What a great plant, . . . if only it would stay where you wanted it!!

Bamboo is a beautiful, edible, insect and disease-resistant plant that can be used for screening and to provide wildlife habitat, but it is highly flammable, prone to spreading, and very difficult to keep in check once it takes hold.

Considering Bamboo

There are two major types of bamboo: Running and Clump-forming. Running bamboos can spread up to 15 feet a year. Clump-forming bamboos also spread, but not quite as rapidly. Arundinaria gigantea (running) is native to the floodplains of central and southeastern US. Imported varieties include Bambusa multiplex (clumping), Fargesia (clumping), Phyllostachys (running, invasive), Pleioblastus (running), Sasa veitchii (running), Shibataea kumasasa (running), Sinobambusa tootsik (running). Once planted in the ground, bamboo can be extremely difficult to manage and will require years of consistent management to eradicate.

Management Recommendations

(There has been very little research on bamboo management, but there is consensus that it is VERY DIFFICULT TO CONTROL.)

Strategies to Keep it From Spreading

• Establish a 20 ft buffer between the bamboo planting and natural areas/lawns and other areas to be protected.  To keep the bamboo from spreading, mow the buffer regularly during the spring when shoots emerge. The new shoots are fragile, so you can easily knock them over.
• Install a physical barrier at least 28 inches deep.
• Dig a 12" x 12" trench around the bamboo to monitor growth and prune any rhizomes (underground stems) that enter it.

Strategies to Eradicate

• Physical Strategies
  • Step 1: Cut down all the bamboo canes and remove as much of the root mass as possible. Bamboo spreads via rhizomes, underground stems. New plants can grow from any rhizomes left in the soil.
  • Step 2: Mow the area weekly to cut any new shoots that emerge.
  • Removing bamboo is hard work! Unless you are ready to commit to at least three years of active management, there is little point in beginning. If you give up before you wipe it out, it will bounce back quickly.
• Chemical Strategies
  • Chemical control requires a high concentration applied repeatedly over multiple years. It is difficult and dangerous to apply herbicides to leaves that may be 30 ft above the ground, so the canes must first be cut to the ground to encourage new emerging leaves that can be sprayed.
• Consider hiring a professional who specializes in invasive plant control. Contact your County Extension Center for recommendations for local companies.
• See the Southern Regional Extension Forestry: Forest Health publication on bamboo. Pages 3-5 have management recommendations.

Bamboo Life Cycle

Bamboo plants of the same species generally all bloom at once and then die after flowering. It may be three years after planting or over 150, but the result is often whole swaths of dead bamboo. That is part of the natural life cycle, not due to damage from insects or disease, and there is no way to prevent it. However, the plants set seed that can germinate and replace the stand. Learn more at "The Curious Case of Flowering Bamboo: Facts and Insights" by Seth Nagy, County Extension Director of Caldwell County Cooperative Extension.

Learn more about various types of bamboo and the life cycle of bamboo.

Consider carefully before taking on the responsibility of introducing bamboo into your landscape. Your decision could impact not only you, but your neighbors and generations to come. If you choose to plant bamboo, consider our native Arundinaria gigantea.