Bamboozled

[bungeejumper]

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the kitchen......

Worrying stuff! https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... tiful-home

BJ

[Nimrod103]

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the kitchen......

Worrying stuff! https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... tiful-home

BJ

Yes, sale in the UK should be banned, along with several other invasive plants. But surely glyphosate would deal with the problem?

[bungeejumper]

Yes, sale in the UK should be banned, along with several other invasive plants. But surely glyphosate would deal with the problem?

I suspect that the time for a ban would have been in the Victorian era. (When there were crazes for other deadly colonial exotics such as thorn apples, whose seeds can survive for 100 years. As I once found out. )

The article points out that not all bamboos are suspect. We had a clumping Victorian bamboo in our garden which was easy to dig up and destroy. But the running varieties are destructive, and apparently too deep and vigorous for most weedkillers.

It'll probably make a suitable theme for a horror movie. Not just the wholesale damage to people's homes, but the idea of all those dagger-sharp little spikes coming up in the lawn where children play football. And as for cycle paths......

BJ

[Lootman]

Yes, sale in the UK should be banned, along with several other invasive plants. But surely glyphosate would deal with the problem?

I suspect that the time for a ban would have been in the Victorian era. (When there were crazes for other deadly colonial exotics such as thorn apples, whose seeds can survive for 100 years. As I once found out. )

The article points out that not all bamboos are suspect. We had a clumping Victorian bamboo in our garden which was easy to dig up and destroy. But the running varieties are destructive, and apparently too deep and vigorous for most weedkillers.

We put the runner varieties in a steel or aluminium planter box and, so far (a decade or more) they have not grown where we do not want them to.

Of course if your neighbours plant runners in the ground close to your property, then you can either have the conversation now or later.

[88V8]

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the kitchen......

Funny you should mention that.

We inherited some bamboo planted by the PO perhaps 30 years ago. The largest clump has hitherto showed no inclination to spread, but this year it has thrown up new canes 8-10ft distant. My wife's shed is nearby, so far they have not spread in that direction. So far.
And the new canes, you can see here two that have yet to grow their leaves, they have grown from nothing this year and when I cut them down they will be nigh on twenty feet long, a good 2-3 feet longer than past years'.
They are also getting thicker, approaching an inch.

I have to cut them because they are under 15kv power lines and the power co's tree warden will get agitated.

It's useful having one's own canes, but perhaps now too much of a good thing.

[GoSeigen]

We had some 500sqm of the stuff which responded well to a glyphosate treatment about two years ago. But it killed all the other plants too, which have somewhat recovered this year from seeds presumably.

Funnily enough I've just today pulled out two tufts of the bamboo which somehow escaped or survived the herbicide: might have to be vigilant for a couple more years.

GS

[DrFfybes]

We had it at the bottom of the garden at the lst place, coming in from the neighbours.

With his permission (thanks mate) we dug most of it out of both gardens, pouring glyphosate into the stem hollows and painting the leaves. About 2 x 30 min sessions each weekend for 6-8 months. We ended up going down nearly a metre.

The following year it appeared in the field behind, about 10 feet from the fenceline.

Our problem here is Aspen shoots from the council woodland next door. They planted them about 10 years ago, there must be clumps of 30-50 in places, and large ones off runners 20m from the original planting. We're getting shoots all over our lawn no, up to 50m from the woodland and approaching the house. We have informed them.

Paul

[GoSeigen]

Our problem here is Aspen shoots from the council woodland next door. They planted them about 10 years ago, there must be clumps of 30-50 in places, and large ones off runners 20m from the original planting. We're getting shoots all over our lawn no, up to 50m from the woodland and approaching the house. We have informed them.

We've been fighting a similar battle with Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) and Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) both of which sucker from their roots. The former seems particularly resilient as we have been poisoning the suckers twice annually for almost four years since cutting down the mature trees and it keeps coming, though visibly much weaker than before.

I've become firmly of the opinion that it's better not to plant these things in the first place and find an alternative than to try to deal with them later!


GS