Beware!
 

Unless you have a million acres of land and then 5 more do not plant bamboo!Bought a small plant the wife thought was "cute"Today my 5 vacationing nephews(all strapping young bucs)and I spent all day removing the "cute"8yr old 20ft square ball,40-50ft high stand of mass jungle.We used chain saws,sawzalls,axes a ditch witch and power augers.Now I have a hole that is about 6ft deep and a torn up yard.Trust me just look at pictures of the "cute plant.

We rented an excavator last year to get rid of all the roots of the bamboo that was covering half of our backyard when we bought our house. That was after chopping down the jungle piece by piece. Bamboo is a ginormous weed on steroids.

On the bright side, that's where my garden is now. The excavator did a nice job of tilling the dirt.

The other day I noticed it at the watermark we go to. I wondered at the time if they knew what they were getting into.

Do not get me wrong I have seen a lot of varietys and they are nice plants,for botanical gardens,shopping malls,public parks.Saw a documentary of lemurs that eat the emerging shoots and found out it contains cyanide.Also some take up to fifty years to flower.Oh well let me get back to filling and grading.Now I will be on the lookout for those emerging dragon looking shoots.I think we got all the invasive roots.

WE have a few acres next door to us that was covered in bamboo the owners cut down and graded the land. Baby shoots are already growing back up out of it and it has only been a couple of weeks. That stuff is invasive.

This isn't being fare to bamboo.
It is a grass and there is clumping and running bamboo.

I have a clumping bamboo as a border called golden goddess it is well behaved.
It gets from 6 to 10 feet tall about 1/2 inch in diameter.

Forms a clump about 3 feet around and is gorgeous.

Running bamboo needs to be grown in a containment trench about 2 feet deep and the same wide.
It should have sloping sides with concrete or heavy plastic to stop roots.

Worth

[QUOTE=Worth1;286829]This isn't being fare to bamboo.
It is a grass and there is clumping and running bamboo.

I have a clumping bamboo as a border called golden goddess it is well behaved.
It gets from 6 to 10 feet tall about 1/2 inch in diameter.

Forms a clump about 3 feet around and is gorgeous.

Running bamboo needs to be grown in a containment trench about 2 feet deep and the same wide.
It should have sloping sides with concrete or heavy plastic to stop roots.

Worth[/QUOTE]


Well put Worth! I have felt that Bamboo servers as a nice privacy wall but it must be addressed appropriately.

I laugh whenever I see folks buying it in a garden centre, I want to run up and stop them. I think every house I have lived in we had to tackle a bamboo forest..

XX Jeannine

[QUOTE=Jeannine Anne;286834]I laugh whenever I see folks buying it in a garden centre, I want to run up and stop them. I think every house I have lived in we had to tackle a bamboo forest..

XX Jeannine[/QUOTE]

Home Depot.

Little container of golden fishing pole bamboo $24 a half gallon where I live.
1/2 mile down the road same bamboo free all you can dig. :))

People really need to do their research before they buy plants.

Worth

[QUOTE=Crandrew;286833]Well put Worth! I have felt that Bamboo servers as a nice privacy wall but it must be addressed appropriately.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Crandrew.

Bamboo is like a wild animale you have to know what you are getting into before you get it.

I think there are around 10,000 deferent varieties of it.
Some for every climate.

Worth

Well the good thing is we harvested all I could.Now I got enough for the next 5-10 years.We graded the sizes into 8ftx3/4 inch,6ftx3/8-1/2inch,and smaller2ft-ft at 11/2inch.Then some thin 1/4x2ft,also some long 30ft poles.All these will be used for trellising maters.Trick is to alternate ends in stacking and bundling real tight to dry straight.After that dip bottoms in liquid roof cement up to 1ft(for wet rot) rewrap and your good to go.After each years use coat with linseed oil rebundle,stuff lasts forever.

[QUOTE=kurt;286858]Well the good thing is we harvested all I could.Now I got enough for the next 5-10 years.We graded the sizes into 8ftx3/4 inch,6ftx3/8-1/2inch,and smaller2ft-ft at 11/2inch.Then some thin 1/4x2ft,also some long 30ft poles.All these will be used for trellising maters.Trick is to alternate ends in stacking and bundling real tight to dry straight.After that dip bottoms in liquid roof cement up to 1ft(for wet rot) rewrap and your good to go.After each years use coat with linseed oil rebundle,stuff lasts forever.[/QUOTE]

Thats a great use for the stuff. I use bamboo for my maters as well.

Heck you could learn to make those high dollar fly rods made from bamboo.

They are truely a work of art, I had one as a kid growing up.

Cought goggle eyes perch and blue gills with it.

Worth

Another"beware".For the longest time it was all the rage for the wood bamboo floors.The will suck up water like a sponge and buckle like a roller coaster.For us down here is humid land nobody uses it anymore.Be careful around exterior doors,on the ground floor top of concrete applications and in kitchens,around bathrooms,Will stay good until wet.

[QUOTE=Worth1;286872]Heck you could learn to make those high dollar fly rods made from bamboo.

They are truely a work of art, I had one as a kid growing up.

Cought goggle eyes perch and blue gills with it.

Worth[/QUOTE]

Wow you reminded me of a trip I took as a kid. One of the locals cut some bamboo tied some eye loops to it and with a reel of line you would fish. Cast with one hand and hold the spool in the left, it was quite fun to fish and build your own.