needs no soil for nutrients as it gets everything it needs from the water. The stone is just there to give the plant something to grab into.

Feeding can vary depending on the size of the container and the number of plants on the container. A small container with one plant normally only needs watering once a week or two if you need to leave it for a trip. The same size container with two or three plants will need feeding once a week or more. A larger grouping of 5, 7 or more plants will need vigilint watering, meaning at least once a week. Tiered plantgs, which actually contain sometimes 20-50 plants, need an appropriate size container so that it has enought water for at least a week or you will be watering every few days.

Some experts insist that a fertilizer be added to the feeding schedule but for most instances, the plant gets enough nutrients from normally tap or well water. If you do want to use a fertilizer, a very week solution of one part fertilizer to 10 parts water is all that is recommended. A common fertilizer would be anything you would give any other houseplant but diluted as previously described.

• Yellowing leaves
  

  Yellow leaves can mean many things. It could mean the plant is starving from too little water of the roots are clogged with metals and salts or that it is receiving too much direct sunlight. See above for feeding instructions. Once the leaves have started turning yellow, it's hard to keep the rest of them from following and the plant dying. Good feeding practices are essential to a healthy plant. If the plant is in direct sunlight (see above for plant placement), it may cause exponential top growth. The plant cannot sustain the bottom leaves and they will yellow and fall off. If your plant is too tall with no bottom leaves, it is getting too much light. There is nothing you can do to reverse this except to buy a younger plant and learn from your mistakes.

• Browning leaves
  

  If the ends of the outer leaves are turning brown or perhaps falling off, this is not a sign of an unhealthy plant if the middle of the plant is still green and healthy. As the plant grows and is putting energy into the new growth, the outer leaves get less nutrients and tend to turn brown and fall off eventually creating a papering effect on the stem. This is a natural cycle and the plant will continue to slough off the outer leaves as it grows taller. You can control this by pinching off the new growth that always comes from the very middle of the group of leaves (See the section below on too tall plants.) This tricks the plant into thinking it has been damaged and it goes into survival mode putting more energy into the outer leaves. This would need to be repeated as often as necessary as new growth continues but eventually the outer leaves will die and fall off. If all the leaves including the new growth is turning brown and drying up and falling off, congratulations, you have killed your plant!

• Shrinking or veining stalks.
  

  If the stalk seems to be anorexic, that is shrinking causing what looks to be vertical erosion lines, the plant has been getting too little water. Either you are not feeding it often enough or the roots are clogged and it is not able to pull enough nutrients from the water. This is often a fatal condition.

• Plant growing too tall.
  

  Too much light will cause the plant to produce new growth. Some new growth is natural but if it getting too much and the botton leaves are turning yellow, move the plant. You can train your plant to stay compact by pinching off the young new leaves as they are produced. Pinch it off as close to the stalk as possible.

People see the fancy curls or wavy one and think that Lucky Bamboo can grow that way or that they can train theirs to do the same thing. Lucky Bamboo actually grows straight and does not grow curly or wavy at all. Farmers have to lay them on a huge long slanted table in the hot house, cover 3 sides in the dark, one side has bright light and let them grow naturally toward the light, and manually rotate them periodically; more work, more curl. It takes an average of 1 to 1.5 years to make one curl (360 deg).

Yes, you can do this yourself and make it curl like the farmers do when the stalk is fresh and young. The stalk is not going to grow longer but it can turn when it feels the light coming from only one side for certain length of time. Normally plants that you purchase in an arrangement are an older plant and will be less likely to curve. Either way the process is intensive and not worth the time and effort involved but if your interested, go for it!

No. All the stalks receive special treatment when they have reached the shape and length needed. They are cut when cultivated and treated, sometimes sealed with wax and will never get taller. They are treated with growth hormone which promotes leaves to sprout from the joints. If a joint is below water, instead of leaves it will grow roots.

The leaves will get tall if left unattended but avergae growth is about 3-6 inches per year. If you wish to maintain your plant at a specific height, new leaves, which always sprout from the center of the leaf group, can be pinched off or cut with a small pair of scissors which will keep the growth limited to that height. The plant will eventually send out new leaves which this process can then be repeated. A healthy plant will continue to produce new leaves throught it's life cycle.

You can get any length of bamboo stalk and clean cut the bottom to the preferred length, as it will root again in about 2 months in warm weather. You can also clean cut the Lucky Bamboo stalks from the top; usually the top 2 or 3 joints will sprout again in 3 months in the summer.

Unless you live in a tropical rain forest-no. It does not respond will to temperatures below 60 degrees F., must be kept very moist at all times and cannot tolerate direct sun. Keep Lucky Bamboo inside where it will thrive and enhance your living or working environment.

Normally the plant is fed once a week and in some instances can go two weeks without being fed. If the plant is in a room with limited light, and normally gets it's light from lamps or overhead lights, be sure to put one near the plant on a timer so it gets a daily amount of light, at least 7 to 8 hours worth. If you are going away for a longer period of time, a way of insuring the plant gets enough water would be to immerse the entire plant in a larger container like a bowl or dish tub. You can immerse the plant up to the leaf growth but not covering it. It needs air and that comes from the leaves. As long as you do not have any dirt in the container, you will not harm anything. Remove any ornaments or cloth ties around the plant that would get wet. This method will alow you to go away for a month or two depending on the size of the tub you immerse the plant in. Remember that water evaporates on it's own, especially in the winter when the heater is on so use good judgement before leaving your plant for any extended period of time.

Indefinitely! Just keep your bamboo well watered using the method described above. Also, keep your bamboo away from direct heat and sunlight. A very weak fertilizer (1 part fertilizer to 10 parts water) can be used periodically if the plant is showing any signs of stress due to flouride contamination or other water problems.