This is a perfect example of how bamboo gets a bad rap. Letting running bamboo go for 12 years without rhizome pruning is a recipe for disaster. Also, I've never seen bamboo rhizomes go deeper than about 12" so I wonder if it really did something to your septic; is it possible something else has grown roots into it?

All you need to do is cut it all down, water it, and keep chopping it down until it exhausts itself. The root barrier, the layer of dirt, the salt and vinegar will do little or nothing to control it. And destroying the soil with vinegar and salt application is not a solution.

Ronfurg,

I think you should spend more time using your head and less time criticising and second-guessing your "Creator".

You should never plant anything without knowing it's growth habits beforehand.

Common sense will go a long way if you do research on what you plant. A bad rap indeed. Even a tree will need trimming at some point, but there's no need to panic. As mentioned above, simply cut the new culms/shoots down as soon as they emerge and the plant will die...yes, it will take a little work, but since nothing was done for 12 years, then that can be expected.

It may seem like a huge task, but after the first few days of cutting down the new shoots, the number of new shoots will begin to decline, just don't stop until the job is done, or the bamboo may continue to grow.

Good luck and let us know the final outcome.

Kt

Bamboo isn't evil, nor is it a foundation plant which you would know if you had done your homework. Bamboo is never a problem, the problem is the ignorance and neglect of the land owner. Don't blame the plant, blame the planter.

Post a free ad on your local craigslist it will be gone before you know it. And you won't have to do anything but backfill the holes. Very easy.

As the postor has already realized the mistake of their wayward planting, I myself view their post as an extremely humorous story in a day and age when most can no longer laugh at themselves.
This is the kind of material that stand up comedians thrive on.
Thank you Ronferg for sharing your story. I have learned by your mistake.
:)

WOW! and I thought my people over on the rose forums could get angst ridden over their plants.

I can relate to ronfurg. When I first moved into my house ten years ago I sought out and planted four different bamboo varieties for different parts of the yard. I researched enough to know I wanted clumping bamboo and not the running kind that could make enemies of my neighbors. All was well until the bamboo took over everything. None of my fruit trees would grow because of all the shade that the bamboo would create. Although I still have a soft spot in my heart for bamboo, trying to get rid of the stuff after it has lived out its usefulness for me has been liken to dealing with crab grass in my rose beds. I'm so frustrated, after hours upon hours of digging and cutting and using every other conceivable tool in my arsenal, that I fear I'll loose it one of these days and douse gasoline onto the stumps and light them on fire. With my luck, however, I'd probably set the house on fire along with a neighbor or two's house for good measure!

My two cents: cut ronfurg some slack. No one begins a garden knowing everything about a plant and its nature unless they were a garden enthusiast to begin with (which I can vouch I was not when I planted all that damn bamboo). Good luck ronfurg and know that if you see me moving into your neighborhood I probably ran away from the angry mob that used to be my neighbors and I will definitely NOT be planting bamboo in my new yard.

Everybody makes mistakes with plants.

It got too big, was planted too close to the house, is ruining my sewer/septic system, is going to cost hundreds or thousands of $$$ to remove, etc... what an evil plant!

Yes, why are *trees* even around? (Wait, did you think I was talking about bamboo?)

I've never once thought "that bamboo is going to fall and destroy the house and kill somebody", but I think that about huge old trees all the time. I think bamboo gets people more worked up because it exposes the problems in 10 years instead of the 100 years that trees need to become a problem.

kublakan,

The problem with ronburg's spittle-flecked rant was not his initial ignorance. The problem is that his rant is factually and substantially incorrect. In your rush to his or her defense, you seem to have overlooked this.

highlander,

You mean to tell me that you know more about ronburg's experience than ronburg him/herself?

The only place I can see an assumption is in the notation about the septic tank, however, contrary to kudzu9's statement I have dug up bamboo roots (rhizomes) at greater depths than 12" in my attempt to remove bamboo, so that brings that accepted truth into question.

My point was that it seemed like everyone's passion for bamboo was blinding them to the person's problem and instead of just offering advice people jumped down this person's throat over his/her warranted opinion (and if bamboo has costs you money in its removal, than your angst towards the plant is warranted) that bamboo is a distant cousin to the anti-Christ. Let's face it, bamboo is not for everyone and every place much like I've learned that roses, although not impossible to grow in the south, aren't for every gardener.

If you disagree, than, that's great, we agree to disagree. The forum rules don't state anything to the converse.

kublakan-
I agree that these forums are a place where reasonable people can disagree. I still think he's wrong on a couple of points -- and his plan to deal with his problem by messing up his soil is something I thought I should warn him about -- so that is why I posted. I also wanted to use it as an example to others about the consequences of not maintaining bamboo. But he's free to state his opinion.

I do want to point out that I didn't say that bamboo never grows below 12"; that's just my experience growing about 80 kinds of running bamboo over many years. In your own experience/situation, are you talking about runner or clumper roots, because it seems like you said you planted clumpers. If so, I'm curious about how it took over your yard. I know that big clumpers are hard to remove because of their large and dense rootball, but they also stay in one place. Did this growth occur over many years? I know you're in a much different growing climate from me, but I am curious about what is going on with your situation. Thanks.

Kudzu9,

As I stated I tried out four different types of bamboo. I say four because although I tried a fifth, black bamboo, it is the only one that DIDN'T survive (albeit the one I DID want to have survive).

Of the four types of bamboo I have in my yard, the white bamboo (the names I use are not technical and are the ones given by the gentleman that sold me the bamboo) is the only one that managed to stay somewhat localized. The common yellow and common green bamboo are the ones that have progressively widened their spreading over the course of six years. The "Cuban Bamboo" is beginning to show signs of this as well and could easily be classified as a giganta bamboo, so the effects are more pronounced even in the earlier stages of its spreading.

kublakan-
Thanks for responding. There are about 1200 species of bamboo in cultivation, and several hundred that are commonly grown in the U.S. Without the scientific names, I can't tell what you have ...other than to say that they all sound like they were runners, not clumpers. That explains why you had the experience you had, and why you might be unhappy about that. If you had planted clumpers, they would have gotten taller, but stayed in one place and expanded very little. In your Zone there are many beautiful tropical clumpers that I wish I could grow, but we're a little too chilly in the winter to keep them alive.

kublakan,

No, I am saying that I have a superior grasp of reality, in general, than ronfurg. The only other plausible explanation for his or her bizarre tirade that I can see is that ronfurg is being deliberately misleading -- possible, but I have no evidence for it.

Romfurg has all my sympathy. Good forum folks but a distinct lack of actual ADVICE ON HOW TO GET RID OF THE STUFF.
I moved house some 15 yrs ago and the bamboo was already in place. Having no idea what "rhizome pruning" is I obviously never did any and now it is taking over the small garden. I am only an amateur gardener so I need HELP. Having spent the last week, about 24 hours in all, digging out roots I have hardly dented it (but I do seem to have lost half a stone in the process - hooray!). So, is there an easier way to actually GET RID OF THE STUFF???

The easiest way is to cut down every culm (cane), then wait for new shoots to come up (you may need to water if you're in a dry area). Then once the new shoots grow, let them get tall, then chop them all down again. Then repeat this process. This could take a couple of years, but the idea is you're trying to deplete the rhizome/root system of all energy. Once that's done, the rhizomes will die and the plant will be gone. The dead rhizomes will still be in the ground.

The other way that is faster but involves much more work is to dig out all of the rhizomes. This can be a huge amount of work.

Some combination of the two methods may be needed, as it may not be practical to get every rhizome out of the ground, and the ones you missed will put up shoots next spring (or whenever it usually shoots).

Rhizome pruning is just cutting off any rhizomes that go out of the area you want them to. Use overlapping shovel cuts, use a mattock, etc.

A little harsh on ronfurg, no? One of the problems with things like bamboo is that the current owner of a property may be an avid gardener and know all about the plants on it. When that person moves, dies, gets too old to take care of the plants, those plants become everyone else's problem. And since most people are not avid gardeners, they have no idea what to do.

And maybe the first person was willing to do some work, but received wrong information, which is why I'm on this particular forum. My neighbors hired a contractor to help them design their yard. He planted bamboo for them. Four years on, they're screaming about it. They trusted him and had no idea that the bamboo would take over their yard. The contractor may have thought he was planting some clumping bamboo or more likely, just had no idea himself. And of course he's nowhere to be found any more.

Now the problem. People in some states talk about twenty or thirty feet of bamboo as if it's a feature in their gardens. In brownstone Brooklyn yards are 20 feet across and 50 feet deep. That means my neighbor's problem is now mine. Because it is legal to sell those plants in NYC, I have to spend my time ensuring that I don't get bamboo growing in my own yard. Doesn't seem fair. Our other neighbors, who are in their 80s, are unable to spend the time and effort so their little garden will eventually disappear. That doesn't seem fair either.

In New York, you are liable if you have an underground oil tank that leaks into your neighbor's yard, you are liable if your tree drops a limb on their property and causes damage to their home, and you should be liable if your plant destroys or invades their garden to their detriment. So you get sued. Then you sue the people who sold the plant to you and eventually those people are sued often enough that they stop selling it.

All that takes a long time and it's not very efficient. I don't want to sue my neighbors - I like them. And I don't want my other neighbors to lose their garden. I just want to help get rid of the bamboo forever.

Bamboo isn't the only plant like this. I've spent five years trying to destroy Japanese knotweed. Wisteria can be a horror, and I've got some woody plant coming up all over that seems to be guided by a sinister intelligence. It has roots that go down perhaps 24 inches and they seem to lie dormant for years before sprouting because they look very well-established when I dig them up. Now we have the bamboo.

We were going to use Roundup but I'm gathering that's not a good solution? Getting a backhoe or Bobcat is out of the question - there's no way to get those into the back yard. And putting in a 30 inch concrete perimeter isn't an option either.

So how to kill it forever without using power equipment or concrete?

And if there is a kind of bamboo that is known not to run and that will behave and stay in place in NYC, recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks.

roseinny-
First, don't confuse the habits of bamboo with knotweed or wisteria, which can regenerate from fragments. Also, bamboo typically don't have deep roots. If you chop off the rhizomes of invading bamboo -- which will probably be 4"-10" below the surface -- and dig out any root balls and culms that have come up, the plants will not re-grow from small pieces left in the ground. It can be hard work, but a pickaxe is a pretty good tool for accomplishing this. Once you have removed any growth that came into your yard, you can either chop along your fenceline once or twice each year in order to truncate any new rhizomes, or you can trench down and install a hard plastic product known as bamboo barrier.

Thanks for the feedback. I realize it's not like those other plants. My point was only that I've spent a lot of time eradicating those and now I've got a new problem all because of what's most probably an innocent mistake. And the installation of a plastic barrier is sensible, but in reality it means I have to rip out most of my roses and garden because they're along the fence that would require the barrier.

I don't want to get into an argument here - until I perused this site for a while I honestly never imagined that people would actually LIKE bamboo, but now that I know that, I'll try to be careful. But since I can't install a barrier w/out major work, which includes taking up some concrete, then do I really need to patrol a few times a year? If it's only once or twice, I can probably live with that, but don't the rhizomes or whatever is happening grow much faster than that?

Also, the neighbor who originally planted it had no idea of the work it would require. He's spending a lot of his free time cutting back things that he wouldn't have planted had he been informed better. So since we're in Sept now, are you suggesting that maybe we can dig it all out, watch for new growth in the spring, and perhaps be done with it?

Again - they're decent people and just wanted something like lilacs, daisies, or mums. And would be happy with some grasses or bamboo that would stay confined to a three or four or five foot area, in case anyone knows of something like that.

Anyhow, thanks for the suggestion!

If you dig it out -- plants and rhizomes -- and your neighbor does, too, that should be the end of it. If you inadvertently leave some pieces of rhizome in the ground, they will either die or reveal themselves next year by putting up a few little leafy sprigs or shoots, and you can dig those out, too. As for dealing with your roses, etc., if you have a rhizome that runs under the plant, you can usually just sever the rhizome on both sides of the plant, remove those parts, and leave the chunk under the plant undisturbed where it will likely die.

If your neighbor does not remove all of his bamboo, or does not rhizome prune or install barrier, you will occasionally have more rhizomes sneaking into your yard, and you will have to do your own rhizome pruning. I have about 60 species of running bamboo growing in my yard, and I rhizome prune once or twice a year. Sometimes I find nothing, and sometimes I find a rhizome that has gone 6' in a year. It all depends on a number of factors.

As for non-spreading bamboo, there are many -- they're called clunpers -- but I'll let you get your running bamboo issue dealt with before giving you more advice on non-invasive species of bamboo.

Oh, and what's with the OP ?

If he had bamboo getting to his septic tank..his problem is with the people that installed the tank improperly..and dangerously, much to shallow ! That's a health and safety violation.

Also, forgot to add my name to my first post:
I'm Pam, a granny that loves bamboo.

plaidbird-
Nice story...thanks for sharing.

"Some old school excavators will try to justify a deeper excavation for freeze protection. In several years of occasionally hard freezes in central Washington State (we see 25 below on rare nights), I have never seen a sewer line freeze that was built at the proper slope however shallow. Tanks too are safe from freezing even when placed slightly above ground such as under a deck. Water lines however are buried at 3 to 4 feet in northern areas to prevent freezing. Sewer lines and septic tanks follow a different set of rules than water lines because septic system lines are seldom deeper than a foot or 2 below grade."

I have heard all kinds of crazy things about how deep leach fields need to be. Bet in hilly, rocky, coastalish areas which don't get too cold they're bound to be more shallow than in Fairbanks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Septic Site

I moved into a house over 20 years ago, that already had a giant bamboo threatening to run me out of town. To get rid of it, I cut it down, then waited for the new shoots to appear, which they did all over my driveway! After the initial cutting, though, the solution was simple: bamboo is a type of grass, so grass killer on the new shoots knocked them down in a couple of days. Every time a new shoot would appear, I sprayed it and in a few weeks the problem was solved. Just a note, if the herbicide you try doesn't stick to the leaves, it's not gonna kill the plant. Oh, and when the new shoot comes up, wait for the leaf to open all the way before you spray.

catboy - What do you mean by "when the new shoot comes up, wait for the leaf to open all the way before you spray"? Bamboo shoots will grow to almost their full height before the branches and leaves start appearing.

Is it possible you had Japanese knotweed instead of bamboo?

alan-
I'm with you on your analysis. catboy's description doesn't match with bamboo growth behavior, and grass killer is not particularly effective on bamboo.

I have a question. I didn't make the mistake of planting bamboo. My neighbor did. I now have shoots popping up throughout my yard as far as 25 feet from where the original plant is. He planted the bamboo as a screen next to his pool on his side of a fence. Is there anything I can do to stop this plant from growing in my yard other than killing it completely? My kids can't even run through a sprinkler in the yard because the shoots are everywhere and hurt when stepped on.

You can use a shovel to cut a line at the edge of your property. You'll cut all of the rhizomes that are coming into your yard, and if you then keep removing all of the shoots that come up in your yard the severed rhizomes will eventually die. This is called "rhizome pruning" and is really something that the neighbor should be doing -- it shouldn't be your responsibility. You'll have to repeat this every year.

I'm up north in the Boston area. I never realized this stuff would grow in a winter climate. As much of a nuisance as it is it is pretty remarkable stuff (until it starts taking over your yard). I've even seen it used in South East Asia as staging/ scaffolding on some pretty tall buildings. It's just really strong. After a very cold winter I'm looking for an alternative / backup fuel source. Has any body tried this stuff in a wood stove or fireplace. I'm thing that since it grows so redily and I have to keep cutting itthat maybe I can lower my fuel bill a bit

It burns quite quickly and if you don't cut the internodes, it will pop or explode as it heats up.

Burn some outdoors first then decide if it is right for your fireplace.

Kt

I use wood as a heat source for a large house. I believe that if you used bamboo that you would need to stoke the fire every hour instead of every four to six hours.

"Cut it down again. And again"

That's the advice from bamboo.org and I agree with them.

sam-

Yup, just like several of us posted here 9 years ago. ;-)

OP described one way running bamboo can become a nuisance, by deliberate planting which still occurs in some places. However around here (midAtlantic) Golden Bamboo Phyllostachys aurea, is routinely dumped. Homeowners dig it up, take it to the local roadside and dump it. Left unchecked, it forms large colonies. I was part of a volunteer group that got together to rid this species from our park. The colony was about one acre. It took 4 workdays but we cut and removed it all. That was 4 years ago, sadly it has all come back with a vengeance. It really wasn't followed up on.

Yours truly has started the process all over again. This pic shows recently cut stems painted over with 41% glyphosate (undiluted) Regarding foliar applications with either herbicide or vinegar/salt I have no experience. Normally with herbicide backpack sprayer temps must be 60 F or higher.

Seeing how this is a bamboo forum it really cannot be repeated enough, Golden Bamboo really has no redeeming qualities. A large infestation of this Chinese weed on the property is a liability. ZERO wildlife value of any type. One USDA site says "birds & small mammals are reported to feed on seed". Anyone familiar with this species knows the fallacy in that statement.

It may be that pandas eat the foliage, I'm really not sure. Either way that's not a justification for growing it here.

To finish on a positive note, one can collect up stems and use them for fire kindling. They burn fast and hot, even when green. They will make popping sounds but not a real problem.

Ok. You're welcome to your views. There are several fallacies in your statements, but I've attempted to have discussions over the years with people who hate bamboo and I've learned there is no upside, so I won't waste your time or mine.