I’ve got a lot of work to do with my new yard, never dealt with bamboo. Many people have told me I’m screwed. Is there anything I can do to kill the bamboo?
by Comfortable_Lake_588
I’ve got a lot of work to do with my new yard, never dealt with bamboo. Many people have told me I’m screwed. Is there anything I can do to kill the bamboo?
by Comfortable_Lake_588
16 Comments
Flamethrower, pray, repeat.
You dig it all out over and over every time it comes back, keep at it and eventually maybe you can clear it all out.
Ask your neighbor with a Kubota to dig it all up
Dig it out, deny it photosynthesis.
rip out anything that is visible, and if you can get the root, even better.
expect to do it often.
eventually you can overpower the root system.
but expect a long fight.
good luck
You are going to lean why many towns ban it. Good luck.
You might be able to find some root killer.
Get a sawsall and cut it as close to the ground as possible, dice it all up and throw it away. As soon as any new stalks or leafy growth sprout, spray it with glyphosphate. Let stalks grow tall and cut down before they leaf to expend energy stored in the roots and deny photosynthesis. Again, poison any low leafy growth with strong glyphosphate.
Sustained assault is the only solution. You can try digging it out but it can come back from any piece as small as a thumb.
Edit: your goal is to exhaust all the energy stored in the ryzome until it starves to death and dies. This can take a few years to make sure you get it all.
Also, get a panda.
Cut down every single one ground level. Then manage new culms by cutting them when they get to like 1-2 feet in height. Keep at it and maybe in 3-5 years you’ll cause it to starve itself out.
You can also get some heavy equipment out there to try and rip it all up, but chances are you won’t get it all.
Edit: forgot to add, there’s no chemical that’ll kill it immediately. You can try roundup or something but this is also a year longs battle. IMO just skip the chemical exposure.
I’ve heard of 4 ways of killing it:
Method #1: Dig the whole thing out. You need to get the rhizome and rip the whole thing out of the ground. Only really realistic if the plant is still relatively small and hasn’t spread much.
Method #2: Let it grow until just before it leafs out, and then cut it down. Repeat until it dies. This can take multiple years, but each year the plant will get smaller and weaker. Persistence is key here, because if you let it leaf out, it will start recovering and grow stronger again.
Method #3: Poison it. Cut everything down, and let it regrow. Apply high concentration glyphosate on young, leafy growth. Repeat until it dies. Again, this can take multiple years.
Method #4: Lethal injection. Similar to Method #3, but instead of applying the poison to the leafy growth, you cut down the growth and then immediately inject high concentration glyphosate into the hollow stems/canes. Repeat until it dies. Again, this can take multiple years.
The only way you’re screwed is if you want overnight results, because that means digging out all the soil about 16 inches deep and tracing all the potential areas where the bamboo roots have run off to and also digging that out, then of course there is the cost of bringing in new topsoil and altogether with the labor and materials you can easily rack up $10,000-$20,000 to remove it right in 1 go.
If you have some patience and are willing to walk the land once a week with a machete and or sawzall and cut down any new shoots down to the soil it can be gone in about 2-4 years depending on how much it has spread. I’ve never grown bamboo but I have thought about it as a privacy screen and one method I came across for removal was chopping it down + painting glyphosate on the stalk but also digging some roots out, cutting it in half, then letting the roots soak in a bottle of 41% glyphosate as if it was a hospital IV line.
I’ve never done that, but many people were saying it was the most effective way besides having to dig everything out.
Give it to me
I was told just to mow in the areas you don’t want it. I started by removing a big patch from my yard so that I could put my fence in and have a usable space. Now I mow that area of the yard 1-2 a week. Everyone once and a while I go behind my fence and mow the little bit of growth back away from the fence by about 5 feet. It’s been working for me. Side note : my neighbor was kind enough to help me remove the patch in my yard with an excavator.
I say you take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
We had this from our neighbors house in the backyard. We had to actually dig 3-4 feet to get up ALL the roots up. It was not a fun job but it’s been 4 years now and haven’t seen anymore since.
