Bamboo Management

(I searched permies a little and failed to find this, so I'm asking here.)

I always watch Geoff Lawton's Discover Permaculture youtube videos as they come out. In one of them, I think I heard him say something like "If you can count to four, there's no reason for your bamboo to ever be out of control". Assuming my memory is mostly correct on this, I don't think he explained what I was meant to count. I'm looking for the video, but haven't found it again yet. (If anyone knows which one it is, please post a link.)

Does anyone know about this? (I have asked on his site, but haven't gotten a response yet. It's only been a few days, I may still get an answer there. The other comments there are older, though, so I don't know if that site is still actively monitored.

My bamboo has outgrown the area I'd like it contained in. Geoff's comments made management sound very simple, so I'd like to know more about it. Or any other very easy method. Failing that, I've heard it can be contained by digging and maintaining a trench around it. The runners don't seem to run very deep, and apparently won't cross an air gap. Sounds like the first edge of the trench it encounters needs to be fairly vertical, or it would just think it was growing down a hill.

I've dug those roots before. Should be a piece of cake. I have a meadow creature. That can handle it. (But I can't. Anyone have a gorilla or a clydesdale I could borrow? Well trained?) Too bad I don't have a tiller. Or a backhoe. Or dynamite.

I estimate I have a decade or more before it spreads far enough to endanger my good neighbor status, but I figure now's the time to get on top of it, not when it's just about to escape my property.

Thoughts or guidance appreciated. Thank you.

Does Geoff grow clumpers or runners?

Gray Henon wrote:Does Geoff grow clumpers or runners?

I'm not sure if he told.

I don't have any bamboo, but some of my neighbors do.  I think they control theirs by mowing a swath or two to keep new shoots from developing.  Is there any reason you can't use this approach?

Eric

Gray nailed it, you want clumping bamboo if you want a chance of containing it, runners require a lot of work and digging.  I have used mylar buried at depth to contain runners, but to no avail - just a lot of work.

I remember in one of the classes of Geoff's PDC, he talked about the different species and the interesting bit that runners and clumpers grow in opposite seasons.  If it isn't the season for growth, there is 0 growth.  Now there must be a grand plan for that somewhere...

Eric Hanson wrote:I don't have any bamboo, but some of my neighbors do.  I think they control theirs by mowing a swath or two to keep new shoots from developing.  Is there any reason you can't use this approach?

Eric

Three sides of the grove always get mowed back. Those culms don't regrow, so it's a success that far. But the roots and/ or runners stay alive.

To make it easier to explain, because I'm lazy, pretend my grove is a circle. It's radius is "r". Year one of expansion, I still have a circle of mature culms, radius: "r". In spring, it becomes surrounded by a concentric circle of new culms, radius: "r+x". I mow down that concentric circle, and this years culms don't grow back. The visible part of the grove is "r" again. But the roots live. So year two, concentric circle, radius "r+2x". Et cetera.

Again, it looks like I have a decade or more before it gets to the property line, but the roots have to be controlled in order to get it in check.

calbo collier wrote:Gray nailed it, you want clumping bamboo if you want a chance of containing it, runners require a lot of work and digging.  I have used mylar buried at depth to contain runners, but to no avail - just a lot of work.

I got the bamboo for Christmas, bought from the only local seller I'm aware of. She was told he only had runners. There were six varieties originally, but only two survived. They  were sold as Phyllostachys Rubrumarginata and Phyllostachys Aureosulcata Aureocaulis. It's already established, so I'll have to do the work, move, or die before it reaches the property line.

T,

I didn’t realize that the runners continued to grow laterally even after being mowed.  I get it now.

Eric

I'm starting bamboo on my homestead this year and did a lot of YouTube and web research. Really interesting stuff.
From what I understand, the easiest but longer way to get rid of bamboo is to cut it off at ground level. Then in the spring when the shoots come up, let them grow until the branches come out, but before the leaves do. Cut it off at ground level. Repeat each year for a few years till the root system is depleted and dead.

I would think you could contain running bamboo by going around the perimeter of you area with a shovel and just cutting into the ground to sever the runners, then letting the outliers sprout, cut them off just before leaf out, and letting the roots you don't want to just die off.
I think that's what I would try anyway.

Someone at Geoff Lawton's site found me a link to the video. (A couple months ago, I forgot to follow up here.) So here it is, in case anyone should find it helpful.

Geoff grows both clumpers and runners on Zaytuna Farm.

Runners can be kept in check by deep soil compaction and water trenches that are flooded when the bamboo grows roots.
That's how he does it.