Find Your Ask The Expert: I am considering selling Lucky Bamboo Plants thru my decorating business. It seems they are easy to take care of however recently I received a quite lare plant with at least 25 stems in it but they were in soil. I have not been able to find any information about growing them in soil or how to transition them over to water. I was wondering if you have any information that could help me with this. Thank you Chris
Reply:
Although Lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana) is often grown hydroponically, it is actually a soil plant. Most dracaenas prefer to live in soil, so it will be very happy in the soil. However if you are selling lucky bamboo to fill a customers needs for hydroponically grown lucky bamboo then you must acclimate it to water.
This can be done. It is easier to transition soil grown lucky bamboo to water than the other way around. Begin by gently removing the lucky bamboo from the soil. You will need to wash all the soil particles off of the lucky bamboo stalks. Once you have done this prepare your container. You need a clean chemical free container. If you are selling the stems individually, don’t both with pebbles or rocks in the bottom of the container. Find a container that will support the lucky bamboo stalks without tipping over with only about two to three inches of water. If you need extra weight in the bottom of the vase add the pebbles or rocks but make sure the stems can easily be removed as you sell them. Place distilled water in the container or use tap water that has been exposed to air for at least 24 hours. Draceana sanderiana (lucky bamboo) is sensitive to fluoride and chlorine which as often found in tap water. Place your lucky bamboo in bright indirect light and do not fertilize.
I would not transfer all of the stalks at once. I would test trial about 3 or 4 for a couple of weeks to see how the transition goes. Remember lucky bamboo grown in soil likes a moist but not soggy condition. So make sure that the lucky bamboo potted in soil drains well.
Good luck and please keep me posted.
Thank you. A few weeks after placing my Bamboo in soil it grew dramatically like it was asking me what I was waiting for…
I have a lucky bamboo plant that has always been in a fairly narrow vase about 10 inch tall – in water that has a small amount of dirt at the bottom. I fill the vase to almost the top with tap water that I keep in a small bottle. When the water level it drops fairly low I top it off. From what I’ve read it shouldn’t be doing well at all. But my plant is 10-12 years old! I t was huge but a few years ago I made the mistake of trying to move it – using the same water – into a very large vase (spur of moment decision) and I just about killed it. I manages to rescue one thick stem and one more like a cutting. Both have lots of roots but the “cutting” is growing slowly and poorly. although there is a biy of new green sprouting from between other two leaves. The other – a roughly 12 inch long thick stem – has a single roughly 10 inch long leafless “branch” that is about 3 inches from the top. It arches way to the left due to it’s weight as it’s topped by a “bloom” of about 10 healthy looking leaves about 4 -5 inches long. However about 3 inches from the bottom is a healthy looking bloom of tall new growth ( 4-5 leaves 2-3 inches long ) that is actually 1/2 under water. This is not really a branch as it is growing directly off the stem.. Can I remove this lower growth and get it to root? How do I go about it? (Didn’t know proper terminology)
Yes, you can propagate lucky bamboo! Read more about it in the first comment here: https://www.flowershopnetwork.com/blog/how-do-i-propagate-lucky-bamboo/