Hi, we moved into a new home earlier this year and the garden contained a large bamboo of which type i am unsure.

It was starting to grow in places i didn't want (on my lawn and gravel path) so i decided it was best to get rid of it and was advised by my neighbour to put in the hard work and dig it out using a mattock.

True to his word this was very hard work but i did get rid of all that i could see, admitedly digging down about 12 inches only. Since then new shoots have started to sprout and when i dug down to find their roots found that there were still masses of the large roots remaining and traveling under the railways sleepers, which the previous incumbents had used as border.

I am now getting the feeling it will be impossible to remove it completely and it is even growing through the gaps in my decking.

Can anyone offer any advise of how to get rid of it? I read in an older thread that i should use Round Up after cutting off the new shoots. Is this the answer?

Bamboos vary in how easy they are to get rid of, from Ok-ish to nearly impossible. Yours sounds like it is not so aggressive - you doesn't sound like the kind taht has shoots coming up 20 feet away from the main clump one year and then 20 feet further again the next season. So maybe it won't be so bad for you. With the less aggressive bamboos, they will usually eventually give up if you keep removing the shoots. They are hungry plants and with no photosynthesis won't last long. With Round-Up (glyphosate), you need to find a way to get it to move into the roots. Normally this is done by spraying the leaves, but you haven't got any leaves any more, and I suspect you don't want to let it shoot up again so you have leaves to spray. Maybe if you paint it onto the freshly cut surface of the new shoots it might translocate into the roots.

If I was your neighbour, I would indeed "advise" you to use all effort to get rid of it before it moved into my garden.

Just do not allow it to gain any top growth, cut the new shoots as
they appear (let them get a foot or so high to use up more stored
energy.
If any stands remain that are connected to the area you are trying to
clear you need to remove them or cut the rhizomes connecting the two
patches so it gets no food.
It just takes a bit of time to deplete any stored reserves and use up
the existing buds below ground.

Thanks guys, i will sit tight and keep on top of any new growth then.

Appreciate your time and advice

Hi,

The bamboo-like plant in your garden sounds like it could be Japanese knotweed. If so, it is very important that you do NOT dig it up, move it around the garden or cause it to spread.

At TP Knotweed Solutions we offer FREE identification and can then implement a Knotweed Management Plan (KMP) to eradicate the plant.

Please visit my website for further information and feel free to contact me if you would like any advice on Japanese knotweed.

The homes and mortgages section will offer you some further information too Home Owners & Mortgage Problems.

The website is TP Knotweed

Kind Regards,

TP Knotweed Solutions

I guess a nuclear bomb would be a useless solution then?