{"id":2762,"date":"2019-08-23T00:04:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T07:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-545\/"},"modified":"2023-08-09T09:49:40","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T16:49:40","slug":"removing-unwanted-bamboo","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/removing-unwanted-bamboo\/","title":{"rendered":"removing unwanted bamboo"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently moved to a property that used to be a bamboo<\/strong>
\nfarm. About 1 acre of bamboo remains. It is of the Henon species and<\/strong>
\nabout 20-25 feet in height and it appears to have some mite infestation.<\/strong>
\nI want to remove all of the bamboo, and restore the land to native plant<\/strong>
\nhabitat. What is the most economical way to remove bamboo and its root<\/strong>
\nclumps? I have hand dug (and burned) a lot of bamboo, but frankly feel<\/strong>
\noverwhelmed by the task at hand because there is still a lot of bamboo on<\/strong>
\nthe property. Any suggestions you can offer would be immensely<\/strong>
\nappreciated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The American Bamboo Society website<\/a> (page now archived) has information on getting rid of
\nunwanted bamboo, excerpted below. Henon bamboo is a name for a variety of
\nPhyllostachys nigra, which is a running bamboo.<\/p>\n

\n

REMOVING A RUNNING BAMBOO<\/p>\n

If new shoots of bamboo are coming up all over your yard, it is a running
\nbamboo. To get rid of it, there are four steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Cut it off.<\/li>\n
  2. Cut it down.<\/li>\n
  3. Water the area.<\/li>\n
  4. Cut it down again.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Cut it off. All of the culms (stalks) of bamboo in a clump or grove
      \nare interconnected underground by rhizomes (underground stems) unless you
      \nhave cut them by digging a ditch or cutting a line with a spade. A bamboo
      \ngrove is usually one single plant, not a group of plants. Many people
      \nhave the impression that every bamboo culm is a separate “tree.”If the bamboo in your yard has come across from your neighbor’s yard,
      \nseparate your grove from his by cutting the connecting rhizomes, which
      \nare usually quite shallow. If you don’t, and his part is healthy and
      \nvigorous, the rhizomes in your part will still be supported by the
      \nphotosynthesis in the leaves of his part, and your efforts will be in
      \nvain. On the other hand, if you do manage to kill your part with a
      \nherbicide you may also kill his part. Lawsuits or at least hard feelings
      \ncan result.Therefore, be sure to isolate the portion you want to keep from the
      \nportion you want to kill. Cutting rhizomes with a spade or a saw will do
      \nthe trick if you do it every year. If the growth is old, you may need to
      \nuse a mattock or a digging bar the first time. Digging a ditch and
      \nputting in a barrier* is a more permanent solution.<\/li>\n
    2. Cut it down.Cut the grove to the ground. All of it. If there is any part you want to
      \nkeep, see (1).<\/li>\n
    3. Water and fertilize the area, to cause new growth.<\/li>\n
    4. Cut it down again. And again.<\/li>\n
    5. New shoots will come up from the rhizomes. Break them off or cut them off
      \nwith pruning shears. Keep doing this until no more shoots come up. This
      \nwill exhaust the energy stored in the rhizomes underground. Without green
      \nleaves to photosynthesize and produce new energy, they will no longer be
      \nable to send up new shoots. The rhizomes will be left behind, but will
      \nrot away.That’s all you need to do. You need a saw, a pair of pruning shears, and
      \npatience, and maybe a spade and\/or mattock. The widely advertised
      \nherbicides don’t work well on bamboo, probably because so much of the
      \nplant is underground. Since cutting the bamboo down will do the trick,
      \nand you have to cut the bamboo down anyway to remove it from your yard,
      \nherbicides are a waste of time and money in this case.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      The method described above sounds labor–and time–intensive for a large
      \narea like yours. However, if you can cut it all down as close to the
      \nground as possible, and then repeatedly mow any new growth, you may be
      \nable to kill it. Here is what the USDA recommends:<\/p>\n

      Eradicating bamboo is accomplished by first removing all top growth, and
      \nthen destroying the new shoots as they emerge. If the ground is level and
      \nthe canes can be cut off very close to the ground, mowing is the best way
      \nto destroy new shoots. If the ground cannot be mowed, the canes should be
      \ncut down and the area plowed to destroy new shoots as they emerge.
      \nSeveral plowings or mowings will be necessary, but the rhizome need not
      \nbe removed; it will become depleted and die.<\/p>\n

      This information<\/a> is from gardening expert Mike McGrath, via a
      \ncommercial garden supply business, and there is a possibility that his
      \nsuggestions of sheet mulching the area (also labor-intensive if you have
      \nan acre to deal with) or using high-strength vinegar-based products (use
      \nextreme caution with these, even though they are ‘natural,’ as they are
      \nstill quite hazardous) might help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I recently moved to a property that used to be a bamboo farm. About 1 acre of bamboo remains. It is of the Henon species and about 20-25 feet in height and it appears to have some mite infestation. I want to remove all of the bamboo, and restore the land to native plant habitat. What is the most economical way to remove bamboo and its root clumps? I have hand dug (and burned) a lot of bamboo, but frankly…<\/p>\n

      Continue reading removing unwanted bamboo<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[338],"class_list":["post-2762","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-bamboo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/2762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=2762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}