After behaving well for many years our bamboo plants have just started
shooting up all over the place in all the neighbour's gardens.

I have dug up all ours and I am about to put it in plastic boxes and small
plastic water cistern tanks.

I am trying to kill off all remaining bamboo leaves growing in the garden
with ammonium sulphamate and glyphospate, but i dont seem to be
winning......help !

With regards to the type of soil to use in the plastic boxes, I would prefer
it not to weigh too much and to be able to 'wash off' (since our soil here
is London clay and is like cement to get off the roots) easily if i needed
to take the bamboo out of the box in future to divide the roots.

My idea at the moment is to use half garden centre compost, a quarter sharp
washed builders sand from BQ, and a quarter john innes number 3, and to feed
with phostogen.

if there was any way to reduce the 'weight' and/or the 'cost' of the soil
for all the boxes that would be suitable for bamboo, suggestions would be
very welcome....thanks for any advice.

Do you know what sort of bamboo it is? It would be interesting to know whether it is one of the Usual Suspects, or something usually believed to be better behaved.

You have in effect made a number of divisions of the plant. It is normal to shorten or thin out the culms when you do this, since the quantity of rhizome and filamentous root that you got out of the soil probably isn't enough to support the amount of culm you have, especially for the runners which will mainly be feeding off the core of the plant.

In terms of growing medium for pots, something light with plenty of humus and some sand would be sensible. In terms of a fertiliser, something with a rather higher proportion of nitrogen would be better than phostrogen.

In terms of eradicating it, if you systematically cut down all culms that appear, ideally after they have consumed maximum plant energy by shooting to height, but before they put out leaves, then most bamboos will soon give up the ghost. In a lawn, a lawnmower is effective. But the Usual Suspect, Sasa palmata, is very tenacious.

"echinosum" wrote in message
...

johngood_____;759394 Wrote:
After behaving well for many years our bamboo plants have just started
shooting up all over the place in all the neighbour's gardens.

I have dug up all ours and I am about to put it in plastic boxes and
small
plastic water cistern tanks.

I am trying to kill off all remaining bamboo leaves growing in the
garden
with ammonium sulphamate and glyphospate, but i dont seem to be
winning......help !

With regards to the type of soil to use in the plastic boxes, I would
prefer
it not to weigh too much and to be able to 'wash off' (since our soil
here
is London clay and is like cement to get off the roots) easily if i
needed
to take the bamboo out of the box in future to divide the roots.

My idea at the moment is to use half garden centre compost, a quarter
sharp
washed builders sand from BQ, and a quarter john innes number 3, and to
feed
with phostogen.

if there was any way to reduce the 'weight' and/or the 'cost' of the
soil
for all the boxes that would be suitable for bamboo, suggestions would
be
very welcome....thanks for any advice.
Do you know what sort of bamboo it is? It would be interesting to know
whether it is one of the Usual Suspects, or something usually believed
to be better behaved.

You have in effect made a number of divisions of the plant. It is
normal to shorten or thin out the culms when you do this, since the
quantity of rhizome and filamentous root that you got out of the soil
probably isn't enough to support the amount of culm you have,
especially for the runners which will mainly be feeding off the core of
the plant.

In terms of growing medium for pots, something light with plenty of
humus and some sand would be sensible. In terms of a fertiliser,
something with a rather higher proportion of nitrogen would be better
than phostrogen.

In terms of eradicating it, if you systematically cut down all culms
that appear, ideally after they have consumed maximum plant energy by
shooting to height, but before they put out leaves, then most bamboos
will soon give up the ghost. In a lawn, a lawnmower is effective. But
the Usual Suspect, Sasa palmata, is very tenacious.
echinosum

Thanks for your informative response. Sorry I dont know what bamboo it is.
I still have left quite a number of smallish shoots growing a foot or two
high. At this time of year would it more effective to cut them down or to
apply glyphosphate?

Since as I understand it, the plants energy would be going into growing
roots at this time of year rather than growing leaves and culms? Thanks
for any further advice.

At this time of year, any energy it uses pushing up culms is wasted energy. So if they are new shoots, (ie without leaves) let them carry on growing and then cut them down before they put leaves out in spring. If they are small but mature culms, ie with leaves, then just cut them down now - don't let them photosynthesize. I don't think applying glyphosate at this time of year is going to be very effective.

"echinosum" wrote in message
...

'johngood_____[_2_ Wrote:
;764253']
I still have left quite a number of smallish shoots growing a foot or
two
high. At this time of year would it more effective to cut them down or
to
apply glyphosphate?

Since as I understand it, the plants energy would be going into growing

roots at this time of year rather than growing leaves and culms?
Thanks
for any further advice.
At this time of year, any energy it uses pushing up culms is wasted
energy. So if they are new shoots, (ie without leaves) let them carry
on growing and then cut them down before they put leaves out in spring.
If they are small but mature culms, ie with leaves, then just cut them
down now - don't let them photosynthesize. I don't think applying
glyphosate at this time of year is going to be very effective.
echinosum

Thank you for your continued most valuable advice. I thought that since it
was so long since this post first went up, you would not notice my recent
addition to the thread. Most vigilant....many thanks.