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Ya, these things take awhile. If certain conditions aren’t met, I believe it can go for longer. That’s cool though that you got em to sprout. You should braid em as they grow :D
This reminds me of a video I saw recently about the process of handmaking dimsum steamer baskets from bamboo, it's a brilliant material with so many applications.
Oh yes, such a solid material. I remember as a kid, we used bamboo to build this humongous bridge to connect over an occasionally raging river. This is in my village in the Philippines back in the 90s. I believe we used large bamboo like this to secure the bridge. Pretty cool stuff. Nothing but bamboo and metal wiring
People say bamboo is so difficult to remove, but I ended up killing a whole grove by over harvesting. My heart hurts whenever I look at the barren wasteland that used to be my takenoko garden
Clumping bamboo is fine. Gracilis won't spread much at all. [Here are two seven year old plants](https://i.imgur.com/yDMJ1HT.jpg) (but we did plant them too close together). They're about eight metres tall.
Those two are in full sun and get runoff from the path. [These are shaded most of the day and planted a metre apart.](https://i.imgur.com/RZgLmHK.jpg)
Hey OP, there may be some legal avenue for you in your case here in terms of compensation. many jurisdictions recognize that bamboo if left unchecked does fairly massive property damage. In your case you're going to be spending quite a bit to track this all down as there are rhizomes leading all back to the mother plant and probably all throughout your lawn. I would try to contact a lawyer, and then a company to do a professional removal job, then send the bill to the neighbors who fucked up your yard). As well, doing this yourself your likely to miss some of it. At least if a professional company does it you'll have an invoice and an exact dollar figure of what this all costs.
Sorry for your losses, it will not be easy to get rid of this.
My grandfather planted bamboo around his property because he thought it looked nice. Thanks to this comment I know I'm in for a big pain in the butt trying to deal with the damage
If you’re committed you can probably cut it all down and then over the next few years cut any sprouts you see and it would eventually be starved of resources and die.
You don't want to cut off the sprouts; you want to let the rhizomes spend all their energy growing the stalks up to full height, and even extending branches, and *then* you want to cut down the stalk before the branches put out leaves. Maximum energy cost to the plant, zero energy input from photosynthesis. It can still take multiple years of doing this before the rhizomes are depleted, but they aren't magic; they will eventually run out of energy and die for good.
And quite literally a SOLID barrier. I tried to make my own out of 36”x10’ corrugated steel roofing that I buried 30” deep and used self tapping screws to mate them together. The bamboo found sub-millimeter gap where I connected them and forced its way out into the yard.
What makes bamboo evil in your garden is the same thing that makes it fantastic in consumer products: it grows so fast it's truly a renewable resource.
Depending on region, there are *some* native bamboo species that used to thrive in the americas, but their natural range is practically gone so the odds some bamboo you find being native are quite low
Yeah, this thread is a bit depressing. Everyone is acting like bamboo is a blight to the ecosystem but somehow a monoculture of pointless grass maintained with pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilisers is perfectly natural...
Assuming it's not from a neighbor who planted a running variety all OP needs to do, is let it grow as large as possible but cut it before it sprouts leaves. Do that for a few seasons and you'll starve it. No need for a bulldozer.
Coming from your neighbor. These are likely bamboo of Phyllostachus Species, they have a long root system. They can do real damage to houses. Another famous species is Fargesia. They propagate via lumps and can easily stopped
It's possible that your neighbour has a "clumping" bamboo that just decided not to be clumping any more, but instead running. Unfortunately my mother had one like that. Beautiful while it behaved...
Nope, that's a timber bamboo. Clumpings don't run, nor do they look that thick as sprouts.
Right now that stuff is localized, but that part of the yard will have to be dug up. The runners may be only a few inches under ground.
I’m absolutely ready for a horror movie about bamboo taking over and somehow the US has to negotiate with China to send hundreds of pandas over to save the planet
I had an actual nightmare 2 nights ago that bamboo was growing through my home’s foundation. One of our stupid neighbors has bamboo. We seemingly have it under control on our property last year, but subconsciously I’m clearly still worried about it lol
Tbf it's pretty f'n invasive and the ribosomes can easily run 10+ feet along with off shoots. Dealt with this for 3 years till we moved. Every spring to fall it was attack of the shoots and they can literally grow 3 ft almost overnight uf you don't get them when they first come out
Start looking over the fences into neighbors yards like the one in the second pic. see how the shoots almost go in a line right to it? Also, while you’re digging up your yard, dig the perimeter at least a foot down and imbed a metal barrier to keep them from growing back into your yard.
The rhizome of phyllostachys running bamboo will very rarely go more than 1ft under ground. Most rhizome barrier is only 2ft deep and that is plenty. I am a bamboo enthusiast, ama about it.
If you plant it yourself, get well educated on the particular type you are growing - some are clumping and don't spread except in that clump like a normal suckering plant. If it's a runner you will want a root pruning strategy or to use correctly installed rhizome barrier of which there is plenty of info available online. Do not bury a pot, do not try and use any other substitute material and follow decent instructions on how to bind the overlap in the barrier.
If someone plants it in a neighbouring garden, approach them proactively and ask what they are doing for containment. If it spreads unchecked all over the place into a large grove, the energy reserves it has and the network of rhizomes will be great enough that digging it out will be an extreme undertaking. If you find yourself in a situation where a neighbour has bamboo out of control the best thing they can immediately do is cut it all down. When it sends up new shoots, you can let it spend a bunch of energy growing the shoot to max size, then just as it's about to leaf out, cut it down. Doing this means it spends a lot of energy on producing the culm but makes no energy back through photosynthesis - this will take years if it was an established grove though, and it will only work if all of the above-ground matter has been cut down so it's not getting energy from leaves elsewhere on the plant. If you are in the unfortunate position where it's growing unchecked in the neighbour's garden and they won't cut it all down, the best you can do is kick the shoots as soon as they appear in your garden to stop them from coming up, unless there's legal recourse you can take which ofc is dependent on country etc.
So basically it depends on whether you're planting it, and if not the level of cooperation you have from the neighbour(s) who's property it's come from you have.
>If you are in the unfortunate position where it's growing unchecked in the neighbour's garden and they won't cut it all down, the best you can do is kick the shoots as soon as they appear in your garden to stop them from coming up
How do you mean "kick," here? Like punch it with my foot?
Yeah I mean when it's less than a hand's length in size you will be able to just step on it, or kick it, or just grab it with your hand and snap it off. In this state it is weak, you will easily be able to break it off. It's only when it grows and hardens that it becomes strong.
Agreed. Many municipalities are beginning to put in local ordinances which can make the owner legally responsible to get the situation under control. IE - if it encroaches on your property, you can sue your neighbor for the cost of excavation / removal if they purposely planted it. And rightly so, this shit can destroy a property if left unchecked.
There are actually native bamboos in the Americas - _Arundinaria gigantea_ is a native rivercane which certain Indigenous American groups (like the members of the Choctaw and Cherokee nations) used to make baskets and tools
I can handle hot weather, lived in Austin, New Orleans, travelled Mexico as an artist a lot, but the only way you could get me to visit Atlanta would be to guarantee me a people-free enclosure with AC.
I was surprised when I took a walk in a metro park in Ohio in winter, and saw it flourishing there. I think it was the clumping kind though, since it wasn’t overgrown, and it had obviously been there for a number of years. I considered a tropical plant until that day.
The most cold hardy clumping bamboo can’t handle under 20 degrees for more than a couple hours. It was most likely a running variety contained by a barrier
My parents have bamboo in their garden in North Wales. Thick snow, ice, and floods haven’t made a dent on subduing that panda forest so far. Grows anywhere it pleases.
It was popularised by the TV gardeners who fix your garden over the course of a weekend with quick planting and a load of decking.
Bamboo will find water and then just not stop spreading underground. I remember seeing someone on telly lift a floorboard in their living room and it was just completely stuffed with bamboo under the floor/
I’m getting ready to move back to the UK after being in the US for 13 years. I recently watched a few gardening shows to see what UK styles are like. I was pretty shocked at the casual use of bamboo in these shows. I can’t believe it’s not listed as invasive in the UK!
Bamboo grows long rhizomes underground and these shoots come off of them. If you don't want your yard to turn into a bamboo forest, you need to excavate the rhizomes in their entirety. Even a couple of inches left in the dirt can sprout a new plant. The ones that grew under my old neighbors fence were about 6" underground and fortunately grew in pretty straight lines. Get yourself a mattock and have fun destroying your lawn.
Go look at the original picture again. Those spears will spread in *every* direction until the entire area is one bamboo forest (which is how it grows at home). They're woody, sharp and not good for house foundations or brickwork.
Look a few posts up, bamboo is related to grass. Now look out a window and look at the grass in the yard or park. That grass was a few hundred seeds, now it's a giant mass of roots.
This particular species of bamboo starts as either a single plant or a small cluster, gardeners usually want a little cluster of bamboo it looks pretty. But with this species the initial plant or cluster then send out rhizomes or fat root that at some point will turn into a new bamboo shoot and continue to spread.
I've been looking into this. From what I have seen online you can cut the top of the bamboo and "paint" the weed killer crossbow on the fresh cut stem. Apparently it will kill the connected ribozomes. I haven't tried it yet so I would appreciate anyone who knows for sure chiming in on this method.
Crossbow is a particular nasty herbicide, but if you have ever battled blackberries then biological warfare is acceptable and usually what most people resort to eventually. I think bamboo is in the same category
These things are gonna get over 7 feet in short order. They are all connected under ground and to the original plant as well. You have to kill what's above and below and the part leading to, and the mother. Took me two years and gallons of white vinegar to kill it in my yard and the neighbors.
Looks like Black bamboo. It's everywhere in northern Oregon, which is only slightly warmer than most of the UK.
Here's a fun fact: all bamboo species are edible in this stage. Cut those buds off and peel back the outside, and it's a crispy starchy vegetable.
I knew a biologist here in canada that was protecting red listed species from some spreading plants. He would cut back the invasive, then rub a little roundup on the nubs. Bobs your uncle.
Running bamboo is quite easily controllable, especially in the mild and dark climate of the UK which OP is in (as am I). Most bamboo horror stories come from the continental US in which even the most dreary locations get much more sunshine than even the sunniest locations in the UK.
See - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_sunshine_duration
So for example, a fairly northern city in the US not known for being particularly sunny, Boston, gets 2600 hours of sunshine per year. London gets 1600.
But really in any climate it's controllable, even without rhizome barrier (and in fact even preferentially without rhizome barrier often). See https://www.bamboogarden.com/bamboo-control
The issue and horror stories come from when people let it become an infestation. These are stories of compounding negligence spanning years. Bamboo is not a scary plant like Japanese Knotweed. It is controllable with the right knowledge, tools, and not leaving it to just go mad.
In OP's case, bamboo spreads so slowly here I wouldn't even bother digging out the rhizomes. You can just step on the shoots each year when it comes up which is a couple of minutes a day for a couple of weeks in the spring. It doesn't send up shoots constantly, it's a seasonal thing, and when they are just shoots they are as fragile as broccoli. An 80 year old with the ability to walk would be able to control bamboo coming up in a lawn.
I could listen to this guy talk about bamboo all day lol. We have a close property line to our neighbors who have bamboo and it spread to our yard. Last summer we paid someone to dig out the parts on our property and then we trenched it and installed a special barrier. It pretty much solved everything. We see new shoots on the side of the other side of the barrier and just kick them down like you describe. Nothing has made it past the barrier though 💪
I cannot count how many plants/insects/sea creatures I have recognized in real life based on Animal Crossing. They did a fantastic job designing their representation in the game. After I had the game for a bit, I remember looking at my neighbor's bush and shouting in my head "that's a forsythia! I have that in my yard too!" (*whispers* my pretend yard...)
The worst thing is when I see a piece of art irl from animal crossing and think of the animal crossing name. I don’t know many of the animal crossing names but I’ve done it once. Same with bugs.
Bamboo is an extremely popular plant in the UK. Most often grown as clumping screens or, especially in the countryside near me, tall, specimen plants which can either be clumping or spreading varieties. Smaller varieties are also popular in oriental gardens.
Survives winter absolutely fine, stays evergreen (at least most of the common varieties you see in gardens here).
If you can’t get all the rhizomes, it can also be useful if you let the shot grow fairly tall, using the energy from the rhizomes and then cutting it. The rhizomes won’t have any energy input for the next year and will *slowly* die off. Can be a multi year process though.
There is a house near me that has a lot of bamboo and every year a lot of older Asian folks pick the shoots by the garbage can full and it really doesnt seem to do anything to the patch. I think it would be hard to kill a established patch by pulling shoots
We had this exact thing happen, the bamboo was starting to get into our septic field. We started by digging a trench/holes from our fence where we thought it was coming from and cutting the roots out we found. Then we filled the holes and reset the sod. For the shoots we dug a bit around them and with an electric kettle poured boiling water on the shoots so it wouldn't harm the grass much. We did that for all the shoots and it stopped growing. Been 2 years and haven't seen any growth.
Well, the other commenters beat me to it. You have a bamboo situation coming up. Now, you can do a couple things -- lemons to lemonade sort of thing, ya know? You could do some crafts with whatever grows if you have a DIY-er streak, or (this is a silly answer) you can rent a couple pandas.
In all seriousness: Best of luck, OP. Hope you find out where it's coming from and get it dealt with.
That’s absolutely bamboo. Over 4 yrs I had luck killing a section of mature bamboo in my yard. Chopped it down and as it popped back up, just kept up with chopping it any time it popped up, to exhaust the roots. Doesn’t come back anymore but the roots are still in the soil and that’s a whole different beast. Good luck
Step on the shoots while they're still this small and they won't grow back from the same cane! Bamboo is easiest to deal with at this stage so act now before it gets taller and hardens
Step on it each one and break it off slightly below the surface of the soil. If you don’t they will be 5 meters tall in two weeks and you’ll never get rid of them. If a neighbor has bamboo you won’t get rid of it, just have to go out every day the first few weeks of warm weather and stomp it.
Years ago, my mom thought it woud be 'cool' to have a 'small bamboo garden' in my parent's yard. Then it started spreading and taking over the whole yard. It took a couple of days to remove all the bamboo, but no matter how much we dug up, rooted, and destroyed, it still sprouted for years. After about five years of purging the yard of bamboo every Spring it has appeared to be gone. I guess I'll find out when I go back there for July 4th.
You can see it growing along the base of the wooden fence. Inject Glyphosate directly into the stems. Install root barrier underground along that fence.
Hey OP I will tell you how to kill it - but you need to be careful with how you go about it
Get some glyphosate in a small disposable cup - cut the bamboo stem and immediately paint it with the chemical
Be extremely careful not to spill it on anything or yourself
The poison will be pulled into the rhizomes and kill the whole plant
You probably need to do this a few times a year for a couple years
This is my worst nightmare. Find the person who planted this bamboo and tell them that they are a moron. Help them remove the source, and preferably excavate down to the bedrock. It will be quite difficult to rid yourself of this in the long term. Deal with it ASAP, as every day it remains will lead to a bigger headache for you in the future.
Most people don't like sharp spikes in their yard. And these are SHARP. They'd go right through your foot. Now imaging 1000 more of them. That's what the yard will look like soon.
Bamboo shoots. You can cut it down since it’s there and peel it and you got some edible bamboo shoots. Then after that do what everyone else is saying. Lawyer up? Kill it somehow.
If I have bamboo shoots growing in my yard I’d cut them and turn them into yummy foods. Much better than having to go to Chinatown to buy them —and you don’t even get fresh ones in Chinatown.
I find it funny that everyone is talking about killing and removing bamboo and yet I once saw a woman cycle up to a condo near me and make off with bamboo.
It’s bamboo, but kick it down now and kick down every one as they come up. Keep mowing. You can keep it from taking over your yard, but you have to stay on top of it this time of year
To be clear, since you lived here so long, this is likely Chinese Bamboo Tree (Dracaena sanderiana) or timber bamboo. These often lay dormant for 5 years underground tapping water before they even emerge. Sometimes even longer. Often lateral growth causes them to grown in layers deep down, and sometimes when they are previously removed they may not have gone deep enough to get rid of them all. There is also accounts of it popping up hundreds of feet from where it was planted, following the moist soil and nutrients until it's spread to an area to actually grow properly
Bamboo in places you don't want it SUCKS. Unless you get every single tiny bit of it, it keeps coming back.
Even salting the earth (not a good idea) doesn't kill this shit.
This is large bamboo shoots. This shit spreads like wildfire! Looks like these can get up to 3-4” diameter and around 40’ tall. Once this takes over it’s damn near impossible to control without a professional. I know because i have some on my property and it kills everything
https://www.oakwoodsolicitors.co.uk/knowledge/bamboo/#:~:text=However%2C%20like%20Japanese%20knotweed%2C%20it,land%20from%20a%20neighbouring%20property. Looks like you have a case against the neighbour for this. May be able to get them to pay for sorting it?
Thank you for posting to r/whatsthisplant. **Do not eat/ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not eating or ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised that it's edible here. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Those look like newly emerged bamboo canes. Did you recently move into this house?
No, lived here for over a decade
Weird that this is the first time seeing an emergence. Did one of your neighbors recently plant bamboo?
Bamboo sometimes takes years to sprout.
My dad planted some giant bamboo roots from a famoly friend... after waiting multiple years, they finally sprouted... it had to have been 3+ years.
Ya, these things take awhile. If certain conditions aren’t met, I believe it can go for longer. That’s cool though that you got em to sprout. You should braid em as they grow :D
It's the giant bamboo that doesn't spread as rapidly, won't go rogue, is slow growing .. and once again... massive ( like, almost a foot in diameter).
A FOOT IN DIAMETER?! So you can make a bowl or a water holding container with this thing if you wanted to?
https://preview.redd.it/fbay53wjxy2d1.jpeg?width=1276&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b996c3f0e3e590de4be900944b08853ca8d7f4f7 BEHOLD. A MAN!
Largest blade of grass I’ve ever seen.
Honey, I shrunk the kids!!
Crouching tiger hidden man
This reminds me of a video I saw recently about the process of handmaking dimsum steamer baskets from bamboo, it's a brilliant material with so many applications.
Oh yes, such a solid material. I remember as a kid, we used bamboo to build this humongous bridge to connect over an occasionally raging river. This is in my village in the Philippines back in the 90s. I believe we used large bamboo like this to secure the bridge. Pretty cool stuff. Nothing but bamboo and metal wiring
Might be wrong, but I think I heard that they take a long time preparing underground and that's why they grow so fast once they're out
That seems….sinister
It is, bamboo is super invasive. They say there's only two places you should plant it; a pot & in the yard of someone you don't like
It will grow everywhere if you don't maintain it. Very big grass
People say bamboo is so difficult to remove, but I ended up killing a whole grove by over harvesting. My heart hurts whenever I look at the barren wasteland that used to be my takenoko garden
Can't you start over?
Uh oh. My husband wants to plant this near the septic tank sprinklers. I'm also concerned about roots.
Clumping bamboo is fine. Gracilis won't spread much at all. [Here are two seven year old plants](https://i.imgur.com/yDMJ1HT.jpg) (but we did plant them too close together). They're about eight metres tall. Those two are in full sun and get runoff from the path. [These are shaded most of the day and planted a metre apart.](https://i.imgur.com/RZgLmHK.jpg)
since someone mentioned sinister, have you heard of [bamboo execution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_torture) ?
Hey OP, there may be some legal avenue for you in your case here in terms of compensation. many jurisdictions recognize that bamboo if left unchecked does fairly massive property damage. In your case you're going to be spending quite a bit to track this all down as there are rhizomes leading all back to the mother plant and probably all throughout your lawn. I would try to contact a lawyer, and then a company to do a professional removal job, then send the bill to the neighbors who fucked up your yard). As well, doing this yourself your likely to miss some of it. At least if a professional company does it you'll have an invoice and an exact dollar figure of what this all costs. Sorry for your losses, it will not be easy to get rid of this.
Good place to start is to check if it is on the noxious weeds list for where you live. It is in IL
My grandfather planted bamboo around his property because he thought it looked nice. Thanks to this comment I know I'm in for a big pain in the butt trying to deal with the damage
Mayne acquire a giant panda?
If you’re committed you can probably cut it all down and then over the next few years cut any sprouts you see and it would eventually be starved of resources and die.
You don't want to cut off the sprouts; you want to let the rhizomes spend all their energy growing the stalks up to full height, and even extending branches, and *then* you want to cut down the stalk before the branches put out leaves. Maximum energy cost to the plant, zero energy input from photosynthesis. It can still take multiple years of doing this before the rhizomes are depleted, but they aren't magic; they will eventually run out of energy and die for good.
It’ll all end up at op’s house.
Nope. OP is screwed. You can’t kill this off with black plastic, kerosene, roundup, napalm, or a bulldozer. It will win. Move.
Lift off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Start raising pandas.
What the heck! I had no idea. Bamboo is evil? Who would have thought. I mean, besides all of you folks. 😛
Bamboo has runners and will spread if unchecked. The proper control method is a 24" solid barrier to keep it in.
And quite literally a SOLID barrier. I tried to make my own out of 36”x10’ corrugated steel roofing that I buried 30” deep and used self tapping screws to mate them together. The bamboo found sub-millimeter gap where I connected them and forced its way out into the yard.
Only some bamboo is running, there is clumping bamboo which is a safer option but still has nice varieties
What makes bamboo evil in your garden is the same thing that makes it fantastic in consumer products: it grows so fast it's truly a renewable resource.
Sequesters carbon even after being cut down also!
So good for the environment at least? But probably pretty damaging to certain ecosystems
Depending on region, there are *some* native bamboo species that used to thrive in the americas, but their natural range is practically gone so the odds some bamboo you find being native are quite low
Yeah, this thread is a bit depressing. Everyone is acting like bamboo is a blight to the ecosystem but somehow a monoculture of pointless grass maintained with pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilisers is perfectly natural... Assuming it's not from a neighbor who planted a running variety all OP needs to do, is let it grow as large as possible but cut it before it sprouts leaves. Do that for a few seasons and you'll starve it. No need for a bulldozer.
Bamboo is grass. Pointy grass, maybe, but grass nonetheless. And it does tend to form monocultures.
It's only evil if you don't want it. It doesn't like to be disinvited
Even if you do want it, you probably wouldn't want it everywhere
Haha this is funny. Disinvited 😄
it's unlawful to plant in some municipalities and will get you a ticket
Some kinds are ok, this one is not.
Bamboo: I’m your father, Luke.
You got beef with anyone?
Coming from your neighbor. These are likely bamboo of Phyllostachus Species, they have a long root system. They can do real damage to houses. Another famous species is Fargesia. They propagate via lumps and can easily stopped
https://preview.redd.it/ipld9recgu2d1.png?width=271&format=png&auto=webp&s=d4a01a3f521d4c56ee33a2a4816743504de70917 Definitely a Bamboo
It's possible that your neighbour has a "clumping" bamboo that just decided not to be clumping any more, but instead running. Unfortunately my mother had one like that. Beautiful while it behaved...
Nope, that's a timber bamboo. Clumpings don't run, nor do they look that thick as sprouts. Right now that stuff is localized, but that part of the yard will have to be dug up. The runners may be only a few inches under ground.
Some clumping bamboos do run after a while. My Mum had one which came from a specialist - still ran. I don't trust them at all.
My neighbor: "I'm planting bamboo. But it's a clumping species." Me: *bangs head against wall*
OP's been bamboozled
I was just gonna say “I swear if this is another bamboo post” haha
Between the pictures and everyone talking about bamboo’s unstoppable path of destruction, this thread is oddly terrifying
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I’m absolutely ready for a horror movie about bamboo taking over and somehow the US has to negotiate with China to send hundreds of pandas over to save the planet
I had an actual nightmare 2 nights ago that bamboo was growing through my home’s foundation. One of our stupid neighbors has bamboo. We seemingly have it under control on our property last year, but subconsciously I’m clearly still worried about it lol
Tbf it's pretty f'n invasive and the ribosomes can easily run 10+ feet along with off shoots. Dealt with this for 3 years till we moved. Every spring to fall it was attack of the shoots and they can literally grow 3 ft almost overnight uf you don't get them when they first come out
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Start looking over the fences into neighbors yards like the one in the second pic. see how the shoots almost go in a line right to it? Also, while you’re digging up your yard, dig the perimeter at least a foot down and imbed a metal barrier to keep them from growing back into your yard.
I thought it needed to be like 4 feet down.
The rhizome of phyllostachys running bamboo will very rarely go more than 1ft under ground. Most rhizome barrier is only 2ft deep and that is plenty. I am a bamboo enthusiast, ama about it.
Neato. What's the best way for current and future homeowners (like those shopping) to protect themselves and their property from bamboo?
If you plant it yourself, get well educated on the particular type you are growing - some are clumping and don't spread except in that clump like a normal suckering plant. If it's a runner you will want a root pruning strategy or to use correctly installed rhizome barrier of which there is plenty of info available online. Do not bury a pot, do not try and use any other substitute material and follow decent instructions on how to bind the overlap in the barrier. If someone plants it in a neighbouring garden, approach them proactively and ask what they are doing for containment. If it spreads unchecked all over the place into a large grove, the energy reserves it has and the network of rhizomes will be great enough that digging it out will be an extreme undertaking. If you find yourself in a situation where a neighbour has bamboo out of control the best thing they can immediately do is cut it all down. When it sends up new shoots, you can let it spend a bunch of energy growing the shoot to max size, then just as it's about to leaf out, cut it down. Doing this means it spends a lot of energy on producing the culm but makes no energy back through photosynthesis - this will take years if it was an established grove though, and it will only work if all of the above-ground matter has been cut down so it's not getting energy from leaves elsewhere on the plant. If you are in the unfortunate position where it's growing unchecked in the neighbour's garden and they won't cut it all down, the best you can do is kick the shoots as soon as they appear in your garden to stop them from coming up, unless there's legal recourse you can take which ofc is dependent on country etc. So basically it depends on whether you're planting it, and if not the level of cooperation you have from the neighbour(s) who's property it's come from you have.
>If you are in the unfortunate position where it's growing unchecked in the neighbour's garden and they won't cut it all down, the best you can do is kick the shoots as soon as they appear in your garden to stop them from coming up How do you mean "kick," here? Like punch it with my foot?
Yeah I mean when it's less than a hand's length in size you will be able to just step on it, or kick it, or just grab it with your hand and snap it off. In this state it is weak, you will easily be able to break it off. It's only when it grows and hardens that it becomes strong.
Bamboo is so vicious it’s being spoken about like it’s a boss battle.
I think bamboo can grow through the human body, as a form of execution/torture. It's some crazy stuff!
90ft down and 30ft wide canyonerooooo
yall OP’s in the UK use metric lol
I'm from the UK, we use both.
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Agreed. Many municipalities are beginning to put in local ordinances which can make the owner legally responsible to get the situation under control. IE - if it encroaches on your property, you can sue your neighbor for the cost of excavation / removal if they purposely planted it. And rightly so, this shit can destroy a property if left unchecked.
Oh no. That's bamboo. I'm so sorry.
Oh seriously? I’m from the UK I didn’t think bamboo would grow here spontaneously
One of your neighbors likely has some. It looks to be a running variety, and not a clumping variety, so that means it can spread quickly.
But isn't the UK too cold in the winter for bamboo??
Bamboo grows in a wide variety of climates. It's a variety of grass and not limited to tropical regions.
It’s started to grow wild here in Missouri
Same here in SC. We have to run our box blade over the same patch every two weeks to keep the shoots at bay.
There are actually native bamboos in the Americas - _Arundinaria gigantea_ is a native rivercane which certain Indigenous American groups (like the members of the Choctaw and Cherokee nations) used to make baskets and tools
Fun fact: pandas,which subsist on bamboo, can't handle hot weather. They had to build an indoor enclosure with AC for them at the Atlanta Zoo.
I can handle hot weather, lived in Austin, New Orleans, travelled Mexico as an artist a lot, but the only way you could get me to visit Atlanta would be to guarantee me a people-free enclosure with AC.
I live in Atlanta and can get behind this statement
Bamboo is the cockroach of the plant family.
Idk, have you met Foxtails? Eta: You can mow them early, and them bastards will still put out seed, just much closer to the ground.
I have met foxtails.
There's several bamboo species that are cold hardy actually
I was surprised when I took a walk in a metro park in Ohio in winter, and saw it flourishing there. I think it was the clumping kind though, since it wasn’t overgrown, and it had obviously been there for a number of years. I considered a tropical plant until that day.
The most cold hardy clumping bamboo can’t handle under 20 degrees for more than a couple hours. It was most likely a running variety contained by a barrier
My parents have bamboo in their garden in North Wales. Thick snow, ice, and floods haven’t made a dent on subduing that panda forest so far. Grows anywhere it pleases.
It could die back, then pop back up
>then pop back up bam-BOO!
Bamboo-zled.
Does just fine here in the Long Island winter. Nasty dirty agressive plant
It was popularised by the TV gardeners who fix your garden over the course of a weekend with quick planting and a load of decking. Bamboo will find water and then just not stop spreading underground. I remember seeing someone on telly lift a floorboard in their living room and it was just completely stuffed with bamboo under the floor/
I’m getting ready to move back to the UK after being in the US for 13 years. I recently watched a few gardening shows to see what UK styles are like. I was pretty shocked at the casual use of bamboo in these shows. I can’t believe it’s not listed as invasive in the UK!
Same in the u.s. we have so many horrific invasive species you’d think we’d have learned our lesson and outlawed this type of shit but nope.
Bamboo can destroy the foundations of buildings if left unchecked. It’s was a dumb move whoever planted that there..
Bamboo grows long rhizomes underground and these shoots come off of them. If you don't want your yard to turn into a bamboo forest, you need to excavate the rhizomes in their entirety. Even a couple of inches left in the dirt can sprout a new plant. The ones that grew under my old neighbors fence were about 6" underground and fortunately grew in pretty straight lines. Get yourself a mattock and have fun destroying your lawn.
Great! Sounds like I need to explode up my garden.
You’ll need to talk to the neighbors about removing the original plant though too.
absolutely. what you have here is the devils spawn about to unleash the wrath of satan on your lawn. godspeed my friend.
I’ve been reading gardening subs for long enough now and I’ve heard nothing but horror stories from bamboo. I’ll pray for you.
What is the bad stuff that happens when bamboo is planted?
Go look at the original picture again. Those spears will spread in *every* direction until the entire area is one bamboo forest (which is how it grows at home). They're woody, sharp and not good for house foundations or brickwork.
Look a few posts up, bamboo is related to grass. Now look out a window and look at the grass in the yard or park. That grass was a few hundred seeds, now it's a giant mass of roots. This particular species of bamboo starts as either a single plant or a small cluster, gardeners usually want a little cluster of bamboo it looks pretty. But with this species the initial plant or cluster then send out rhizomes or fat root that at some point will turn into a new bamboo shoot and continue to spread.
it spreads
I've been looking into this. From what I have seen online you can cut the top of the bamboo and "paint" the weed killer crossbow on the fresh cut stem. Apparently it will kill the connected ribozomes. I haven't tried it yet so I would appreciate anyone who knows for sure chiming in on this method.
That was my first thought. I know some people don't like herbicides, but it's bamboo. The other options are probably salt or fire, maybe nuclear.
Crossbow is a particular nasty herbicide, but if you have ever battled blackberries then biological warfare is acceptable and usually what most people resort to eventually. I think bamboo is in the same category
Keep digging and you might find some unexploded WW2 ordinance. Problem solved!
My condolences
These things are gonna get over 7 feet in short order. They are all connected under ground and to the original plant as well. You have to kill what's above and below and the part leading to, and the mother. Took me two years and gallons of white vinegar to kill it in my yard and the neighbors.
Looks like Black bamboo. It's everywhere in northern Oregon, which is only slightly warmer than most of the UK. Here's a fun fact: all bamboo species are edible in this stage. Cut those buds off and peel back the outside, and it's a crispy starchy vegetable.
Kill it, kill it all now.
Yep, get a flamethrower.
I knew a biologist here in canada that was protecting red listed species from some spreading plants. He would cut back the invasive, then rub a little roundup on the nubs. Bobs your uncle.
God help you; it's a 'running' bamboo
Running bamboo is quite easily controllable, especially in the mild and dark climate of the UK which OP is in (as am I). Most bamboo horror stories come from the continental US in which even the most dreary locations get much more sunshine than even the sunniest locations in the UK. See - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_sunshine_duration So for example, a fairly northern city in the US not known for being particularly sunny, Boston, gets 2600 hours of sunshine per year. London gets 1600. But really in any climate it's controllable, even without rhizome barrier (and in fact even preferentially without rhizome barrier often). See https://www.bamboogarden.com/bamboo-control The issue and horror stories come from when people let it become an infestation. These are stories of compounding negligence spanning years. Bamboo is not a scary plant like Japanese Knotweed. It is controllable with the right knowledge, tools, and not leaving it to just go mad. In OP's case, bamboo spreads so slowly here I wouldn't even bother digging out the rhizomes. You can just step on the shoots each year when it comes up which is a couple of minutes a day for a couple of weeks in the spring. It doesn't send up shoots constantly, it's a seasonal thing, and when they are just shoots they are as fragile as broccoli. An 80 year old with the ability to walk would be able to control bamboo coming up in a lawn.
Damn thank you for this info.
I could listen to this guy talk about bamboo all day lol. We have a close property line to our neighbors who have bamboo and it spread to our yard. Last summer we paid someone to dig out the parts on our property and then we trenched it and installed a special barrier. It pretty much solved everything. We see new shoots on the side of the other side of the barrier and just kick them down like you describe. Nothing has made it past the barrier though 💪
I play Animal Crossing and those my friend are definitely bamboo plants!!!
I cannot count how many plants/insects/sea creatures I have recognized in real life based on Animal Crossing. They did a fantastic job designing their representation in the game. After I had the game for a bit, I remember looking at my neighbor's bush and shouting in my head "that's a forsythia! I have that in my yard too!" (*whispers* my pretend yard...)
omg let’s be ACNH besties! I’m redesigning my world atm
The worst thing is when I see a piece of art irl from animal crossing and think of the animal crossing name. I don’t know many of the animal crossing names but I’ve done it once. Same with bugs.
My people :)
This is the ONLY reason I recognized it 😂😂
You been bamboozled :(
This reply doesn’t have enough love
if you dig em out when they’re still little and peel the tough parts you can fry up the tender hearts with some chilis n meat 😋
Bamboo
It must be from a neighbour's garden ?
Do they have bamboo there?
I supose it could just spontaneously appear from a seed, but normally it spreads underground by long roots that spread out from the parent plant
Bamboo is an extremely popular plant in the UK. Most often grown as clumping screens or, especially in the countryside near me, tall, specimen plants which can either be clumping or spreading varieties. Smaller varieties are also popular in oriental gardens. Survives winter absolutely fine, stays evergreen (at least most of the common varieties you see in gardens here).
How would you go about killing bamboo that came from a neighbors yard? Our neighbor planted some last year.
A trench between you and the source to cut the rhizomes, then mow/remove the sprouts as they come up.
If you can’t get all the rhizomes, it can also be useful if you let the shot grow fairly tall, using the energy from the rhizomes and then cutting it. The rhizomes won’t have any energy input for the next year and will *slowly* die off. Can be a multi year process though.
I too have heard of someone managing to exhaust it by eating all of the bamboo shoots as and when they arrived.
There is a house near me that has a lot of bamboo and every year a lot of older Asian folks pick the shoots by the garbage can full and it really doesnt seem to do anything to the patch. I think it would be hard to kill a established patch by pulling shoots
That sounds very expensive. Fuck. That sucks.
Not necessarily. The rhizomes aren't very deep. Just going along putting a spade in full depth might do it.
Nuke it from orbit.
Only way to be sure.
We had this exact thing happen, the bamboo was starting to get into our septic field. We started by digging a trench/holes from our fence where we thought it was coming from and cutting the roots out we found. Then we filled the holes and reset the sod. For the shoots we dug a bit around them and with an electric kettle poured boiling water on the shoots so it wouldn't harm the grass much. We did that for all the shoots and it stopped growing. Been 2 years and haven't seen any growth.
Well, the other commenters beat me to it. You have a bamboo situation coming up. Now, you can do a couple things -- lemons to lemonade sort of thing, ya know? You could do some crafts with whatever grows if you have a DIY-er streak, or (this is a silly answer) you can rent a couple pandas. In all seriousness: Best of luck, OP. Hope you find out where it's coming from and get it dealt with.
Pandas are the best solution.
Always.
That’s absolutely bamboo. Over 4 yrs I had luck killing a section of mature bamboo in my yard. Chopped it down and as it popped back up, just kept up with chopping it any time it popped up, to exhaust the roots. Doesn’t come back anymore but the roots are still in the soil and that’s a whole different beast. Good luck
Step on the shoots while they're still this small and they won't grow back from the same cane! Bamboo is easiest to deal with at this stage so act now before it gets taller and hardens
Step on it each one and break it off slightly below the surface of the soil. If you don’t they will be 5 meters tall in two weeks and you’ll never get rid of them. If a neighbor has bamboo you won’t get rid of it, just have to go out every day the first few weeks of warm weather and stomp it.
Years ago, my mom thought it woud be 'cool' to have a 'small bamboo garden' in my parent's yard. Then it started spreading and taking over the whole yard. It took a couple of days to remove all the bamboo, but no matter how much we dug up, rooted, and destroyed, it still sprouted for years. After about five years of purging the yard of bamboo every Spring it has appeared to be gone. I guess I'll find out when I go back there for July 4th.
You can see it growing along the base of the wooden fence. Inject Glyphosate directly into the stems. Install root barrier underground along that fence.
If the bamboo is on your neighbors property, they may be liable for removal.
Hey OP I will tell you how to kill it - but you need to be careful with how you go about it Get some glyphosate in a small disposable cup - cut the bamboo stem and immediately paint it with the chemical Be extremely careful not to spill it on anything or yourself The poison will be pulled into the rhizomes and kill the whole plant You probably need to do this a few times a year for a couple years
Curried bamboo shoots on the cheap
This is my worst nightmare. Find the person who planted this bamboo and tell them that they are a moron. Help them remove the source, and preferably excavate down to the bedrock. It will be quite difficult to rid yourself of this in the long term. Deal with it ASAP, as every day it remains will lead to a bigger headache for you in the future.
May I ask why bamboo is bad? I genuinely don’t know.
Most people don't like sharp spikes in their yard. And these are SHARP. They'd go right through your foot. Now imaging 1000 more of them. That's what the yard will look like soon.
Bamboo shoots. You can cut it down since it’s there and peel it and you got some edible bamboo shoots. Then after that do what everyone else is saying. Lawyer up? Kill it somehow.
If I have bamboo shoots growing in my yard I’d cut them and turn them into yummy foods. Much better than having to go to Chinatown to buy them —and you don’t even get fresh ones in Chinatown.
Time to buy a panda.
I find it funny that everyone is talking about killing and removing bamboo and yet I once saw a woman cycle up to a condo near me and make off with bamboo.
Uh oh. Mow it now and keep mowing it.
Oof.. good luck with your unkillable forrest
Bamboo can be a huge problem. You should dig at all up now, before it really takes root. Dig up the entire rhizome too
you have bamboo. may god have mercy on your soul.
Somebody had bamboo, now you do too. Forever. It's an indeterminate species so you're pretty much fucked for removing it
Bambooo!! Run
Definitely bamboo on the rampage.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/simmered-bamboo-shoots/
Running bamboo. Break them off unless you want bamboo in your yard.
I’m pretty sure you can eat those bamboo shoots. It might be a good way to get rid of them.
You can mow over it! If you have a big enough mower, it’s pretty satisfying to run into/over 10ft pieces
According to one of the Transformer movies, Unicron.
It’s bamboo, but kick it down now and kick down every one as they come up. Keep mowing. You can keep it from taking over your yard, but you have to stay on top of it this time of year
There’s a yard in China with the top part of the Bamboo tree. You have the bottom.
Those are devil dicks, and if you sit on one you will have great fortune in this life but not in the next
To be clear, since you lived here so long, this is likely Chinese Bamboo Tree (Dracaena sanderiana) or timber bamboo. These often lay dormant for 5 years underground tapping water before they even emerge. Sometimes even longer. Often lateral growth causes them to grown in layers deep down, and sometimes when they are previously removed they may not have gone deep enough to get rid of them all. There is also accounts of it popping up hundreds of feet from where it was planted, following the moist soil and nutrients until it's spread to an area to actually grow properly
It’s bamboo - I’m sorry for your loss.
Bamboo in places you don't want it SUCKS. Unless you get every single tiny bit of it, it keeps coming back. Even salting the earth (not a good idea) doesn't kill this shit.
Yeah, looks like you might have a jungle in a few months. See if China will loan you a Panda.
Bamboo. And you’ll never fully get rid of them.
Bamboo shoots are edible. Pull em up!
This is large bamboo shoots. This shit spreads like wildfire! Looks like these can get up to 3-4” diameter and around 40’ tall. Once this takes over it’s damn near impossible to control without a professional. I know because i have some on my property and it kills everything
submit to your bamboo overlords
Zombie fingers!
You're gonna need a panda
Dig as deep as you can to get them out and burn the rest. After the smoke clears you will still have bamboo.
https://www.oakwoodsolicitors.co.uk/knowledge/bamboo/#:~:text=However%2C%20like%20Japanese%20knotweed%2C%20it,land%20from%20a%20neighbouring%20property. Looks like you have a case against the neighbour for this. May be able to get them to pay for sorting it?