Hi!

I applaud your efforts to help eradicate this invasive plant! We have an excellent and detailed resource on Bamboo removal that I recommend you check out. If the bamboo is entering from a neighboring yard, I recommend installing a Bamboo Barrier around the border of your yard. While you eradicate the rest of the bamboo, this will help prevent it from reentering your property.

If you prefer to tackle this yourself and you are able, you can use large loppers to clip off the bamboo at the base of the culm (stem) and paint with herbicide. Systemic herbicide products that include bamboo on the label should have application instructions; essentially, the chemical is painted onto the cut culm stump immediately after cutting. Multiple treatments will probably be needed as sprouts will keep re-emerging until the colony finally succumbs. Worst-case, it will be a multi-year process until eradication is achieved.

Depending on the size of the bamboo colony, it might be more effective to outsource the removal. Large areas of bamboo require excavating using heavy machinery (landscape companies with experience in bamboo removal should have these). This method yields faster results than the multi-year herbicide approach. 

I recommend contacting a few companies and comparing estimates - a good place to start would be with a Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional. These are credentialed professionals who are trained in conservation landscaping with the bay's health in mind.

Jamie

Hi Len, 

To respond to your question, please see the bolded text:

After reading and considering options you described, I am going to go with painting the cut culms with Glyphosates. Am I understanding correctly that:

1. I cut the culms above ground between nodes: - is there specific height above ground I should use, it maybe just get below the lowest leaves on the culm? There is no specific height, but aim for a lower cut. 

2. I then use a smallish paint brush and within 5 minutes of cutting the culm, paint the cut edge of the culm - and presumably drippings and the poison getting on the inside and outside of the culm hollow tube does not matter. Using the paint brush method helps to prevent overuse of the herbicide. Do not fill the inside of the hollow stems with herbicide as there is no tissue there that would absorb it. 

3. Ideally I do this in Sept. You can start now.

4. Continually immediately knock down any new culms that pop up. Correct - it will be an ongoing process.

5. It is ok anytime to pull up ryzomes as I may find them and readily remove? You should remove rhizomes whenever you see new ones. Do this before painting any stems because you do not want to remove a rhizome of a stem you just painted. Give the herbicide time to work and kill the rhizome.

A question: Would I do this again each year in the fall? Or maybe spring and fall? Presumably if I was diligent in ‘knocking down’ the new culms as they emerged, the only culms would be the ones I had cut off the previous fall. So, would I text and repaint the culms cut previously? They should die back, but if they appear living the next season after you've used herbicide, cut and paint again until they die back. 

Jamie, thank you again for your help.

My pleasure, 

Jamie