How to remove bamboo
Robin
What is the best way to remove bamboo from grass? I recently put centipede
sod
over what used to be wild growth beside a pond. I thought the front-end
loader
had dug up all the bamboo roots but I was wrong. Now, I have about 20 stalks
of bamboo growing up between the sod pieces in a 10 foot square area.
Thanks.
Robin Prosser
South Carolina
Robin Prosser
Robin....@ColumbiaSC.ncr.com
VP 632-6496
Kelly Slocum
Robin, if you keep mowning the bamboo down it will eventually starve the
root system. Never let it get very tall.
Kelly
David Ross
Robin wrote:
>
> What is the best way to remove bamboo from grass? I recently put centipede
> sod
> over what used to be wild growth beside a pond. I thought the front-end
> loader
> had dug up all the bamboo roots but I was wrong. Now, I have about 20 stalks
> of bamboo growing up between the sod pieces in a 10 foot square area.
>
> Thanks.
>
Get a grass killer. Apply new shoots after cutting bamboo stalks.
Dowpon is apparently no longer available (except possibly in huge
"agricultural" quantities). There is a relatively new grass killer
called Poast (poa stop??). Don't spray, or you will also kill your lawn.
Make a mixture per instructions and apply with a paint brush.
bja...@aol.com
I have a few words for you: Dig Dig Dig. Thats the only sure way, short of
flooding the plant.
BJ
"Lift your head to the sky
And keep tryin'
Believe in You
And it will take you higher"
-- Groove Theory
dean
This might work if it is small and you can keep mowing ALL of it. But
if it is eatablished and too big to mow, it won't. I had a stand in the
back yard that was 25 years old, and the plants were 4 inches in
diameter. We tried everything, and the only thing that worked was to
start on the outside of the grove, and cut the top off of a new shoot,
so that it forms a little cup. Fill this cup with weed or grass killer.
You will begin to see it die back along the underground root, and you
can
pull that part out. Just keep after it, and you will eventually get it
all killed out. It took us two summers to kill out a patch about 3/4 of
an acre in size.
J. Jack Andrade
This has to be the "worse curse" for any gardener, if unwanted.
We have Japanese Bamboo that is growing wild from a previous
neighbor's efforts. The roots of this plant/bush/devil are actually
rhizomes that grow deep and horizontally. And whatever you do, do not
"cut up" the roots and leave them as they will all sprout into new
separate growths and you have multiplied your problem into the hydra
level. Just dig and dig and get all , repeat *ALL*, the roots. Then
maybe you be free of them.
Also remember to ensure the existing plants to not flower or the
problem will reoccur next year. Good luck, our battle has been going on
for five years and counting.
Albert Adelman
In article <328F3A...@ma.ultranet.com>, tm...@ma.ultranet.com says...
>
>
>
> This has to be the "worse curse" for any gardener, if unwanted.
> We have Japanese Bamboo that is growing wild from a previous
>neighbor's efforts. The roots of this plant/bush/devil are actually
>rhizomes that grow deep and horizontally. And whatever you do, do not
>"cut up" the roots and leave them as they will all sprout into new
>separate growths and you have multiplied your problem into the hydra
>level. Just dig and dig and get all , repeat *ALL*, the roots. Then
>maybe you be free of them.
> Also remember to ensure the existing plants to not flower or the
>problem will reoccur next year. Good luck, our battle has been going on
>for five years and counting.
sprout from a root cutting and is far more dufficult to eradicate than bamboo.
Removal of all top growth will eventually kill bamboo. Thr rhizomes will
eventually (though slowly) rot.
--
Albert Adelman
Burt Associates Bamboo
PO Box 719
Westford, MA 01886
Voice & Fax (508) 692 3240
Mike Ross
I am partial to organic methods--dig or mow. Don't let it go for long,
either.
The herbicides would be my last choice.
I knew a landscaper who used to kill bamboo by sterilizing fairly large
plots by staking down plastic and flooding the area under it with
bromine gas. A drastic measure, but at least it doesn't persist in the
environment in an uncontrolled manner. It diffuses into the atmosphere
without damage to anything. I have no idea what it would be like to
work with this stuff. What safety precautions for a handling are
necessary, where to get it (Pool supply companies?), etc? I don't
believe bromine is carcinogenic in any way, they use it to disinfect
water for drinking and swimming. But I guess it kills just about
everything in high enough concentrations.
Of course, this is not much good for your sod either.
One of the worst things you can do is dig it up and not get it all, then
not come back and dig out the remaining pieces. It will go nuts in
tilled soil. The mowing method does work. The bamboo behind my
parent's house in VA is edible (I think it all is). You can saute
slices like any other vegatable, it is certainly a dependable crop:-)
If you can't beat it, eat it.
Robin wrote:
>
> What is the best way to remove bamboo from grass? I recently put centipede
> sod
> over what used to be wild growth beside a pond. I thought the front-end
> loader
> had dug up all the bamboo roots but I was wrong. Now, I have about 20 stalks
> of bamboo growing up between the sod pieces in a 10 foot square area.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Robin Prosser
> South Carolina
> Robin Prosser
> Robin....@ColumbiaSC.ncr.com
> VP 632-6496
--
Michael E. Ross
Rick Cook
J. Jack Andrade wrote:
> This has to be the "worse curse" for any gardener, if >unwanted.
Not if you handle it right. Digging is the method of last resort. Starving
it out is a lot easier.
Also of course many bamboos don't run and are not at all invasive.
> We have Japanese Bamboo that is growing wild from a previous
>neighbor's efforts. The roots of this plant/bush/devil are actually
>rhizomes that grow deep and horizontally.
Horizontally, yes. "Deep" -- not by most standards. Unless your soil is a
very fine, rich loam bamboo rhizomes seldom go down more than 18".
> And whatever you do, do not
>"cut up" the roots and leave them as they will all sprout into new
>separate growths and you have multiplied your problem into the hydra
>level. Just dig and dig and get all , repeat *ALL*, the roots. Then
>maybe you be free of them.
That's one way. Alternately, just cut it all down and knock of any new
shoots when they come up. Bamboos that will grow in the US only produce
shoots for a few weeks every year. The shoots are so brittle you can kick
them over and once a shoot is down it's done for. A lawn mower works fine
for this, or you can just kick the shoots over.
The only trick to this is you have to do it religiously, every year for
about five years. Generally you'll get a heavy crop of new shoots for the
first couple of years and then the number will trail off.
> Also remember to ensure the existing plants to not flower or >the
problem will reoccur next year. Good luck, our battle has been >going on
for five years and counting.
I'll guarantee you you haven't had any of your bamboo flower. First, most
temperate bamboos have extremely long periods between flowering. Like 130
years in the case of P. pubscens ('Moso'), which is probably what you've
got. Even Madake (aka Japanese Arrow Bamboo) has a flowering period of over
fifty years.
Second, flowering would be a permanent fix for your problem. It kills the
whole plant and doesn't produce many viable seeds.
--RC