Bamboo - light and filigree on the surface, swaying in the wind. But rooted all the more heavily and powerfully under the earth. The first question when you want to dig up a bamboo: Is it clumpy or grove-forming bamboo?

Grove-forming or clumpy bamboo varieties can be removed relatively easily. These include, for example, the non-hardy Fargesia. They form new culms directly from the root ball and only spread slowly. They are more like large clumps of grass than fields of bamboo.

Be careful with bamboo varieties without limits

In grove-forming bamboo, the rhizomes branch out so far that bamboo shoots sprout from the ground all over the garden. And they don't stop at the neighboring property either. Rhizomes spread out as thick oval-shaped roots. They develop into new root balls with their own shoots. Such bamboo varieties without limits are for example:

  • sasa
  • pleioblastus
  • Phyllostachys

Their rhizomes branch out up to 10 meters in all directions and up to 1 meter deep. Better too soon than late, mother plant and all rhizomes need to be dug up and removed. They grow through and damage masonry, buildings, sidewalks and streets!

Knowing how and the right tools is half the work

Digging up an overgrown bamboo is a power project. It's not just brains that are required here, but you have to plan and calculate hard work, backbreaking work and special tools and excavators. The garden needs to be dug up and replanted. Important: The digging must be completed in one growing season!

Start digging where the bamboo culms that are furthest from the mother plant sprout from the ground. The closer you get to the mother plant, the stronger and harder the root system. Sieve the excavated soil and remove bamboo rhizomes before backfilling the soil. The best spades for digging up bamboo:

Grave spade Holstein for normal work
Digging drainage spade with fiberglass handle for bamboo barrier
Digging spade with D-handle - forged from one piece - for digging up bamboo

Confine instead of letting it proliferate

The best weapon against proliferation is containment: With a special plastic barrier, you can clearly limit the location of the bamboo. Then the bamboo will stay within its borders quite safely and will not undermine the entire garden. Control is the safest. Therefore check often whether the rhizome barrier is tight.

tips and tricks

The rhizomes must not be put in the compost! A new plant can grow from every rhizome that is severed or left in the ground! And the work was free!

Category:

Herbs