Getting rid of bamboo roots

My daughter has just bought a house where bamboo has run wild in the garden. Need to get rid but don’t fancy digging out the roots . Is there a good way of doing this ? thanks in advance

 

Sadly that is the only way to go. We moved into a house with a clump of the stuff eventually after 4 years managed to get rid of all the roots to stop the bamboo poking up through my new border.
Or just employ a gardener with some heavy digging equipment

 

The best way to get the roots out, is employ some one to do it for you!
Failing that, it's hard graft. You'll need a mattock, a breaker bar, a reciprocating saw..... a jcb, some c4....ok, maybe a little extreme with the jcb AND c4.
Dig a trench in front of the bamboo if possible and work your way through the roots. Once you've exposed some, use the saw to cut lumps out. It is a laborious process, but it's a good workout.
It's best to cut the culms down to the ground to give better access.

 

Note the cut down culms leave very hard stubs sticking up, I even felt them through the soles of the gardening boots; so watch out where you kneel or put your hands.
If you have a big patch to do then hiring a mini digger with or without operator is worth considering.

 

Is it not possible to poison them?

 

Repeated spraying with glyphosate or brushwood killer will stop the bamboo from growing, the roots will remain and make planting/cultivation difficult. So whatever you do the roots really need to come out.

 

Thank you. I’ve got some clumping bamboo planted and just wondered…thinking ahead you see

 

Clumping bamboo won’t run @Panda2, so you and your neighbours will be safe, provided it really is a clumping bamboo !

 

I’ve been working on the same thing over the last couple of weeks having done the same thing as your daughter - bought a house with an established bamboo in the garden. It turned out to be a running type that wasn’t planted with a root barrier and this year’s growth has seen it go under the fence with shoots coming up in the next door neighbour’s gravel path as well as in two of my raised beds, so it had to go!

I first got a tree surgeon in who used a chain saw to cut it down to ground level then used a stump grinder to chew up the root system on my side of the fence.

Then, a mini digger was used to get out everything that had gone under the fence and into next door’s garden.

The last step was the most laborious bit, sifting through all the disturbed soil by hand to remove all bits of rhizome that were left to reduce the chances of it growing back. I’m about 2/3 of the way through this - will hopefully get it finished this week so we can put the fence back up. It’s highly unlikely that I’ll get all of it out but I plan to put some heavy duty weed barrier over it to block all light and then keep an eye on it for a year or two to see if any new shoots appear. If they do, I’ll dig them out straight away. I’ll only plant something else in the area once I know it’s completely gone.

Hope you manage to get rid of it successfully! From what I’ve read, weed killers don’t seem to be very effective.

 

Thanks for your reply. Beginning to think even the SAS can help my daughter!

From what everyone appears to be saying, we'll dig it out. Trouble in that we've got this one at the front and there's at least 2 in the back! I know the neighbour next door will be appreciative!

 

I hope you/she gets there @MrHappyDays , but it certainly won't be easy. Even so called clumping ones can create problems in the right conditions/site for them to thrive.

I remember an established, long term expert on them [had a national collection I think] doing an item on G's World many, many years ago saying they could all be problematic in the right conditions.

 

You could say that for many plants if they're planted in the wrong place and not maintained properly though @fairygirl. If they are carefully planted and managed, bamboos can add many attractive qualities to a garden, including height, colour, movement and sound and they are not bothered by slugs or other common pests. You can tell, I like them! I've been growing them for over 20 years in two different gardens without any problems. I keep a close eye on them and reduce the number of canes to a manageable number every year.

I think the main problem with bamboo is that property developers, so called experts on garden makeover programmes and unknowing homeowners plant them to provide instant screening in unsuitable places without barriers or consideration about future growth. The homeowner then has no idea how to manage them and lets them get out of control.

Also bamboos are often incorrectly described by plant growers and sellers as clumping types when they are not and the result is an invasive plant with a bad reputation. It seems that all varieties are then considered undesirable, unfairly in my opinion.

 

I disagree with the suggestion to cut the culms right down. I left about 3 to 4 feet which meant it was possible to get really good purchase on the stems when trying to get around and under the roots. Mine was a clump about 12' by 3'. I dug round the whole thing with a pick and mattock, then chopped through with an axe to reduce it to chunks about 2' long. Started digging under the clump from one side and then had somebody pulling the clump away from where I was working. That made it much easier to cut through the larger roots and pull clumps out. They don't root very deep but it's very hard work and I wouldn't have fancied trying to work on a larger expanse. I only saw a couple of stray tips appear in the lawn and constant mowing saw them off. That was over 10 years ago and there has been no regrowth.

 

I always leave something to lever the plant out with as well and luckily bamboo doesn't have tap roots.

 

There are very scary tales of Bamboo in todays free electronic Daily Mail.