Getting rid of heavenly bamboo for good??
Heidi Wright
3 years ago
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Please help me get rid of this bamboo
Comments (9)First, don't bother with herbicides as they generally don't hurt the bamboo, but can do a lot of damage to other plants. Second, the advice of the American Bamboo Association is to keep watering it and cutting it down until you kill it by exhausting it, which supposedly takes a couple of years. I've never tried this and I'm skeptical that it will work over such a large expanse with such a well-established root system. I believe your only recourse is further digging. I have a lot of bamboo around my yard, some with barriers and some without, When uncontained bamboo escape into my yard, my tool of preference is not a shovel. I use a pickaxe and start chopping with the pointy end along the line of survival shoots. Then I use the pointy end to pry the rhizome out. Sometimes, if I am in the middle of a rhizome, I just cut it in half and start working on each of the two pieces separately as it is easier to pry out rhizome that has a loose end. When I get a foot or two or rhizome out of the ground, I start pulling on it, and sometimes it sort of "unzips" from the ground for many feet. This is where it would help to have a friend with some upper body strength. Also be aware -- when wrestling out a piece or prying hard -- that you do not want to be off-balance if the rhizome snaps: I've had a couple of spectacular tumbles until I learned this. Because the roots are tenacious, prying them out will do some damage to the lawn. I always have some extra dirt around to fill in where I need to and to help the grass grow back. I'm sorry that I don't have a magic solution, but at this point I think you'll just have to keep up your removal efforts. I think the other things you have done with trenches sound good....See MoreGetting Rid of Bamboo
Comments (36)OP described one way running bamboo can become a nuisance, by deliberate planting which still occurs in some places. However around here (midAtlantic) Golden Bamboo Phyllostachys aurea, is routinely dumped. Homeowners dig it up, take it to the local roadside and dump it. Left unchecked, it forms large colonies. I was part of a volunteer group that got together to rid this species from our park. The colony was about one acre. It took 4 workdays but we cut and removed it all. That was 4 years ago, sadly it has all come back with a vengeance. It really wasn't followed up on.Yours truly has started the process all over again. This pic shows recently cut stems painted over with 41% glyphosate (undiluted) Regarding foliar applications with either herbicide or vinegar/salt I have no experience. Normally with herbicide backpack sprayer temps must be 60 F or higher. Seeing how this is a bamboo forum it really cannot be repeated enough, Golden Bamboo really has no redeeming qualities. A large infestation of this Chinese weed on the property is a liability. ZERO wildlife value of any type. One USDA site says "birds & small mammals are reported to feed on seed". Anyone familiar with this species knows the fallacy in that statement. It may be that pandas eat the foliage, I'm really not sure. Either way that's not a justification for growing it here. To finish on a positive note, one can collect up stems and use them for fire kindling. They burn fast and hot, even when green. They will make popping sounds but not a real problem....See MoreGetting rid of this stuff
Comments (5)Smilax sp. are a favorite food source of birds, so you will never be free of the vines. There are 20 Smilax species in the US and 14 are native to GA. 9 of those are found state-wide or nearly so and you may find several different ones in your garden. I have found one that is an attractive plant and I grow it as an ornamental. Smilax pumila(humilis) has red berries, bronze winter foliage and no thorns, a few prickles are found sometimes near the base and has no tendrils(non-climbing). Usually grows upright for only a few feet or trails on the ground. Smilax smallii is the highest climbing species, reaching heights of more than 30 feet. It has a few prickles, but no thorns. Smilax laurifolia is the most viciously armed of the species. Good luck with eradicating them! I usually find one or two each year that has escaped detection among large Azaleas and the battle is on!...See MoreDwarf Nandina...Heavenly Bamboo
Comments (7)One of the "errors" I see most with Nandina is that they are planted singly or linearly and that isn't necessarily the best way to display them, especially under adverse conditions. The "problem" is that they are resilient plants amd will often survive without ever thriving. I think Nandina is a victim of it's own successful reputation in that respect. They work well massed together and can have a luxurious tropical-esque effect when arranged that way. If they've become scraggly they can be pruned, fertilized, and mulched. Although they will grow just about anywhere they need a nicely cultivated well-drained soil to reach their full potential. That'll go a long ways toward keeping them fully leafed out from top-to-bottom and avoiding the "stick" look. If your circumstances don't permit adding more nandina for dimension to the planting then you can still improve the soil around them and add dimension by planting ground cover at the base or adding any variety of shorter flowering vines to the planting or interspersing some of the shorter ornamental grasses here-and-there to lend interest, wind motion, and dimension. MichaelAT...See MoreHeidi Wright
3 years agoHeidi Wright
3 years agoThere are a couple smaller ones that I can probably dig up fine. One is large in the back of the house and one on the corner that is about twice that size. Then a bed full of I have no idea what besides daffodils and the nandina. In this bed on the back of the house there is what looks like the nandina and azaleas alternating, but the nandina is growing in the azalea bush. I don't know if I can manage to save the azalea or not.
And the random bed.
Phoenix Rising (Zone 7a/b, NJ)
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
3 years ago
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