Bamboo - I love it, but I need control

[Dan Smith]

So here is the situation: I have a large back yard (about one half acre) that backs up to a very busy street that is almost a highway. I planted one small two gallon container of bamboo 11 years ago (yes – I know I shouldn’t have), and I now have a great sound barrier that looks reasonably nice also. I want to be able to control it without having to trench and put in the gravel, concrete or 40 mil plastic liners all the way around it. This trench would now be over 150 to 200 feet long and I would have to spend a huge amount of time to trench and drop in the plastic or metal or concrete barrier. The bamboo is in an area about 50 feet by 50 feet. I want it to stay within a 75 foot by 75 foot area. The runners are popping up 15 feet “out” every year. At this rate I could easily go from the current 2500 square foot area to a 26,000 square foot bamboo forest! (Yup – I rechecked this out on graph paper!) Here’s the question: Can I keep cutting off the new shoots that are coming off the rhizomes on theses runners and (most importantly) will this keep it under control? My fear is I’m cutting off the new shoots but 5 years from now I will have new shoots popping up 75 feet away which will now make the entire area a web of bamboo runners that I don’t see. Which will then mean I have a bamboo forest, that just isn’t showing above the soil until it’s way too late. I’m hoping someone has real-time experience in this and can reply factually on if they were able to “restrain and manage” a large section of bamboo without the trenching. Thanks in advance.

[daveP]

I can think of only three ways. Trench, mow, or graze the area you want to be free of the intrusion.

[khwoz]

I've heard that if you cut the root leading from the mother plant to the runner with something like a sharpshooter shovel, the runner will die. Doing this around the main plant should control the expansion.