Bamboo is a four letter word

[LauraleesFarm]

I have done some research on the internet regarding different methods of getting rid of bamboo. If you know of a particular herbicide or method to get rid of it, would you please share your personal experiences? I am going to be dealing with about a 20 x 20 ft patch of it with some property we are buying.

 

[Kingfisher]

You need a machete ....and some young men

 

[skyhightree1]

Laura I own a business and people that have bamboo problems I normally end up bulldozing it out the ground if its the huge stuff if small i will bushhog it then go back with a box blade with the teeth in and pluck the roots out the ground and haul them to the dump. I do not know of any herbicides though.

 

[B&M Farms]

If you keep it shredded short it will eventually die out but it takes years. You can cut it and when it leaves out good spray it with Rounup at 5oz. per gallon. This will speed it up but you might have to do it a couple times and keep it mowed. If you can get Arsenal(a herbicide the railroads and power companies use here), it may work faster than Roundup but it is a restricted herbicide and it will kill trees if you get any drift on them.

 

[Jogeephus]

A patch that small shouldn't be much problem. The key is persistance. Its not that hard to kill its just tough to eradicate cause if you leave on sprig it will come back.

Velpar is pretty effective on bamboo but you need to get it on the dirt and it needs to rain on it within two weeks of application for it to work best. Best used in the spring. Problem with Velpar is getting it to the dirt where it works unless you time the rain right. Also a lot of times bamboo prefers rich organic soils which hurts the effectiveness by tying up the chemical in the organic matter.

As mentioned, Arsenal is good. Its best to apply this just when the cherry trees begin to let their leaves slip in the fall. It is a very slow chemical but very effective. Its both foliar and soil active and like velpar it will kill many species within the spray area but this shouldn't be much problem since the bamboo probably has already done this.

With that size spot you may want to consider using something like Hyvar too. You could circle the patch with Hyvar to keep the runners from going out and just strangle it with regular applications of any of the above. The hyvar should give you some insurance if your persistance dwindles. Pushing it up with a dozer would help cause this will allow for better spray coverage and expose the bare dirt. I wouldn't suggest a tractor cause tires are too expensive. The key is persistance.

Hope it don't look like this 8 acre patch.

 

[dun]

We've had 2 places that had the stuff. One I brush hogged it to the ground and turned the cows in, they kept it eaten down to a short stubble. The other place I brush hogged to the ground and turned pigs into it. They neatly rototilled the ground and ate every tuber of the stuff.

 

[James T]

Had some myself. Rats had dug tunnels into the root system and built nests. At night, you could see them crawling around the stalks. Had the roots dug out and that fixed the problem. Hard to believe it's considered a grass.

 

[LimoX]

Hate to say this but about the only way to get rid of it is a shovel and a strong back! The last patch we did about the same size as yours we Brush Hog to the ground and then rented a sod cutter, cut it and then scraped it out! Whatever you do make sure you get every sprig!

 

[Jogeephus]

Firecrackers are illegal here so before you go killing it you might want to run a head fire into the patch on the 4th of July. Pretty cool business.

 

[skyhightree1]

I had a forestry mulcher that I tried to cut big pach of bamboo like you have JO it was a pain in the rear kept binding up the machine its some stringy stuff never will i do that again.

 

[Jogeephus]

We've decided to leave this patch alone for the sake of species diversity. ;-)

 

[LauraleesFarm]

So it sounds like a backhoe would get it done. We have one! But the patch is twined into 3 medium size oak trees. I'd like to save one of them if possible.

How about a temporary pen with pigs in it? How long would that take? Seems like we could eat the pigs when they were finished.

 

[Jogeephus]

Oaks will pose a problem with pigs and chemical alike. The oaks feeder roots are in the top few inches of the soil and if you damage these you risk losing the trees in various ways. Scratch out the use of all the chemicals listed so far other than roundup.

 

[Bigfoot]

Where have I been? I didn't know bamboo was a problem anywhere.

 

[Jogeephus]

If we could get everyone to go back to fishing the natural way and stop using these fancy fishing rods I could get rich selling 100% Organic Naturally Manufactured Fishing Poles. And they are green to boot so you know they have to be environmentally friendly. You reckon people are stupid enough to fall for that type marketing?

 

[blacklabel]

I dont know about fishing rods but im sure there is a market for it. Seems they buid alot of furniture and decor with the stuff.

 

[chippie]

Jogeephus, there's your get rich quick scheme. : ) And Yes. People will fall for it.

 

[greybeard]

Jogeephus--the best sounding wind chimes I ever heard were made out of bamboo. There's your secondary market.
(if caning were still allowed in schools, you'd have a ready made market--so many young hooligans in school today, that each classroom would need a new piece of bamboo every week)
WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

(this suggestion is Greybeard approved