Bought a house last summer and starting to feel out what spring time looks like in the back yard. Previous owners had bamboo in the back bed (though from what I can tell, it spread in from the neighbors and they just decided to manage it rather than remove and block it). Last year’s summer I spent a little time having to cull it back when it popped up in the yard. This spring though I’ve been busy dealing with actual shoots.
My typical process is to cut as low as possible, pin through the center, then pour boiling water into it. I let that do its thing, then a few days later I’ll come back and dig out as much as I can, trying to mess up the yard as little as possible. I pulled up a 20 foot long section all in one go (my lot is like 0.3 acres so this is pretty significant, I felt very accomplished haha).
I’m hoping this is a spring time thing and entering summer it’ll go back to smaller leafy shoots coming up rather than full on inch thick shoots. This one has me concerned though. I believe the previous owner used some construction foam to pour a concrete slab for the ADU, so I imagine this is a shoot that somehow started under the foam and pushed through it. I don’t have a ton of experience with bamboo though, so it’s got me worried.
- Is it possible for bamboo to damage a concrete slab? Or is it more likely the damage will be limited to just the outer construction foam.
- Any suggestions on repair? I know this is landscaping but my plan is to cut out the bamboo and then fill/patch with foam. Unsure it that will actually keep it from coming back though.
- Anybody have better suggestions on bamboo management? Honestly I’m really tempted to dig a deep trench around the bamboo bed and put some metal panels around the edge, but that seems intrusive, like a lot of work, and I’m not even sure it would work the way I hope it will.
by TrafficConeWriter
13 Comments
Holy cow that has to be foam and hopefully not concrete. Cut and brush with herbicide stat
I’ve seen bamboo grow between the deck and basin of a pool. 6ft long about an inch and a half thick. Absolutely destroyed everything.. and the homeowner wanted me to install turf over the bamboo patch in the corner to… “choke it out.” Ma’am if your pool deck can’t stop it a sheet of carpet isn’t going to do anything..
Put your conscience away for a bit and sell the house now.
Just burn the house down along with all the bamboo in the area…
Game over man, game over
Either that mf is too strong to poke though concrete, or you have your foam stuffed foundation. Wanna check?
This is the kind of shit that happens when people listen to the “put in bamboo” shills in landscaping forums, like planting an invasive and rapidly growing plant doesn’t have massive downsides.
I would look at glyphosate, and be trying my hardest to convince the neighbor of killing theirs off too
Bamboo will grow through anything. I saw a post saying they used to use it as torture tool by put bamboo under someone until it grew through there stomach
Time to move. Not even kidding.
Generally no, bamboo cannot grow through solid concrete but it will squeeze through any holes or cracks it can find. That speaks more to the quality of that foundation. It’s also concerning that the rhizomes are at the edge of the foundation to me. I would be a lot more aggressive clearing them back, even if you have to do some lawn restoration afterwards. I use a hand pick axe myself for this.
When you cut and treat the shoots, you need some sort of herbicide, not just boiling water.
Need the plant to take that shit down to the roots to kill the whole thing. Then you need to tell your neighbor that shit has got to go in their yard too.
They can replace it with clumping bamboo of they are that set on it. This type of bamboo will fuck everyone and everything overlong term
Nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
That’s a concrete slab, which by code in most places has to have insulation (foam) around it. They put a very thin skim coat of concrete on top of it to make it look nice, but if you ever weed eat you’ll quickly see that foam flying off. Not ideal for it to be growing there, but it’s not going through concrete. I’d dig it up and far as I could and then dump as many chemicals as legally possible on that rhizome branch. Mark where it is and then pour more every few weeks for as long as it takes to see it die (if it ever does). Good luck!
Bamboo is absolute cancer. It will always find a way to force itself out