Bamboo Forest!

KaseiOuji

My parents and I went looking at several homes with 40+ acreage today to start a group home for autistic adults. I was looking around the woods behind one of the homes and about 2 acres in there was about 4 acres of 15-35 ft bamboo stalks. It was amazing. I walk through for about an hour, got lost because with an acre of bamboo on each side of you its hard to see!

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onetouch42

I've been growing bamboo for a few years, have about 7 different kind. Just now starting into bonsai.

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zen

Wow, one, that is really nice to be just starting out. How do you control the growth of bamboo that grow for other than bonsai, are they in pots or do you use some kind of rhizome barrier in the ground, or do you just let it go wild?

__________________
"Although profoundly "inconsequential," the Zen experience has consequences in the sense that it may be applied in any direction, to any conceivable human activity, and that wherever it is so applied it lends an unmistakable quality to the work."

~ Alan Watts (1915-1973)

http://www.bonsaiswap.com/

KaseiOuji

Well I'm not sure since it wasn't my property. It seemed like one corner of it was once a planted garden but bamboo is pretty fast to take over an area so I guess it was jsut left untended.

Bruce Winter

No reason to fear bamboo, just make sure it's the clumping variety.

zen

Clumping variety?

__________________
"Although profoundly "inconsequential," the Zen experience has consequences in the sense that it may be applied in any direction, to any conceivable human activity, and that wherever it is so applied it lends an unmistakable quality to the work."

~ Alan Watts (1915-1973)

http://www.bonsaiswap.com/

Bruce Winter

Sure. Lots of bamboo's aren't invasive, they don't run, they form clumps. Here's a site of only non-invasive bambu.
http://www.bamboonursery.com/

rockm

The vast majority of "wild" bamboo or bamboo that covers large square footage in home yards is the running variety. Golden Bamboo (Phyllostachys aurea is the most common) This is especially true here in the Middle Atlantic and Southern U.S.

http://www.invasive.org/eastern/species/3063.html

Homes with stands of bamboo usually don't want them. The plant is very very hard to get rid of. You cannot cut it down, as it roots from the rhizomes. You can't cut up the rhizomes, because all the little pieces will root themselves. It will take over a yard (and your neighbor's yard, and their neighbor's yard and THEIR neighbor's yard) in a few years.

Bruce is right. If you plant bamboo make sure it's the clumping variety. If you have bamboo already and it's all over, you have a runner and a big problem, as it wil grow EVERYWHERE. Control is hard to do:
http://www.se-eppc.org/manual/PHAU1.html