grinding bamboo roots

Daniel · Mar 23, 2012

A customer wants to remove a large patch of bamboo.. I plan on grinding the roots out, which apparently are very shallow... Will that kill them, or will they still re-grow from the pulverized roots? If so, I 'll remove the dirt.. A quick web search indicates that the dirt needs to be removed. Just hoping it doesn't.. has anyone tried it? Thanks...

fireaxe · Mar 23, 2012

I had pretty good success in just the grinding, but don't plan on a skim. Need to get down till you see no more root tissue - it has been a really long time since my project, but it stayed away for years. I haven't looked recently to see if it is still gone (been 12 years). If you are leaving a patch on the neighbor's a root barrier will stop it if it is deep enough.

Don't forget to add a 2 full sets of teeth (grinding mostly dirt) to the cost and usually a set of chipper blades (hard stuff).

zale · Mar 23, 2012

Daniel- if it has been established for many years, you will probably need to go deeper. You will most likely miss a root. Instead of removing all the dirt, I would suggest you include herbacide sprays during the growing season. It is tuff stuff. Round Up has worked for me. If you just grind it and go, I'll bet you a dollar the client will be calling you back.

easyphloem · Mar 24, 2012

[ QUOTE ]
Daniel- if it has been established for many years, you will probably need to go deeper. You will most likely miss a root. Instead of removing all the dirt, I would suggest you include herbacide sprays during the growing season. It is tuff stuff. Round Up has worked for me. If you just grind it and go, I'll bet you a dollar the client will be calling you back.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. Apply glyphosate through the first year after a thorough grind and haul of the chunky grindings. Scorched earth policy. Bamboo is an abomination.

SZ

islandarb · Mar 24, 2012

Ok Daniel this is my speciality as I live in the tropics and bamboo is a rhizome which means that the mother plants keeps sending out little babies that turn into new plants all done under the soil by the original plants ( grass really ).The objective is they need to be dug out. Using a stump grinder will not be the best method as you will hardly ever get all those rhizomes unless you move up and down the entire patch which I can imagine is fairly large and depth will still be a problem. Use a mini excavator after all the patch is cut down and start excavating, you seem to have all the access to all these pieces of equipment and use a rubber tracked version if near the lawn etc. Pretty basic dude. Have fun digging. Also roundup is a systemic herbicide and not very useful in this scenario.

easyphloem · Mar 24, 2012

[ QUOTE ]
Ok Daniel this is my speciality as I live in the tropics and bamboo is a rhizome which means that the mother plants keeps sending out little babies that turn into new plants all done under the soil by the original plants ( grass really ).The objective is they need to be dug out. Using a stump grinder will not be the best method as you will hardly ever get all those rhizomes unless you move up and down the entire patch which I can imagine is fairly large and depth will still be a problem. Use a mini excavator after all the patch is cut down and start excavating, you seem to have all the access to all these pieces of equipment and use a rubber tracked version if near the lawn etc. Pretty basic dude. Have fun digging. Also roundup is a systemic herbicide and not very useful in this scenario.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like this guy knows what the heck he's talking about.
Interesting.

SZ

zale · Mar 24, 2012

Swingdude- what herbacide do you prefer?

Daniel · Mar 24, 2012

Thanks for all that advice..

If it was going to grass, I think it would work well to just grind and then mow the new shoots til they run out of steam...

However this is going to be left wild.. They actually asked me to spread the chips back over the area.. And they were getting cheap too.. It was dark when I looked at it, so I gave them a ballpark of $1.500 (with some other work), and said I'd come back for the exact price.. Homeowner asked if I'd do it for $1,000. They certainly aren't going to want to pay to haul the dirt and rent a mini excvater. might be able to grind and load with the skid steer, but that's gonna cost and they give the clear impression that they don't want to pay. We did a great job for them last year, so I AM sure we'll come up with something.

I AM quite proficient with a stump grinder and can be 99.9% sure to get it all ground without missing a thing.. I AM pretty sure that the runners stay in the top 3"-5" and even the root clumps are fairly shallow, no more than 8-10". Even at that if the soil has rocks, its gonna whoop the teeth, as You take much bigger bites when blowing thru dirt..

Lots to consider on this job.

I had another customer with a couple bamboo patches we worked on last year.. He did his homework and apparently you don't need to use a physical root barrier, just dig a trench around the perimeter and leave it open. the roots will not go down under the trench.. So far so good.. I'll keep you posted..

islandarb · Mar 24, 2012

No guys, I believe roundup is a very good product, I paint it in full concentrate on any tree I remove ( the stump, we don't grind them on the island regularly ) and that will end any re-sprouting the. It hastens the root systems demise, tropical trees are very aggressive and tend to sprout quickly even when the stump has been lowered to soil level. I try to stay away from using chemicals because of our sensitive water table, however I can't seem to alleviate their use altogether. 24D-anine , velpar/L, gramoxone and weedmaster along with roundup are my main choices for herbicides. They all have their uses but my go to is roundup. Weedmaster and 24D-anine are pre emergent and can be added directly to the soil but their usage is mostly against broad leaf weeds and grasses. Gramoxone is the immediate burner, it enters systemically and destroys all above ground living cell but does noting to the root system, which eventually strengthens and comes back just as vigorously as ever ( quick solution definitely not long term ). The deadly one is Velpar/L which is also a broad leaf and woody weed killer, it can be applied directly to the soil as a pre-emergent or sprayed directly on the young fresh sprouting vegetation. Obviously this is just a general usage of each but they all have their place in vegetation and weed control. I am not by any means an expert, but I have a firm bit of experience on their various applications and have been quite successful with each ones use.

islandarb · Mar 24, 2012

Okay then grind and leave the material raked over and cover with a dense weed block fabric. No sunlight no new growth cheap and sweet, customer is happy and so are you, a little unsightly for a bit but should work well. Everyone is a winner.

easyphloem · Mar 24, 2012

[ QUOTE ]

I AM quite proficient with a stump grinder and can be 99.9% sure to get it all ground without missing a thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's always that .01% that always seems to rear its ugly head.

Anyways, here's to being almost 100% right all the time!

SZ

AboveTheLines · Mar 24, 2012

[ QUOTE ]

Anyways, here's to being almost 100% right all the time!

SZ

[/ QUOTE ]

Fatimathe · Jan 16, 2019

Hello,

I am new here. I have read all the above threads regarding getting rid of bamboo roots. I had a grove approximately 9 X 12 that was just cut out the other day. The diameter is about 4" and there were quite a few of them. My tree people come back tomorrow and I'm still not positive what would be the best approach, grinding (which is my plan as of now) or using the RoundUp as others had mentioned. Physically I don't think I would be strong enough to dig a trench or each one individually.
Any replies would be much appreciated. Thank you!

RopeShield · Jan 17, 2019

if you have access to material that can exclude the light, nothing will grow if no light.
A year should be all it will take to kill. No grinding, no fuel, no exhaust, no chems etc, plywood, tarp, cardboard, etc.
If you need to replant and can't wait. double dig it under. Should be no reason to take soil away.
Just need to dig a deep trench and back fill with bambo laced soil, cover with clean soil dug from the bottom of deep hole/clean bamboo free soil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_digging

Fatimathe · Jan 17, 2019

RopeShield said:
if you have access to material that can exclude the light, nothing will grow if no light.
A year should be all it will take to kill. No grinding, no fuel, no exhaust, no chems etc, plywood, tarp, cardboard, etc.
If you need to replant and can't wait. double dig it under. Should be no reason to take soil away.
Just need to dig a deep trench and back fill with bambo laced soil, cover with clean soil dug from the bottom of deep hole/clean bamboo free soil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_digging

Thank you for your response! I will look into it. Not sure what you mean though by bamboo laced soil. Would that be the debris from what they cut down? I will read your link now and apologize if the answer is in there!

rico · Jan 17, 2019

In a former life the wife and I had a large japanese inspired garden with well over a dozen different species of bamboo. Beautiful ornamental clumpers, all the the way to huge timber bamboo with insanely aggressive running rhizomes. It would be very helpful if you first determine whether it is a runner or a clumper. If it is a runner you need to be very sure that you get every last piece. This shit is an alien life form and if you don't do it right it will be back. I can assure you that the Rhizome on either can travel to depths much deeper than your suggested 3-5 inches. I have personally seen rhizomes reach depths of over 3 feet, travel under 30 feet of concrete, punch through the side of pools, and generally raise hell with anything in its path.
A stump grinder is simply not the right tool for the job, so I would suggest do some research or simply pass on the job.

castanea · Jan 22, 2019

My first thought was solarize the soil with a heavy black plastic barrier, but I bet those growing points will punch through. This could still really stress it out in the summer heat. Solarization cooks everything in the top of the soil, even seeds.

You might dig down and assess how deep the roots actually are. I remember reading corrugated metal should be several feet in the ground to reliably contain it.

The points are soft when young, and edible, so the customer might just need a good cook book. Or goats. Could they brush hog or mow it regularly?

Glyohosate should work but I bet it will require many applications.

*useless info* · Jan 22, 2019

Down here in Florida these and Banana plants can come back from pieces of roots.
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Round-Up is meant to foliar feed so can spray a farm fence line etc. and kill the low weeds but not trees trimmed high enough so trees only get Round-Up on bark with little or no absorption.
Best to use on warm day when plenty of uptake into plant; and warm hours left in day.
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Can cut and paint Round-Up on fresh cuts within 10-15 mins. and get vascular feed thru the fresh wound before plant seals capillary entrance. But then should let work a few weeks in system b4 grind.
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In short, hard to promise none will come back to customer, very tough competitor like shaving off or cutting off mistletoe, easy for it to come back (unless comeback 2 feet towards roots for mistletoe). Most likely have to educate and prep customer to reset what they expect; and agree on path if/when comes back etc.
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i've seen this stuff even light starved growing inches a day; pushing, lifting etc. Tough Competitor!

flyingsquirrel25 · Jan 22, 2019

We nuked a large patch up the street from us a couple years ago. Probably 50 feet deep and 75-100 feet long, of the big stuff, 3” by 30’ tall. We ran it over with an ambusher mower attachment for a large skid steer. Ground the debris up right on top but did no grind the stumps or anything below grade. Was super surprised as to how little came back later in the year, mainly around the edges of the patch. Those that decided to come back got a high dose of glysophate a couple months later. The next year even less came back and they got that same high dose glysophate. So far I think we have 3 doses which I thought would have been at 6 by now. I think we are going into year 3 now and I think we have it controlled.
Whatever happens just be prepared with the roundup. Let it start back so you have something to treat and knock it down. It will go away!

*useless info* · Jan 22, 2019

Bamboo is some wild off the charts stuff in many ways especially as a sustainable , starts growing back soon as you cut it, don't need pesticides, low carbon print, super strength to weight ratio etc.
Even competing with carbon fiber in bicycles
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Let alone millenniums of use structurally in the Orient of old especially.
Down here some warn against getting it started especially spreading types.
Even if you are ok with it , your neighbors may take years to get rid of what spreads to their side etc. Spreading type grows taller slower than wide seems, but even clumping that grows taller than wide does spread. In summer some shoots grow 2feet IN 1 DAY.
Locally many species seen as invasive.
Over 1000 varieties this side of the big pond.
This stuff is just off the scale, even historically!
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i grew up (kinda) in a time when almost every guy on the block worth a flip disappeared after graduating high school to war unless lucky enough to be going to college. Many stories of a certain Viet Nam War torture involving a chair with hole in seat placed over a fast growing species, or just tied down over a fresh sharp cut patch...