How To Remove Bamboo From Your Yard?

Bamboo is a fast-growing perennial in the grass family. It produces tall, slender stems joined at the base. Their stems are a sturdy, natural material that builders use as a renewable source of wood to construct buildings and replace hardwoods like cedar and mahogany.

It also serves as a food source, producing edible seeds, known as bamboo rice with an aromatic flavor and sticky texture. You can find more than 1,500 species of bamboo, which fall under two classifications: runners and clumpers.

• Culms: They are the upright stems, also known as canes
• Rhizomes: They are perennial stems that run horizontally underground and contribute to the spread of the colony, they grow roots and culms as they travel.
• Nodes: They are the joints between sections of culm or rhizome, and are the point from which leafy branches emerge, in bamboo, the nodes are solid.
• Internodes: They are any sections of culm or rhizome in between nodes, in bamboo, they are hollow.
• Sheaths: They are the papery protective covers on new emerging culms, they shed as the culms grow and add to the leafy litter mulching the ground at plant's base.

Types Of Bamboo

Running bamboo is more challenging to remove than clumping bamboo because its rhizomes grow outward, allowing additional shoots to sprout and grow. 

1. Clumping Bamboo

They are less invasive and have shorter rhizomes than running bamboo, making them easier to contain. It also shows slower vertical growth before producing a culm.

2. Running Bamboo

It is more invasive and harder to control than clumping bamboo. Its rhizomes spread horizontally, sending up multiple culms and quickly establishing bamboo groves.

Usually in milder climates where bamboo thrives, this could mean year-round removal efforts until the grove is eliminated. If it's spreading rapidly, damaging hard surfaces, or outcompeting other plants, you can remove it from your yard.

It normally spreads by rhizomes in the soil, so to remove it completely, you must attack the aboveground greenery and the below-the-surface shoots. It requires a diligent effort to begin in the spring and continue throughout its growing cycle.

When to remove

• If bamboo spreads rapidly into neighborhood properties, you can take necessary measures to remove or contain its spread.
• It may be causing damage to hard surfaces.
• If bamboo is damaging buildings, you can remove it completely.
• If you see the bamboo outcompeting other plants, you can contain its spread.

Controlling Bamboo spread can be overwhelming as new shoots develop and spread throughout the lawn. You should remove its shoots before new growth starts to overtake your yard saving some time and energy later.

It can potentially encroach on neighboring properties, outcompete other plants, and cause significant damage to structures or landscaping, making it difficult to control and remove once established. 

Here are some key reasons to remove bamboo from your yard:

1. Aggressive spread:

It is the most significant reason to remove bamboo. They spread horizontally through underground stems called rhizomes, which can extend many feet away from the original planting.

Especially the running varieties are highly invasive, spreading rapidly through underground rhizomes and overtaking your garden precluding other properties, and leading to disputes.

2. Difficult to control: 

Once it is established, it becomes challenging to remove bamboo due to its extensive underground rhizome system. Even the smaller rhizome fragments left in the soil can sprout new shoots.

The longer you wait, the stronger the rhizome spreads, and the harder it is to remove completely. It can also take years of dedicated effort to eliminate an established bamboo grove.

3. Damage to infrastructure:

The rhizomes are strong and persistent. Bamboo roots can grow under foundations and pathways, causing cracks, heaving, and other structural damage. 

This can lead to costly repairs and even compromise the stability of structures.

4. Impact on native plants:

Dense bamboo can outcompete native plants reducing biodiversity in your yard. These invasive bamboo species can significantly impact the environment outcompeting other plants for resources like sunlight, water, and soil nutrients.

Also, it can crowd out native plant species, reducing the habitat available for natural wildlife, and creating a monoculture, which is unhealthy for a thriving ecosystem. This loss of biodiversity can disrupt local ecosystems. 

Digging up bamboo takes effort, it can be a year or more until the plant achieves eradication. This method is thus recommended only for smaller patches or clumping varieties, as it doesn't contain rhizomes and becomes easier to remove from the soil.

Step 1: Wet the soil

Water the bamboo patch with a sprinkler, allowing the moisture to soak into the soil for about half an hour to make it wet before digging up.

Making soil wet aids in digging around the base of bamboo to remove the stalks and the plant.

Step 2: Use a handsaw to remove the stalks

After making it wet, cut down the bamboo with pruners or saw to remove its stalks, so only a small amount of greenery extends from the soil.

Step 3: Dig around the base of the bamboo with a shovel

Using a shovel, dig around the base of the bamboo plant to loosen the soil so that you can easily pluck the base of the plant out.

Step 4: Pull the plant out, making sure to remove all rhizomes

After digging around the base with a shovel, you can pull the plant from the ground, rootball, and all.

For non-clumping varieties, follow the plant's rhizomes to remove all its underground shoots. You can also use an axe to break up the rhizomes, to remove all the pieces if possible.

Step 5: Repeat until nothing grows back.

Repeat the same process until you've dug up completely, and remove the patch until nothing grows back.

Also, dig up new shoots once they form, and remove the rhizomes below the surface.

This is another method for ridding your yard of bamboo, which includes smothering the plant with tarps. Using tarps to kill bamboo works by avoiding sunlight and oxygen to the plant, essentially suffocating it. 

This typically takes around two or more months. You should monitor the situation as the bamboo may spread beyond the covered perimeter. 

Step 1: Cut Bamboo

The first step is to use pruners or a handsaw to cut the bamboo to ground level. 
Cutting it to the ground level removes the visible part of the plant and prepares the area for covering.

Step 2: Cover With Tarps or Garbage Bags

After cutting, cover the area where the bamboo is growing with dark plastic tarps or garbage bags.
Covering it creates darkness, which is crucial in blocking sunlight and restricting plants from producing energy through photosynthesis.

Step 3: Securing The Tarps

It's crucial to secure the tarps firmly in place using landscaping pins, rocks, or other heavy objects. 

Securing prevents the wind from blowing them away and ensures that the bamboo remains covered.

Step 4: Wait

It is the most time-consuming part of the process. You should wait several weeks or months until the contents below the tarps suffocate. 
The lack of sunlight and limited oxygen will weaken and kill the plant's root system.

Step 5: Dealing With New Sprouts

Even after covering it well, the new sprouts sometimes emerge from the rhizomes beyond the tarps from the ground.

If this happens, you should cut these new sprouts down and re-cover the area immediately with the tarps again. 

This removal method involves cutting the plants to ground level to prevent them from completing photosynthesis. Some experts recommend continuously cutting to its ground level and watering the area to eradicate it.

It might need to be repeated for upto six months to achieve full removal.

Step1: Cut the bamboo just above the first or second node from the ground

At first, you should cut the bamboo just above its first or second node to ground level with pruners or a handsaw. The immature ones can get moved down with a lawnmower.

This prevents rainwater from collecting and stagnating, which can attract insects and rot.

Step 2: Water the Area

After cutting it to the ground level, water the area thoroughly with a garden hose or a sprinkler. 

Step 3: Repeat

Repeat this cutting and watering process until you remove all the roots of their energy store. Eventually, they will no longer send up new shoots.

Also, make sure to rot any remaining rhizomes in the soil to avoid newer growth.

Bamboo is a hardy and durable plant, using herbicides can prevent newer growth but doesn't fully regrowth. The earlier you apply the herbicide, the more effective it will be.

This method is most effective after the clums are mowed and regrow to a height of 3 feet or until the leaves expand. Small leafy roots can be sprayed anytime during the growing season. Also, the systemic herbicides are most effective when applied from mid-September to mid-October and repeated in 14 days.

• Apply a herbicide to the area after the new growth of leaves.
• Use a full-strength glyphosate or grass herbicide directly on the new bamboo growth each time it appears to kill the bamboo to the root.
• For the herbicide to be effective, you must be consistent with the spray sprinkle as it should be done as soon as the new shoots appear.
• Repeat applications for several years if necessary.

Regular mowing helps hinder new growth by restricting unwanted bamboo and eliminating the plant over time. It mostly works for shorter, younger bamboo shoots, as you can't use a lawnmower to mow down fully grown tall shoots.

For taller ones, you should first cut them as low to the ground with a garden lopper or chainsaw before mowing them. When new sprouts emerge, you can mow over them with your lawnmower.

It discourages regrowth and new bamboo sprouts are easier to cut. While this method reduces new growth shoots, it might take 2-3 years for a noticeable reduction in new growth. Before you mow, cut down the bamboo to ground level with a saw and mow new bamboo growth on the lowest lawnmower setting. Be consistent in mowing down regularly.

Another removal method is to pour boiling water on the exposed rhizomes by removing the soil using a shovel or spade.

First, you have to dig around the bamboo plants using a spade or shovel to expose the root system. Then, pour the boiling water over the rhizomes as it restricts future growth, however, you should be consistent.

You should keep repeating this process to remove the bamboo shoots from being developed if you see any new signs of a new sprout.

When digging up bamboo, it might help to have a sifter, so you can sift it through the soil to locate rotten rhizomes. Ensure you haven't left any rhizomes behind as it can result in a new shoot.

You can enlist the help of buried barriers while smothering by fencing in the bamboo sinking a plastic tarp into the ground around the grove. The barriers should run 30 inches deep and extend a few inches above the ground to prevent rhizomes from weaseling over the top.

Bamboo containment is a great way to restrict bamboo plants from spreading in your yard while still enjoying the privacy and serenity it offers.

If you are not thinking of removing it, there are a few ways to control bamboo growth and incorporate the plant into your habitat.

Installing Rhizome Barrier

It is a great way to incorporate bamboo into your landscaping. You can install a 60-mm polypropylene or 80-mm high-density polyethylene barrier to prohibit it from spreading and protect other plants. 

Dig a 24-30 inch deep trench around your bamboo. Then, slip a 30 to 36-inch wide barrier into the trench, with 6 inches of material above the ground. The above-ground protection ensures that your plant doesn't grow over the barrier.

Potting

This is the simplest way to contain your bamboo shoot. You can choose a sturdy container, as bamboo roots can crack the plastic. Make sure your container has proper drainage and soak the bamboo's rhizomes.

Then, pot your bamboo with 50/50 compost and potting mix and water regularly.

Sever the rhizomes

Take your shovel and keep digging into the ground, creating a perimeter on the base. Sever all the rhizomes a few times a year to keep bamboo from spreading.