PLEASE HELP! INVASIVE BAMBOO!

Hi,

I'm new here and hoping someone can help...

I have invasive running bamboo invading my garden from a neighbouring property.

I have rotavated the ground and installed a root barrier (neighbours want rid of the bamboo but poorly located next to and behind their shed. Root killer attempts have failed).

Short of digging the size of a small swimming pool and replacing the soil (access is almost impossible), I have no idea how to stop re-growth from the ground.

Someone suggested urea to kill off what is left in the ground. Does this work? What else would work?

Currently obsessed with researching and exhausting avenues...

Current location: Essex.

Many thanks

 

@Kimmelg is it regrowing? If the root barrier was put in deeply enough this should prevent it coming from the neighbours. Rake up rotavated roots dry and burn. Any regrowth spray with glyphosate.
For the neighbours patch spray with glyphosate, when it regrows repeat application, might take three or more application over 18- 24 months.
Urea is used commercially as a fertiliser, runway/airplane deicer and in "AdBlue", haven't heard of it killing bamboo.

 

Hi @NigelJ

Thanks for coming back to me.

The bamboo is regrowing but I can't dig deep enough to get the roots below where we have rotavated

I'm planning on decking the area and I'm worried that I'll be pulling up the decking in a couple of years only to have the same problem

Looking from the trench we dug to install the root barrier, the roots appear to be about 1-2 feet deep. The root barrier sits below this level.

I also have another problem where the bamboo is shooting up around my beloved apple tree, I can't spray weedkiller here as my poor tree will die too .

I found a post where it stated that urea / adblue would kill the bamboo but only if you used a lot of it, otherwise it would fertilise! How much is not enough?? I don't plan to plant anything in this area so killing off anything wouldn't matter.

This stuff should be illegal to sell!

I appreciate your help

 

You may need to let it get fairly leafy before adding the glyphosate, so that there is enough green leaf to absorb the weedkiller.
It shouldn't affect your apple tree unless you let the spray drift onto the leaves of the tree.

You could try applying glyphosate to the stems when a couple of feet high and then covering with big plastic bags which should have the effect of concentrating the weed killer.

 

I find multiple applications of glyphosate is enough to see off most weeds, but I've never had to battle bamboo.

A few tips re glyphosate:

The plant has to be actively photosynthesising for it to work. That means, counterintuitively, the plant should not be stressed by heat or dehydration when you spray it. If the ground is bone dry like mine is right now, it's best to water the target plant thoroughly the night before. This will ensure the tiny pores in the leaves through which it inhales co2 when active will be open. Those pores close up when the plant is stressed in order to conserve water. You want them open so the glyphosate can get in

Also because it has to be active, it's best to spray early in the morning. Then it's got all day to get absorbed while photosynthesis is going on. If you spray in the evening, it has less time to work before nightfall when photosynthesis stops. Then any glyphosate that has yet to be absorbed has all night to evaporate, or become inert.

Don't use cheapo Wilko's glyphosate. It's rubbish. Same active ingredient, but maybe it's different surfactant or something, I don't know, but I found it just doesn't work well

There might be a temptation to go crazy and spray every day. No point. It won't work any faster and is just a waste of money. Spray it, then wait at least a few days before repeating. Glyphosate doesn't look like it's working immediately. That's because it works by interfering with the plants ability to move nutrients around, so just because it takes time to see any visible effects doesn't mean it's not slowly killing the plant from inside.

Don't be tempted to dig it up once you've sprayed it. You want the whole plant to remain intact, otherwise the glyphosate won't make its way through the whole system.

When it looks well and truly dead, still don't dig it up. Chop it down to a couple of feet high. There's a chance that little baby plants underneath the bulk of it were protected from the spray, like an umbrella. See if there's any regrowth after a few days, and spray again if there is.

Only when it's well and truly dead, then clear it away. No need to dig it out, as glyphosate kills the roots too

All of the above was stuff I learned in my battle against bindweed and russian vine, but I'm sure the same applies with other tough cookies.

 

I'd ban Adblue like a shot, but I presume you mean the bamboo.
Link would be helpful as I haven't come across this before.
What I did find was this "Over fertilizing with a high nitrogen type fertilizer like Urea can actually burn the bamboo and cause the leaves to drop off!" No mention of it killing it dead.
Also this might be of interest PLEASE HELP! How to get rid of bamboo - bambooweb.info
Note the urea will possibly kill the apple tree as well as the bamboo.

 

Not being a diesel driver I had to look up Adblue.

 

Get some Gallup XL it's around £56 for 5 litres. Make sure uts gallup XL.
120mls per 5 litres is enough to kill grass for around 2 years. Brambles for a year and a half and docks and anything like that will destroy it all the way to the root. Quick spray at Dock bottoms and a flick over the leafs. Bye bye now and anything else down wind.

But for bamboo I'd make it 300mls. It won't come back. Nor will anything else for some time.

To kill anything like a hedge, tree lop off the tops and leave bare open woody cuts. Paint it on neat.

Don't apply before rain. Wait two weeks with no change and suddenly everything living goes red ... and then dies and disintegrates.

 

Gallup XL is high strength glyphosate and you will probably have 4.7 L sat in the shed for the rest of your life.
If you do use something like this make sure not to get any on your apple tree.

 

Yeah .... ... its great. Bought 5 litres about 8 years ago and still have 2.5 lites left. Pussy willow is an extremely invasive plant that takes over hedgerows very quickly because it never stops blesses growing. As I stare out at the sickly clumps amongst the oak, Hazel and Beech I feel little to no remorse. The willow that began as an annoying indestructible sapling and developed into a meter wide impenetrable thug in two years didn't like it very much either and the bay tree that someone had planted next to the house we bought refused to die. It was cut off at ground level and drilled and drilled to fill up with nice water. And each year it still kept on sending up suckers. Then I happened to speak to a council groundsman one day and he gave me his wisdom. I remember that bay tree ... sigh. The only thing that's managed to shrug it off was some oxalis. I like oxalis so I was disappointed that some had gone down wind and made it ill. But I've Watered well and it's bounced back. Most doesn't. I only need to spray a few leaves on the feral brambles coming through from not my stuff and it soon sees them off. Great stuff. Use so little its way better than roundup. I use about 240 mls every two years.

 

Glyphosate is not a persistent weedkiller. It should kill the bamboo, which won't come back, but anything else planted/seeded later won't be harmed. A weedkiller such as Chikara will persist for five months or so, and kill any replanting. Sodium chlorate, which was banned years ago, would persist for 6 months or longer.

I've got some Rosate 360, which is similar to Gallup XL, and yes, it too is very useful

 

Sort of mostly true. But....

Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide meaning it interferes with the chemical processes in the plant, effectively reversing it's nutrient uptake, causing it to starve. Once it does its job, the plant is dead, but any seeds it sheds (not sure if that's an issue with bamboo) are unaffected. Also anywhere where the plant is damaged will stop the glyphosate getting all the way down, so any root damage for example could see new sprouts coming up from the roots. This is why it's prudent to carpet bomb the target, leave it intact until it's about dead, cut back but not all the way, observe for a few weeks, and attack again if anything new pops up.

 

I've got a 5 ltr can of Gallup and I gave some of it away, I doubt I will use it all in my lifetime.
Its was only around 30 quid before covid, for some reason now stupid prices.

I'm not keen on overdosing anything to a great degree with this stuff even though they say it breaks down when it hits the soil, I do find at the higher dilution rates it kills ivy quite well.

I normally use SBK for stumps and for killing woody plants.

Id really like to get totally shot of Oxalis, its a real pain, I even prefer bindweed to that stuff, and that's saying something.
There are a few nice cultivated types of Oxalis and I dont mean them.