Lucky bamboo

By Tools for Gardeners

Planting lucky bamboo

Lucky bamboo is not bamboo but a small dracaena from West Africa, and it is one of the few houseplants that can live its whole life in water. For water culture, stand the stalks in a container with a layer of pebbles to anchor them, then fill with enough chlorine-free water to cover the roots and the lowest inch of stem. For soil culture, pot in a well-drained houseplant mix and keep it evenly moist; tall stalks may need staking until the roots take hold. Either way, plants can be potted any time of year. Outdoors it survives only in zones 10 to 12.

Planting details

• Water culture: cover the roots and the lowest inch of stem; change the water weekly
• Soil culture: well-drained mix, water when the top inch dries
• Pebbles anchor the stalks and keep a tall vase from tipping
• Chlorine-free or rain water avoids the tip burn dracaenas are prone to
• Propagate by rooting a side shoot in water; roots form in about 2 to 3 weeks

Growing requirements

Bright indirect light is ideal, an east or north window, though lucky bamboo survives dimmer spots at the cost of slower growth. Direct sun bleaches and browns the leaves within days. In water culture, refresh the water every week and feed with a quarter-strength liquid fertilizer every month or two. In soil, water when the top inch dries and feed monthly in spring and summer. Like its cousin the corn plant, it is sensitive to fluoride and salt buildup, so distilled or rain water keeps the leaf tips clean. Ordinary room temperatures and average indoor humidity are fine.

Harvesting and care

Stalks that outgrow their proportions can be cut back hard and resprout below the cut, and the removed tops root in water for new plants. Lower leaves that yellow with age pull off cleanly. Spider mites are the pest most likely to move in, especially in dry air; rinse or wipe the leaves regularly. A stalk that turns yellow or goes soft is rotting and should come out of the vase before it fouls the water for the rest.

Common mistakes

• Direct sun, which bleaches and browns the leaves within days
• Tap water heavy with chlorine or fluoride, which burns the leaf tips
• Letting vase water go stagnant; change it weekly to keep roots healthy
• Overfertilizing; quarter-strength feeding a few times a year is plenty
• Treating it as real bamboo; it is a tropical dracaena that cannot take frost or garden soil outside zones 10 to 12

Companion plants

Lucky bamboo groups well with other indirect-light, moisture-steady plants like its dracaena cousins, pothos, and peace lilies. A cluster of three or five stalks in one tall vase reads better than a single stem, and mixed heights look more natural than matched ones. Keep it out of pet range, since dracaenas are toxic to cats and dogs.

Varieties worth growing

• Straight stalks: the standard form; grows upright on its own
• Spiral or curly stalks: the same plant trained to curl as it grew toward a moving light
• Braided or tower forms: several stalks woven together by the grower
• Real bamboo for the garden: choose clumping types like Fargesia; running bamboos invade beds without a root barrier

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Clemson Cooperative Extension HGIC: Lucky Bamboo
• NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Dracaena sanderiana