Bamboo: The fastest growing plant on earth!

Ralph is standing next to a young shoot of Vivax running bamboo.  The picture was taken on March 29th when the new shoot was less than a week old.  Pay special attention to the smaller yellow-colored cane in the foreground (next to Ralph's left foot) and the white-colored bending cane behind the new shoot.  Both of those canes will help you locate the "baby" Ralph was holding in the next picture, below, which was taken on April 8th.  In that photo you can see how much the "baby" shoot grew in just 10 days.  Not only that, but during those 10 days, another new shoot popped out of the ground right where Ralph was standing.  Actually, many more new shoots popped out of the ground during the early days of April and all rapidly grew far taller than Ralph, who is 5' 10".

People often ask, "Does bamboo really grow as fast as I've heard it does?"  The answer is "Yes!"  Bamboo is truly the fastest growing plant on earth.  During the spring, running bamboos like Vivax send out their new shoots and in the summer all the clumping bamboos do the same.  It doesn't matter what variety or type of bamboo you are talking about, all bamboo grow from the tiniest new shoot into tall beautiful canes in less than 2 months.  It's an amazing and exciting process to watch.