I was given a bamboo stalk plant and can't find it in my book "the house plant expert" nor on the computer, but want to keep it alive as it was given to me by my hubby as my birthday present today. Here is the plant.....
This plant is not bamboo in spite of its common name of Lucky Bamboo. Try looking for information using the botanical name Dracaena sanderiana.
I have a Lucky Bamboo given to me 5 years ago. It is still in the same vase I received it in and is now about 3 fee tall and growing new shoots from near the roots. I am in zone 5 so in winter I keep in a south window. In summer I find it likes shade. It doesn't like alot of wind either. I have never fertilized or changed the water. I just keep the water level just over the roots and do nothing else. I find it is slow growing and has a tendency to brown on the leaf tips. I haven't figured out what I am doing to cause that except the wind and too much sun in summer.
You might want to set your tap water aside overnight before watering. That allows chlorine (and chloramines?) to offgas. If you have a freshwater aquarium you can use the water from that, or the water you pretreat for the aquarium instead. Or buy distilled water. This would probably lessen the browned tips. Used aquarium water would have a very dilute fertilizer from the fish wastes. Almost any other fertilizer can be too much for such a confined plant but if you think of it as hydroponics, you'll know it really needs more than just water to grow for years. If you want the base shoots to grow, that's fine, but you could also cut them off. Or let them grow and cut them off when they get old enough to grow on their own. You've done very well to keep it alive and thriving this far.
I have well water so I don't think there is any chlorine in it unless this occurs naturally some how. How will I know when the shoots are large enough to grow on their own? When they are big enough how do I get them to root? I don't know a thing about hydroponics but I have an out door fish pond that is all natural, no chemicals or fertilizers. Would the water from that have too much ammonia from the gold fish? I am almost afraid to do anything to is as it has done so well on its own basically. I have been told several times that it is amazing it is alive after these years.
If your side shoots have a couple of full sized leaves compared to the main, and maybe have shed one or two tiny leaves from their very bottoms, you'll see a couple of nodes or lumps or bumps where new roots or new shoots would start. That's one indicator that they might be okay for separating from the original plant. Just like the parent plant, place in water, propped up with clean gravel or stones. Let it root undisturbed for several weeks. (If you peeked, you might see the bumps swelling and new roots starting out in just a few days. But you could damage them, too.) If they are still less than a pinky finger in length, they are probably a bit small for optimum survival rates. I'd say the pond water would be good. You might want to filter it through a coffee filter or cheesecloth before bringing it inside because of insect larvae and nymphs. I'd imagine you have plants in that pond, so the excess ammonia would have been converted and used by the biomass. You're right: the well water won't have any chlorine in it.
The shoots are still pretty small, less than a pinky, so will wait till spring to try to start them. Thanks for the info. I would have never thought of filtering the water and it does have dragon fly nymphs in it. They hatch out every spring. If they are in there I imagine there are more I don't know about.
