Bamboo Eradication

[Rich Riddle]

About a decade ago, the former owner of the farm decided to plant one bamboo plant near a turn-around pad by the driveway. Since then, the bamboo migrated quite a bit but nothing ridiculous. We are in the process of removing all the plants near the parking pad and found a lot of roots that look similar to ginger or something of that sort. We pulled up all the roots and all the plants we could locate for some area around the parking pad. Can we burn the plants and roots or can the ash inspire new growth? I can use a bucket to go lower if needed, but the running roots seem near the top of the soil. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Mel Fulks]

I don't know of any reason that would make burning them a bad idea. But Ive heard of just using a backhoe,usually after less drastic methods have failed.

[John C Cox]

The one way best way I have come up with is to need bamboo for something. Fishing rods, cutting boards, bamboo fences... You name it. Once you need it for some reason - it will be dead before you can get any sort of useful quantity of wood out of it.

Another way... Hand a teenage boy a machete, watch a couple of the Japanese/Chinese sword movies, and tell him "You can cut anything you want except for the bamboo here.." By the time you get back out of the bathroom - the whole patch will be mowed down to bare dirt and the boy will sort of shrug his shoulders and say something like "oh.. That - it was like that when I got here..."

[John K Jordan]

Bamboo rhizomes are fairly shallow. You can dig them out and the stand will die, but you will probably have mow and repeat the digging for several years. If the rhizomes are anything like Johnson grass, a small root section will grow a new plant. One farmer told me the only way he know to get rid of Johnson grass was to fence it off and put hogs inside who will dig down and eat all the rhizomes/roots. I don't know if that will work with bamboo!

If you want to control the growth but still keep a patch of bamboo (it is nice looking and useful) you can prevent the spread with a barrier. There is much info on the web.

A friend of mine has a large bamboo patch next to a creek. It's a magical place to walk through. Lately, several families of owls have taken up residence in the bamboo.

You could easily dry and burn the roots and plants.

JKJ

[Bill Jobe]

Similar problem with neighbor's Zoya grass. It actually jumped across the street and set up shop. Most likely clippings setting down roots.
Actually, I'd love to have a bunch of the bamboo. They make great privacy fences, either vertical or roll up horizontal. Check out prices on that stuff. You may be sitting on a gold mine.
Yet another idea: All you can pack, $50.

[Van Huskey]

If you want to contain bamboo you need to drive PT boards down about 18" all the way around the stand. To kill it you can cut it down and keep hitting any new foliage with Roundup or cut and burn then hit any new foliage with Roundup.

I would bet you could get Craigs Listers to cut it all down and haul it away very easily.

[Art Mann]

I agree with Van. If you kill the roots with Roundup, they will just rot in the ground. Be sure and spray the active growing green foliage that comes up after you cut it to the ground. The chemical translocates (how do you like that fancy botanical term?) into the roots, causing the entire plant to die. Roundup works best on actively growing foliage.

In answer to your original question, burned plant material will not cause any regrowth.

If I lived near you, I would come harvest a lot of the cane to be used as bean poles.

[John K Jordan]

I agree with Van. If you kill the roots with Roundup, they will just rot in the ground.

I'd be surprised if spraying Roundup (glyphosate) on the plants would kill the underground rhizomes. I've tried it on Johnson grass and yes, it will kill the plant roots and a little bit of the rhizome near the green plant but it won't touch the fat, healthy rhizome a foot away under the ground. That part will happily send up new green sprouts. Maybe it would work if you pulled up the large plants then sprayed repeatedly as new green shoots came up over the next few years.

JKJ

[Mel Fulks]

We had a form of "ornamental " small bamboo that was planted by a former owner. Even that was difficult to get rid of and required some digging ,the Roundup did help.

[Rich Riddle]

I dug up the entire area around the bamboo. It also had some cedar scrub bushes in the area. We used a stump bucket and dug down quite a bit. Many of the runners were exposed and we tried to follow them for their entire lengths. When that was done, we used a tiller to till up the soil and it almost looked like a puree when done. We will burn the cedar and bamboo on Friday. Hopefully most of the endeavor ends then.

[Jerry Bruette]

Shouda got a Panda, woulda been alot more fun.

[John K Jordan]

Hopefully most of the endeavor ends then.

Good luck! Please report back later this year or next spring! Again, I'm comparing to Johnson grass since I don't have bamboo so it might not be valid, but I've found that even a 1/4" piece of rhizome "root" I missed when digging by hand was enough to sprout new plants. When I unknowingly tilled over one plant I had dozens come up from little chopped up pieces of root. I thought about trying napalm.

[Rich Riddle]

John,
I might just bucket out the dirt since you wrote that.
Good luck! Please report back later this year or next spring! Again, I'm comparing to Johnson grass since I don't have bamboo so it might not be valid, but I've found that even a 1/4" piece of rhizome "root" I missed when digging by hand was enough to sprout new plants. When I unknowingly tilled over one plant I had dozens come up from little chopped up pieces of root. I thought about trying napalm.

[Art Mann]

You may be using too high a concentration and it is killing too fast for the material to make it to the bottom of the roots. In this case, it acts more like Paraquat. 2,4-D is another systemic herbicide whose effectiveness can be reduced by too high a concentration. I have seen entire fields of Johnson grass, bermuda and tall fescue killed with better than 90% effectiveness with Roundup in preparation for planting row crops. The only problem with returns is seeds. This observation comes from my younger days in the late 1970's as a County Agent.

In the case of bamboo, it may well take more than one treatment to get it all.


I'd be surprised if spraying Roundup (glyphosate) on the plants would kill the underground rhizomes. I've tried it on Johnson grass and yes, it will kill the plant roots and a little bit of the rhizome near the green plant but it won't touch the fat, healthy rhizome a foot away under the ground. That part will happily send up new green sprouts. Maybe it would work if you pulled up the large plants then sprayed repeatedly as new green shoots came up over the next few years.

JKJ

[John K Jordan]

You may be using too high a concentration and it is killing too fast for the material to make it to the bottom of the roots...

You may be right. I'll try a different concentration next time. I find it difficult to calculate the proper dosage for spot application.

Fortunately, so far I have only a few isolated spots with Johnson grass. I've been successful removing it by hand - first, I keep an eye on it and cut of the tops to make sure no seeds mature. Then when I get the time I dig by hand, following the rhizomes. I sometimes have to repeat this the following year.

I'm preparing to treat three fields with 2-4-D for buttercup with a boom sprayer on my tractor. Too bad it knocks the clover back too.

JKJ

[Jim Barkelew]

I have around 10 verities of bamboo on our property and have the space to let it grow. The safe organic way to get rid if it is to cut it down to ground level and all the visible green cut away. Bamboo typically only sprouts in the spring so keeping it cut back will eventually starve it to death. Also using a backhoe to dig up the roots will knock it back but not completely. As mentioned hogs or goats penned over the patch will kill it back eventually. The horse loves to munch on the leaves.

I find that where I mow there is no bamboo. Also, be careful burning the stalks, they will explode because of all the trapped air between the nodes.

[Rich Riddle]

Believe it or not, when a couple of friends heard we were eradicating the bamboo, they came over and took some of the roots/plants pulled up with the stump bucket. No level of warnings swayed them against it.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I have around 10 verities of bamboo on our property and have the space to let it grow. The safe organic way to get rid if it is to cut it down to ground level and all the visible green cut away. Bamboo typically only sprouts in the spring so keeping it cut back will eventually starve it to death. Also using a backhoe to dig up the roots will knock it back but not completely. As mentioned hogs or goats penned over the patch will kill it back eventually. The horse loves to munch on the leaves.

I find that where I mow there is no bamboo. Also, be careful burning the stalks, they will explode because of all the trapped air between the nodes.

This is pretty good advice. When I was a kid we had bamboo next to the porch. It got a little out of control, so we just cut it back, and dug out enough that you could mow it once a week with the rest of the grass. No need for napalm, backhoes, etc. After a few years we stopped seeing shoots.