Planting bamboo

[Oleg Volk]

I'd like to plant bamboo all around my fence to hide it from sight. In Tennessee, what should I do to make sure that the shoots take root...in general, please advise where to get the plants and how to prepare them for planting?

[TMM]

we planted some bamboo a year or two ago. my mom's the gardener, but i have a few tips:

1) unless you want the bamboo growing everywhere, you MUST create underground cement walls to prevent the outward growing of the roots.

2) since bamboo is a grass, use some grass fertilizer on it (we haven't been using fertilizer and it hasn't been too rigid in the ground, has been falling ever, etc)

3)our bamboo took a year until new shoots started growing - the ones that did grow that year, died. so give it some time.

4) we started out with clumps of bamboo, about 6-10 shoots per ball, and maybe 8 feet high. $40/clump IIRC. now, 2 years later, we have a patch about 12 or 15 feet by 8 or so. maybe 10 or 11 feet high if they didn't keep falling down. (need fertilizer, as i have said).

~tmm

[K Frame]

Do yourself a favor...

DON'T.

The *expletive deleted*it is incredibly invasive.

[Gewehr98]

Bamboo is like the kudzu problem here in the South.  Once it takes hold, it dominates everything, and you won't be able to stop it.

[K Frame]

Then you must have a panda infestation.

Neighbors planted it in their back yard 3-4 years ago along their fence line. It's now over 20 feet high and has nearly tripled its range. They're barely keeping up with it.

Unfortunately, it's also spread to the OTHER side of the fence, into their neighbor's yard, and he's only been able to keep it under control by using lots of Roundup.

[Oleg Volk]

I have no neighbors around most of my property. Nothing on one side, common area (drainage) on the other. What kind of stores would carry bamboo?

[K Frame]

Garden center.

[LawDog]

I don't know about bamboo, but with common North American river cane, you just drop some pieces of stem and next year you've got a canebrake.

You'd better really, really like cane, though, because it's a pain in the tuchkuss to get rid of it once it decides it likes where it is.

Had a canebrake out back of our neighbors house some years back.  Poor bugger finally had to rent a bulldozer and scalp his back yard.

LawDog

[Art Eatman]

I use some stuff called "Remedy" to kill mesquite.  Anything that will kill mesquite will kill any plant, I'd bet.

A tablespoon per gallon of diesel.  Not cheap; $95/gallon at Tractor Supply.  I just make a slash in the bark and spray a little bit on the trunk.  Also works if I use lopping shears on the small stuff and spray the remaining stumps.

To have bamboo is to have mosquitoes, also.  They love the stuff.

Art

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

My grandfather used a similar concoction to kill off bamboo, Art.  It was significantly less costly, though; he left out the Remedy. Worked reasonably well...but the best solution was to not let the bamboo gain a foothold in the first place.

As it is now, the bamboo at my mom's place ahs encroached about 30 feet away from the fenceline where it was originally in the last 5 years since he passed. It's screened off my '49 Ford in her back yard, which doesn't hurt her feelings.

Regards,
Rabbit.