Trying to control bamboo.

[MotorSeven]

Roundup.

Otherwiuse, pull out the Asian cookbooks and start cooking up the bamboo shoots (takinoko) every spring when they first break the ground. Timber bamboo has great flavor and good size for cooking.
Mf

What about the smaller stuf...big as your thumb? I have a few stands scattered about the farm. It must taste good as the horses and cows srtip the leaves off frist than start nibbling on the stalks until they are gone.

 

[jimgerken]

How about burning the new shoots with a weed burner? And, if it is all connected together like someone suggested, I would think that applying some kind of systemic weed killer would get a whole bunch at once.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

I see what you mean. I seem to have two varieties mixed together. One is similar to yours except it doesn't seem to clump as much. The other is up to 5 inches in diameter and that is the one that really spreads quickly. I have an area about 80 feet by 40 feet totally infested and about twice that size where it pops up constantly but I can mow it.

Another problem, is that this is right on my property line and has spread to the adjoining property. The absentee owner doesn't care about his large vacant lot and won't let me try to remove the bamboo from his land. So, even if I get mine under control I will still have to fight to keep it from spreading back into the same area in the future. Anyone have a nuke I can borrow?

5"??? Wow...The biggest ours gets is about an inch.

Ours also is spreading, but us and our neighbors keep the area mowed, so that is not a big problem. My uncle has bamboo at a new property he bought...Apparently a neighbor had it, and it traveled under the road to my uncles property. The township comes in every so often with a loader and pushes it back so it does not take over the ROW...:confused2:

 

[Pa Pa Jack]

I took a couple more pictures to show the size of some of this stuff.

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We cut a really big one last year that measured 67 feet and was 5 3/4 inches in diameter. Most of the big stuff is taller than tthe high tension poles that run beside it.

 

[Pa Pa Jack]

This is a sprout that just came up in the last couple days. It is the type that will only get about 2 inches in diameter max. But, this sprout is 60 feet from the thicket and exactly on the opposite side of the barn. It's rhizome had to come around or under the barn.

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[J_J]

Perhaps you can try something like an experiment like this.

How about electrocuting the plant and rhizomes.

Put a probe in the ground by the bamboo shoot. Cut a section of 18 x 18 in 1/4 in wire screen and install on top of wood pegs to keep it insulated from the ground. Use a drop cord and add a 100 w light bulb in series to one wire terminal which is connected to the screen. Connect the other lead to the ground probe. Plug it in to an outdoor receptacle.
Nothing will happen until the bamboo grows and touches the wire grid. It will then draw current regulated by the light bulb. Maybe after drawing some current, it may cook it self to death. You can tell how much current it is drawing by the light the bulb is putting out.

If it becomes a fire hazard, stop the experiment.

Maybe even an electric fence charger setup would work to put pulses of electricity to the bamboo roots and discourage growth.

I have thought of this process to kill fire ants with a neon sign transformer. Kill them as they sleep.

 

[DAY]

Did you check out the adv at the bottom of this thread?

Buy bamboo poles, raw bamboo and other bamboo products at Southern Bamboo.


"Southern Bamboo is a supplier of raw bamboo, AKA green bamboo, that’s fresh cut right here in the United States. Our raw bamboo is Henon Bamboo or Moso Bamboo. Price per 10′ foot raw green pole (minimum order of 4): 2″ Diameter (minimum order of 10): $8 per pole 2.5″ Diameter (minimum 10): $12 3″ Diameter (minimum 5): $16 3.5″ Diameter (minimum 5): $20 4″ Diameter (minimum 4): $24 4.5″ and above:"

You may have a sideline business in waiting!

 

[cdaigle430]

I see what you mean. I seem to have two varieties mixed together. One is similar to yours except it doesn't seem to clump as much. The other is up to 5 inches in diameter and that is the one that really spreads quickly. I have an area about 80 feet by 40 feet totally infested and about twice that size where it pops up constantly but I can mow it.

Another problem, is that this is right on my property line and has spread to the adjoining property. The absentee owner doesn't care about his large vacant lot and won't let me try to remove the bamboo from his land. So, even if I get mine under control I will still have to fight to keep it from spreading back into the same area in the future. Anyone have a nuke I can borrow?

Agent Orange Maybe? Unfortunately there are side effects-some of which I have from Gaugetown Canada. I read that bamboo is a type of grass, wonder if you can smoke it? Also, when the world goes down the tubes you have the perfect survivor plant right in your own back yard.

 

[gullyf]

I took a couple more pictures to show the size of some of this stuff.

We cut a really big one last year that measured 67 feet and was 5 3/4 inches in diameter. Most of the big stuff is taller than the high tension poles that run beside it.

Pretty impressive when you stop to consider that it is a grass and doesn't grow continually like a tree... it makes all its growth, as tall and thick as it will ever be, in the first couple of months. Ours is the two-inch variety, and you can almost stand there and watch it grow. We've measured 8" and 9" in height a day, and I am sure some culms grow faster than that. I often wish that we could grow some of the larger diameter varieties, though our stand is getting more troublesome as time goes on. Fortunately it is nowhere near as large and I do try to keep it under control.

This is a sprout that just came up in the last couple days. It is the type that will only get about 2 inches in diameter max. But, this sprout is 60 feet from the thicket and exactly on the opposite side of the barn. It's rhizome had to come around or under the barn.

And this sprout will never get any bigger... it's the rhizomes that it shoots out (and the ones that follow those) that will eventually get to size. Fascinating stuff really (at least for this old arborist/horticulturalist/biologist), even if it is a PITA...

 

[forgeblast]

as far as smothering it, mythbusters did an episode on bamboo. MythBusters Special 12: Viewer Special the Threequel

I saw that some places will use a salt mix, to wipe it out. good luck, I have enough problems with our japanese knot weed.