replying to Elliott P , BillN wrote:
elliott.plack wrote:

Greetings all. A new property of my family's is covered by a massive
stand of running bamboo. The lot is six acres rectangular, where about
*one and a half* acres of the total acreage is covered by a very dense
stand of running bamboo. It is 350 feet long deep at its longest
dimension The plants have been there for decades, as the property was
allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. It is our intention to
restore the property, inside and out.
Options for removal I've seen generally target small areas. However
this is a much bigger problem! My first thought is to hire someone
with a bulldozer to come push it all down, and then put it all in a
commercial wood chipper. This could get expensive though. What else
can we do? What problems does my scenario present? Hiring a panda bear
would probably not go over well with the neighborhood.
The property is in Towson, Maryland.
Thank you in advance.


I've been scouring the internet for anything about killing bamboo, and it
is very clear from hundreds of examples that any method other than salting
is both very labor intensive and expensive, and in the end usually doesn't
work. The forums are riddled with stories from poor souls who think they
have killed it off after killing themselves to get rid of it, only to have
it return in a year or two. Folks using heavy salting though have had
good success (only the folks that were wimpy about it have failed).

The discussions group bamboo into two basic categories, "clumping" and
"running". Everyone agrees the really bad type is the "running", which
has rhizomes (roots) that fan out in all directions as far as 2 feet
underground. As is found again and again, killing the stalks with even
the most powerful herbicides does NOT usually kill off the rhizomes.
Indeed, what happens when you hit a stand of running bamboo with anything
(digging, chopping, herbicides, burning, covering with plastic etc.), the
rhizomes go shooting off in all directions as a protection mechanism. So
basically all you do using the "non-salt" techniques is "**** it off",
making it come back with a fury down the line. Some experts recommend
digging a deep trench (2 feet) around the stand to cut off its escape, but
this is very expensive for the large stands we are talking about here, and
again folks have found this may or may not work (the rhizomes go under or
across if they have to, or just wait in place and grow new stalks later).
The "old hands" at these forums (who have dealt with bamboo a lot) scoff
at the techniques put forward by the so called "experts" (horticulturists
and academic researchers), pointing out that commonly rhizomes will
survive for years underground, only to grow new stalks in new places.

Yes some folks have met with success using the non-salt techniques, but
usually for small stands (say 10 x 10 ft or smaller) where they can
concentrate a lot of effort conveniently and at low cost. But even for
small stands, the forums give story after story of long term failure (they
think they got it at first, only to come back in two years and report that
now its everywhere). But for the big stands (what we are talking about
here, say 1/2 acre or larger), the stories using non-salt techniques sound
like nightmares, with people waging exhausting and expensive multi-year
wars that they lose half the time (and as the old timers point out, the so
called "winners" are usually fooling themselves, cause it will usually
come back).

So WHY, WHY, WHY kill and bankrupt yourself. The non-salt techniques are
usually only practical for small stands anyway. Stop being some tree
hugging environmentalist and just SALT that puppy. KILL IT. KILL IT NOW,
before it has a chance to multiply. Use LOTS of salt, its cheap and
easy. Salt a 10 foot wide perimeter around it to prevent its escape, its
cheap and easy. (Might want to do this about a month before salting the
stand itself to already have a deep and wide barrier set up, and then salt
the perimeter again when salting the stand). Id say we used about 3
lbs per square yard.

Don't worry, grasses will start growing back in about a year, and you can
likely plant shrubs and trees a few years after that (remember, new
plantings will have their own fresh soil to grow in for a while, so by the
time their roots reach the old soil, the salt will be pretty washed out).
We have a beautiful Maple tree in the middle of the salt area, so we used
a half dosing around the root area. It was shocked initially (leaves
turned and dropped like it was fall), but it bounced back. Evidently, it
has enough deep roots below the salt to do fine, and likely the salt will
dissipate before it ever reaches them. Its realistically going to take
two or more years to clear a stand using a non-salt technique, so you
wont be able to grow ANYTHING for at least two years. At least with
salting grasses will start in about a year.

So all I can say now to folks trying to kill large stands of bamboo
without salt is €¦ €œheaven help you€�.

--

"BillN" wrote in message
roups.com...
replying to Elliott P , BillN wrote:
elliott.plack wrote:

Greetings all. A new property of my family's is covered by a massive
stand of running bamboo. The lot is six acres rectangular, where about
*one and a half* acres of the total acreage is covered by a very dense
stand of running bamboo. It is 350 feet long deep at its longest
dimension The plants have been there for decades, as the property was
allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. It is our intention to
restore the property, inside and out.
Options for removal I've seen generally target small areas. However
this is a much bigger problem! My first thought is to hire someone
with a bulldozer to come push it all down, and then put it all in a
commercial wood chipper. This could get expensive though. What else
can we do? What problems does my scenario present? Hiring a panda bear
would probably not go over well with the neighborhood.
The property is in Towson, Maryland.
Thank you in advance.


I've been scouring the internet for anything about killing bamboo, and it
is very clear from hundreds of examples that any method other than salting
is both very labor intensive and expensive, and in the end usually doesn't
work. The forums are riddled with stories from poor souls who think they
have killed it off after killing themselves to get rid of it, only to have
it return in a year or two. Folks using heavy salting though have had
good success (only the folks that were wimpy about it have failed).

The discussions group bamboo into two basic categories, "clumping" and
"running". Everyone agrees the really bad type is the "running", which
has rhizomes (roots) that fan out in all directions as far as 2 feet
underground. As is found again and again, killing the stalks with even
the most powerful herbicides does NOT usually kill off the rhizomes.
Indeed, what happens when you hit a stand of running bamboo with anything
(digging, chopping, herbicides, burning, covering with plastic etc.), the
rhizomes go shooting off in all directions as a protection mechanism. So
basically all you do using the "non-salt" techniques is "**** it off",
making it come back with a fury down the line. Some experts recommend
digging a deep trench (2 feet) around the stand to cut off its escape, but
this is very expensive for the large stands we are talking about here, and
again folks have found this may or may not work (the rhizomes go under or
across if they have to, or just wait in place and grow new stalks later).
The "old hands" at these forums (who have dealt with bamboo a lot) scoff
at the techniques put forward by the so called "experts" (horticulturists
and academic researchers), pointing out that commonly rhizomes will
survive for years underground, only to grow new stalks in new places.

Yes some folks have met with success using the non-salt techniques, but
usually for small stands (say 10 x 10 ft or smaller) where they can
concentrate a lot of effort conveniently and at low cost. But even for
small stands, the forums give story after story of long term failure (they
think they got it at first, only to come back in two years and report that
now it's everywhere). But for the big stands (what we are talking about
here, say 1/2 acre or larger), the stories using non-salt techniques sound
like nightmares, with people waging exhausting and expensive multi-year
wars that they lose half the time (and as the old timers point out, the so
called "winners" are usually fooling themselves, cause it will usually
come back).
So WHY, WHY, WHY kill and bankrupt yourself. The non-salt techniques are
usually only practical for small stands anyway. Stop being some tree
hugging environmentalist and just SALT that puppy. KILL IT. KILL IT NOW,
before it has a chance to multiply. Use LOTS of salt, it's cheap and
easy. Salt a 10 foot wide perimeter around it to prevent its escape, its
cheap and easy. (Might want to do this about a month before salting the
stand itself to already have a deep and wide barrier set up, and then salt
the perimeter again when salting the stand). I'd say we used about 3
lbs per square yard.

Don't worry, grasses will start growing back in about a year, and you can
likely plant shrubs and trees a few years after that (remember, new
plantings will have their own fresh soil to grow in for a while, so by the
time their roots reach the old soil, the salt will be pretty washed out).
We have a beautiful Maple tree in the middle of the salt area, so we used
a half dosing around the root area. It was shocked initially (leaves
turned and dropped like it was fall), but it bounced back. Evidently, it
has enough deep roots below the salt to do fine, and likely the salt will
dissipate before it ever reaches them. It's realistically going to take
two or more years to clear a stand using a non-salt technique, so you
won't be able to grow ANYTHING for at least two years. At least with
salting grasses will start in about a year.

So all I can say now to folks trying to kill large stands of bamboo
without salt is . "heaven help you".


you are taking the entirely wrong approach:

http://sunsetbamboo101.com/wp-conten...mboo-hut-6.jpg

replying to Pico Rico , BillN wrote:
PicoRico wrote:

"BillN" wrote in
message

roups.com...
you are taking the entirely wrong approach:

http://sunsetbamboo101.com/wp-conten...mboo-hut-6.jpg



hehe.....Wish I had seen that sooner.

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