How to Grow and Care for Lucky Bamboo Indoors

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Swollen rings, or nodes, mark the stems at regular intervals, each topped with a leafy evergreen tip that can reach five feet indoors. Lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana) is offered as a gift of good fortune and releases more moisture into the air than most houseplants; give it bright light without direct sun and it thrives for years.

Caring for it is very easy, and its lifespan can be extended thanks to the care and good practices we’re sharing with you here.

Read also:

• Dracaena plants
• Real bamboo

Planting lucky bamboo

The plant must first develop roots in water before it can be transferred to a pot.

• Keep the pot in 2 inches (5 cm) of water until the plant has grown enough roots for it to be planted in a pot.
  This can easily last several months.
• Once the plant is ready, place it in a pot filled with soil mix and water abundantly on a regular basis.
• It’s perfectly possible to keep your plant in water for as long as you wish.

Good news – lucky bamboo is one of the houseplants that releases the most moisture into the air around it. This makes it an ideal choice to add to your indoor moisture oasis! Very helpful for plants that fear dry air.

Propagating your lucky bamboo

If your lucky bamboo has grown a bit tall and scrawny, it’s possible to rejuvenate it and produce a second specimen all in one go! Simply:

• snip off the leafy tip of the stem, just below at least one or two nodes.
• a node is the ring that forms a swollen bump at regular intervals along the stem.
• place the cutting in a glass of water, ensuring that the nodes are underwater
• roots will sprout and from there, your new lucky bamboo will start growing!

Keep the older specimen as is: it will start sprouting leaves at a node, just like its counterpart will be sprouting roots!

• This propagation technique works with all Dracaena plants, even the striking Dracaena marginata that is often found in homes and offices.

Emplacement, exposure for Lucky Bamboo

What is important is that the plant receive sufficient light but not direct sunlight.

In summer, avoid placing the plant near a window that faces the equator, and in winter, don’t set it near a radiator.

• Lucky bamboo will give an Asian touch to any house and garden. You can even use it as a living ornament in a Japanese garden!

• Bleached or faded patches on leaves often signal too much direct light, whereas crisped leaf tips usually point to low humidity, underwatering, or salt and fluoride buildup from fertilizer or tap water.
• Being a tropical Dracaena, lucky bamboo resents cold draughts, so keep it away from entrance doors and air-conditioning vents.
• In a very bright spot the water turns green with algae; an opaque or tinted container keeps the roots shaded and the water clear.

Caring for Lucky Bamboo

Remove wilted leaves regularly.

While in water, change the water on a regular basis, more or less 1 or 2 times a month.

• This helps renew available organic matter when the water has turned dirty and all nutrients have been extracted.

Scrub the vase and rinse the pebbles at every water change, as the slimy algae film clings to glass and stones rather than leaving with the old water.

What is to be done if leaves turn yellow?

This often signals that the plant lacks nutrients.

• After having grown, it requires more nutrients than it can find in the water.
• You must then provide it with liquid fertilizer.

At this point you can choose to either repot it with soil mix in a pot, or simply provide organic matter by adding liquid fertilizer.

• Make your own liquid fertilizer with weeds!

• Dracaena sanderiana is notably sensitive to fluoride in tap water, which typically causes brown, dead leaf tips and margins, sometimes preceded by yellowing, while damage from chlorine is far less well documented.
• Pale, bleached, or browning patches on the window-facing side can suggest sun scorch, but yellowing has many other causes; if leaves touch hot glass, check further and consider moving the plant back.

Reading the signs: what your lucky bamboo is telling you

Lucky bamboo gives fairly clear signals when something needs attention. The table below matches what you see to the cause described in the article and the action to take.

Once potted in soil mix, the plant is both rejuvenated and set up for a longer life.

Learn more about lucky bamboo

Lucky bamboo actually only “looks” like a bamboo, which is the shape it is given because it isn’t part of the bamboo family that is native to Asia.

Lucky bamboo, also called “Chinese Culm” is actually native to Africa.

However, Asians and most especially the Chinese particularly appreciate this plant.

According to Chinese tradition, lucky bamboo bears luck for the person receiving the plant as a gift.

• 3 stems for joy
• 5 stems for health
• 7 stems for wealth
• 8 stems for prosperity