Bamboo

[winchman]

My son is looking at a house that has a large patch 20ft diameter of Bamboo in the middle of a lawn, its about 12-15ft height from memory.

So how do we remove it?

And a small patch of Nettles

[Stere]

Balsam is very easy to remove and bonus is the viable seedbank doesn't last very long

 

Only problem is not good is its seeding from next door etc

[sime42]

17 hours ago, winchman said:

My son is looking at a house that has a large patch 20ft diameter of Bamboo in the middle of a lawn, its about 12-15ft height from memory.

So how do we remove it?

And a small patch of Nettles

 

It's doable but hard work, and it'll be a long job. As previously said: you can tackle it with a combination of cutting, digging and glyposating, where necessary. Wait a few months, repeat. And again. Hence the lawn will not be a lawn for at least a year, (or a bit longer, to be sure that it's eradicated). Good news that you only have an isolated patch to deal with, it'd be a perpetual battle if coming in from outside the boundary.

I've heard it being increasingly classified alongside Knotweed as problematic in the house purchase process. The roots are not deep fortunately, unlike Knotweed, but they're incredibly tough. They form an almost impenetrable mat. I found a mattock to be the only really effective tool, if doing it by hand. 

 

 

[Muddy42]

I agree with all of the above about abusing the bamboo with maximum cutting and poison. 

 

Just one more thought, once you have got the stems to ground level, between cycles of cutting and poison, you could cover the bamboo with a weed proof membrane.  This would stop any sunlight or other weeds growing or children touching the poison.  You could even cover the membrane with fake astroturf lawn?

[AHPP]

Can you make glyphosate or whatever poison into a jelly or mousse (or even a soufflé)? It could be cast over a patch and left to sit and dribble with gravity and time. Like a block of it under an upturned bath for a couple of years. 
 

As it happens, I don’t like poisons and I’d rather digger and mattock it out, but should Monsanto see this and make millions, I want my cut. 

Edited yesterday at 12:24 by AHPP

[winchman]

Thanks for all your input, let's see if his offer is accepted!

We have a very old JCB so that should help digging it out, how would you get rid of the cuttings?

No hurry for a nice lawn as the rest of the lawn is about 18" high

[Muddy42]

5 hours ago, AHPP said:

Can you make glyphosate or whatever poison into a jelly or mousse (or even a soufflé)? It could be cast over a patch and left to sit and dribble with gravity and time. Like a block of it under an upturned bath for a couple of years. 
 

As it happens, I don’t like poisons and I’d rather digger and mattock it out, but should Monsanto see this and make millions, I want my cut. 

Ive never come across anything that wont survive 2 or 3 doses of max strength glyphosate performed in dry weather.

 

I sometimes have to do more doses, but thats because I have missed some or it rained!

 

you can even inject it down the hollow stems of things like bamboo or knotweed

[green heart]

2 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

Ive never come across anything that wont survive 2 or 3 doses of max strength glyphosate performed in dry weather.

 

you can even inject it down the hollow stems of things like bamboo or knotweed

 

This technique works well, whenever we've had to treat Bamboo, over the years.

 

Also, adding some sticky adjuvent to the herbicide mix, for foliar sprays (on fresh growth) helps with results.

 

Unlike with Japanese knotweed rhizomes, I do suspect a VERY thorough session with a decent stump grinder, would likely put an immediate (and very significant/terminal dent) in the Bamboo. You would need to grind down to an 18'' depth, tho ?

Any surviving regrowth would be easy enough to dig/spray off.

 

 

[Muddy42]

8 hours ago, green heart said:

 

This technique works well, whenever we've had to treat Bamboo, over the years.

 

Also, adding some sticky adjuvent to the herbicide mix, for foliar sprays (on fresh growth) helps with results.

 

Unlike with Japanese knotweed rhizomes, I do suspect a VERY thorough session with a decent stump grinder, would likely put an immediate (and very significant/terminal dent) in the Bamboo. You would need to grind down to an 18'' depth, tho ?

Any surviving regrowth would be easy enough to dig/spray off.

 

 

 

Agreed, the only thing I find with those additives is they can bung up the sprayer nozzles.  That's fine if you are doing a lot and can rinse out the sprayer afterwards, but I have one sprayer that is permanently filled with glyphosate.