Bamboo advice please

kayen

Hello 

I was hoping to get some advice about some bamboo in a property I am buying.  

Can anyone identify what type it is and how difficult it would be to remove myself or ?need to get in the professionals?   It spans approx 5 metres along the garden x 45 cms deep to fence and 6 feet tall in places.  

thank you for any advice

Dustyevsky

Could be Phyllostachys nigra, in which case not much to worry about. If it's staying in a narrow band along the fence, it's a well behaved one regardless of exact ID.

Is it in the neighbour's garden too? Good chance to meet them. Neighbours are always potentially more of a problem than plants. Give me Japanese knotweed any day over a difficult neighbour!

Flugelhorn

definitely looks like black bamboo - Phyllostachys nigra

Mine is no trouble - I moved into a house 3 years ago and it was probably there 3-4 years before that, not spread so far 

greenbee

I've got some bamboo in my new garden that's started running. I'm planning on cutting it down and saving as much as I can to use as canes, poisoning it, and removing what's left with a digger (I need one for some other work). 

twopenny

Yes the lovely black stemmed one.

It does need some cleaning and maintenance.

It's possible that there is already a barrier burried there to prevent it running.

kayen

thank you everyone.  I looked up Phyllostachys nigra/ black bamboo- some sources say its clumping but still invasive and some say its a 'running; type- a tad confusing!   

Dustyevsky

It's expensive, which is a good indicator of it being reasonably well-behaved, but my experience of benign bamboos is that they can still run a little.

I'm semi-pro, so have access to some chemicals others don't use. I was surprised when I sprayed a friend's short, but running bamboo with Grazon Pro around this time last year. It vanished, suggesting they aren't very hard to kill.

FreeBear

Dustyevsky said:

It's expensive, which is a good indicator of it being reasonably well-behaved, but my experience of benign bamboos is that they can still run a little.

Have bamboo here that gives the impression of being clump forming. Had one clump that was minding its own business until I hacked back to ground level. Then off it went running 5-6m across the garden.... Broke two fit healthy yoofs that offered to dig it out for me. Darned hard work, and they failed to complete the task.

The drought last year killed off the biggest clump at the top of the garden, so I came up with a ruse* to get it out. A reciprocating saw with a carbide blade- Hack the clump in to manageable lumps (100-150mm square), and it comes out a breeze. Laid the lumps out on a tarp to dry out during the summer, and the darned stuff is throwing up fresh shoots. Wasps have also taken up residence, so I.m not getting too close to it at the moment.

*) Original thread here - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6441703/getting-rid-of-bamboo