How far north will bamboo grow?

Site Notices

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - How far north will bamboo grow?

Posted: 12/24/2005 4:19:30 AM EDT

I've seen it in Pennsylvania. I live in NH, but I have a good micro-climate - a southern exposure bordering a large lake.

I spent a fair amount of time and money this year planting a hedge of P. Nuda, which is supposed to be the hardiest variety. I know it's a gamble, and I'm anxious to see if it survives the winter.

So, anyone living in a similar latitude have any?

Posted: 12/24/2005 4:24:35 AM EDT

[#1]

Have you read up on it? I hear it can take over your yard.

Posted: 12/24/2005 4:25:48 AM EDT

[#2]

I have bamboo growing in my yard here in CT... It appeared in the last couple of years, I suspect that the seeds came from above, since I'm right on an approach to Bradley. You're more than welcome to come and take as much as you want.

Posted: 12/24/2005 4:27:44 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
Have you read up on it?

Yes

I hear it can take over your yard.

Only if you never mow your yard.

Uh oh...

Posted: 12/24/2005 4:34:12 AM EDT

[#4]

We had some in Tuscalosa. It spread via underground runners. You can mow the stalks that pop up, but the runners keep moving out. Sassafras (the only wood I have ever tried to burn that wouldn't) is the same. I am down to one in my back yard I'm trying to figure out how to take down and 2 behind me that are going to mysteriously die.

If bamboo gets out of hand, buy some pandas.

Posted: 12/24/2005 4:48:54 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Have you read up on it?

Yes

I hear it can take over your yard.

Only if you never mow your yard.

Uh oh...

As was said, mowing aint got shit to do with it.
Bamboo is like herpes. Once you got it, you got it and its always gonna be a pain in the ass at some point or another. Which is why I refuse to let the wife plant one damned piece of it in the lawn. I dont give much ado about my lawn, so I would have no qualms about waging chemical warfare ala Roundup and just gassing the whole damned lawn. The wife likes the lawn (alot) so we compromise.
You can plant whatever you want so long as it doesnt cause me undue work and headaches. And if you do plant something which doesnt respect my authority (And the power of my 6.5 Brigg and Straton) I'll just Agent Orange the whole damn schebang and spend my weekends drinking beer instead of pushing a mower.

Personally, I'm hoping she tests me......

Posted: 12/24/2005 5:20:06 AM EDT

[#6]

I was curious about this too. My wife bought a bamboo plant a few weeks ago and it is growing quite fast.
I have a south facing backyard and it gets very warm. I think it would be fun to have a bamboo jungle so the dogs & cats could ambush each other easier.

I aslo have a warm weather living Christmas tree/fern that I would like to plant back there in spring too.

They both could be my very own global warming test facility.

Posted: 12/24/2005 5:21:01 AM EDT

[#7]

I've had yards with bamboo in Hawaii, and sassafrass in Michigan. Neither grew where I mowed. How could they?

Posted: 12/24/2005 5:27:36 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Have you read up on it? I hear it can take over your ~~yard~~state.

Posted: 12/24/2005 5:30:45 AM EDT

[#9]

I be proud to be taken over by anything that can survive a New Hampshire winter.

Posted: 12/24/2005 5:35:56 AM EDT

[#10]

To do it you need to put things like fiberglass greenhouse panels in the ground bording the area where you want to try to contain the bamboo.

Put the pieces of fiberglass paneling in at an angle so that when the runners encounter the fiberglass it is forced upwards at an angle so it will pop out of the ground.

If the "x" marks the bamboo in this simplistic diagram \ x / The slash marks will indicate the angles you should set the fiberglass so that it will redirect the runners upwards or so that you have a chance of spotting the buggers.

We have some bamboo on our property and we are pretty dedicated to keeping it controlled to the 2 areas that it currently sits on the property. Runners can shoot out anywhere from 10-15 feet.

If I can get a sizeable lot of property out in the middle of nowhere, I'd be tempted to make a thicket on the back part of the property as a natural fence of sorts.

If you folks want something that will TRUELY take over your yard, county, state....

Plant Morning Glory. Only thing that knocks it back is a good hard freeze or several nights of frost. We planted it on our 1 acre commercial property to help get some coverage. Within 2 years it pretty much reached every part of the property from only one initial planting area.

Posted: 12/24/2005 5:55:55 AM EDT

[#11]

I grew up in Central Maine, very similair winters to NH. My Grandfather's grandfather planted bamboo on a side hill to help with erosion. My childhood was spent trying to control that shit.
Cutting is a wasted effort. It will endure.
The only way I've found to kill it is the following:
1. Early spring, cut the new stalk off at the ground level.
2. Spray roundup INTO the stalk.

That will cause the chemicals to be sucked into the roots where they take effect.
This method will not work later in the summer.
I hate bamboo. It a miracle we haven't been overrun with Pandas...they have a never ending supply of food.

Posted: 12/24/2005 5:58:19 AM EDT

[#12]

We have tons of it on Long Island, and I have seen it in parts of lower NYS.

Bamboo is a grass technically. I don't know anyone who has it in their yard that isn't sorry they do.

Posted: 12/24/2005 6:02:40 AM EDT

[#13]

Kudzoo.

Posted: 12/24/2005 6:11:45 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
I grew up in Central Maine, very similair winters to NH. My Grandfather's grandfather planted bamboo on a side hill to help with erosion. My childhood was spent trying to control that shit.
Cutting is a wasted effort. It will endure.
The only way I've found to kill it is the following:
1. Early spring, cut the new stalk off at the ground level.
2. Spray roundup INTO the stalk.

That will cause the chemicals to be sucked into the roots where they take effect.
This method will not work later in the summer.
I hate bamboo. It a miracle we haven't been overrun with Pandas...they have a never ending supply of food.

Damn right. Aint a weed yet made by God that Roundup wont knock the its dick into the dirt.

Posted: 12/24/2005 6:20:56 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
.
.
1. Early spring, cut the new stalk off at the ground level.
2. Spray roundup INTO the stalk.

That will cause the chemicals to be sucked into the roots where they take effect.
This method will not work later in the summer.
I hate bamboo. It a miracle we haven't been overrun with Pandas...they have a never ending supply of food.

Round-up type chemicals works on the leaves, it interferres with the making of sugar(food) between chlorophyll, water, CO2 process.

Bamboo is nasty stuff, my stupid nieghbor thought it looked nice growing in the corner between my property and his. It took me over 2 years to get rid of the last vestiges of bamboo from my backyard. You have to dig out the runners as they appear ASAP, and apply liberal doses of Round-Up to the leaves. Good luck because you're going to need it.

Posted: 12/24/2005 11:21:19 AM EDT

[#16]

No Idea . Send me some and we will see.

Posted: 12/24/2005 11:25:14 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
I be proud to be taken over by anything that can survive a New Hampshire winter.

You welcome our new bamboo overlords?

Kharn

Posted: 12/24/2005 11:28:06 AM EDT

[#18]

I have clients of mine with it here in Mi.

Hope the grammer is good enough with that.....

Posted: 12/24/2005 12:13:00 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Have you read up on it?

Yes

I hear it can take over your yard.

Only if you never mow your yard.

Uh oh...

As was said, mowing aint got shit to do with it.
Bamboo is like herpes. Once you got it, you got it and its always gonna be a pain in the ass at some point or another. Which is why I refuse to let the wife plant one damned piece of it in the lawn. I dont give much ado about my lawn, so I would have no qualms about waging chemical warfare ala Roundup and just gassing the whole damned lawn. The wife likes the lawn (alot) so we compromise.
You can plant whatever you want so long as it doesnt cause me undue work and headaches. And if you do plant something which doesnt respect my authority (And the power of my 6.5 Brigg and Straton) I'll just Agent Orange the whole damn schebang and spend my weekends drinking beer instead of pushing a mower.

Personally, I'm hoping she tests me......

Test you for what herpes?

It depends entirely of the variety of bamboo ass to how aggressive it is.

Posted: 12/24/2005 12:19:07 PM EDT

[#20]

Two kinds of bamboo;
1.) Clumping, which makes a good barrier and doesn't spread much.
2.) Running. If you have or plant this you will live to regret it as the runners can grow THROUGH concrete and can spread HUNDREDS of feet in a year.

Ask me how I know.

Posted: 12/24/2005 12:21:47 PM EDT

[#21]

Got some of that shit growing in my back yard here in Southern Connecticut. I'm confident it will grow in NH. It thrives in the snowy mountains of China.

Posted: 12/24/2005 12:21:49 PM EDT

[#22]

Damn thing is growing like a fucking weed in my backyard.
Thanks honey

Posted: 12/24/2005 12:22:50 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
I was curious about this too. My wife bought a bamboo plant a few weeks ago and it is growing quite fast.
I have a south facing backyard and it gets very warm. I think it would be fun to have a bamboo jungle so the dogs & cats could ambush each other easier.

I aslo have a warm weather living Christmas tree/fern that I would like to plant back there in spring too.

They both could be my very own global warming test facility.

Don't plant the fucker cause it can take over your yard

Posted: 12/24/2005 12:26:51 PM EDT

[#24]

I've got about a dozen types of bamboo in my yard in northern Iowa. They will not grow as tall or run as rampantly this far north. They have survived extended cold below 20 below zero with no mulch or snow cover and are out in the open. They have never been watered during periods of drought either. Makes a nice green mass that usually stays lush and green until sometime in January, or the first prolonged period below zero. P.nuda survives but there are a couple that do better. Surprisingly, P. dulsis does very well - it stores most of its energy reserves in the roots instead of in the culms which will not survive the winter. P. bissettii and P. atrovaginata do very well also. The aureosulcatas are reported to be tough, but the four varieties I planted got shorter each year and ran badly. Some of the shrub types do OK. The green stripe (forgot the name) makes a nice ground cover to about 2 feet tall. I have not been able to keep the cold hardy Himalayan types alive. They cannot tolerate warm soils, and our hot summers with warm nights are too much for them.

Posted: 12/24/2005 12:28:04 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
I've got about a dozen types of bamboo in my yard in northern Iowa. They will not grow as tall or run as rampantly this far north. They have survived extended cold below 20 below zero with no mulch or snow cover and are out in the open. They have never been watered during periods of drought either. Makes a nice green mass that usually stays lush and green until sometime in January, or the first prolonged period below zero. P.nuda survives but there are a couple that do better. Surprisingly, P. dulsis does very well - it stores most of its energy reserves in the roots instead of in the culms which will not survive the winter. P. bissettii and P. atrovaginata do very well also. The aureosulcatas are reported to be tough, but the four varieties I planted got shorter each year and ran badly. Some of the shrub types do OK. The green stripe (forgot the name) makes a nice ground cover to about 2 feet tall. I have not been able to keep the cold hardy Himalayan types alive. They cannot tolerate warm soils, and our hot summers with warm nights are too much for them.

Posted: 12/24/2005 12:36:13 PM EDT

[#26]

Had them for about eight years with absolutely no invasiveness problems. The clumps of the running types try to expand outwards a few feet per year but cannot compete with a lawnmower. They make a nice lush dark green mass about 8 feet tall which looks really nice in the snow. Spreading is not a problem as long as they are isolated as an island in the middle of mowed vegetation. Actually, if I don't keep the rabbits away from the emerging culms in the spring they would disappear as the above ground growth will not survive our winters.

Posted: 12/24/2005 12:36:45 PM EDT

[#27]

BONG!

Posted: 12/24/2005 8:58:30 PM EDT

[#28]

Bamboo has been an interest of mine for a while.

Check these guys out:
www.americanbamboo.org/

Their northeast chapter contact email is [email protected]

There used to be a magazine called "Temperate Bamboo Quarterly". You might be able to find back copies somewhere. I gave my complete set away a few years ago, sorry.

Article on bamboo in New England:
www.americanbamboo.org/GeneralInfoPages/SchneiderIntro.html

And on bamboo in cooler climates, including recommended species:
www.americanbamboo.org/GeneralInfoPages/LucasTemperateBambos.html

If you get into it, beware of armed feral pandas. Such a critter eats, shoots, and leaves.

Sorry. Not.

Posted: 12/24/2005 9:01:47 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
Have you read up on it? I hear it can take over your yard.

It will put your eye out!

There are two types of bamboo - one spreads by runners and it will take over your yard, the neighbors, and start around the corner

. The other type spreads by clumps and shoots and you can trim those back in the bring. The stuff grows like weeds here. I got five nice stalks from a friend and they grew 15 feet this year.

Posted: 12/24/2005 9:31:46 PM EDT

[#30]

it would make a nice fence, at least the clumping type. if you have ever tried to walk thru a large mass of it you would realize how noisy and difficult it really is

Posted: 12/24/2005 10:32:46 PM EDT

[#31]

I lived in Japan for a couple of years, about 30 miles south of Hiroshima. The climate was similar to parts of Ohio. Bamboo groves were fairly common.

Posted: 12/26/2005 2:53:31 PM EDT

[#32]

Quoted:

..................................Damn right. Aint a weed yet made by God that Roundup wont knock the its dick into the dirt.

See my page one reference to sassafras. 2-4-D either. Oh, it'll kill the shoot where it pops out, but won't travel back into the underground runner and kill it or the tree. I drilled a 1" hole into the trunk down to the heart and poured straight 2-4-D into it. Nothing. I'm going to try it again this spring on the 2 survivors in the neighbors yard, technicaly mine since they originated on my property, and hope the rising sap takes the poison up with it.

The panels will contain it, but overlap them and glue them together somehow or the bamboo will weasel thru.

This reminds me of how the Romans let some Germanic tribes settle on the northern frontier as a buffer against the bad guys. That didn't turn out well, either.

Posted: 12/26/2005 3:01:06 PM EDT

[#33]

Here's some info on growing it up here ...

I was looking into it a few years ago as privacy screen/natural fence, but decided against it due to the invasiveness.

Posted: 12/26/2005 3:14:57 PM EDT

[#34]

Thanks for that link. ("...bamboo has the reputation of the invasive beast, an uncontrollable nuisance, and yet the cold-hardiest of the bamboos do not run at all, but form dense clumps from well-behaved root systems.") I'm hoping mine forms a privacy hedge, too.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - How far north will bamboo grow?

General » General Discussion

Warning

Confirm Action

About AR15.COM

Stay Connected

Newsletter

Contact Us