Bamboo is a beautiful ornamental crop that can beautify any garden.
But this plant is more than meets the eye and the beautiful background it gives comes with a fine print that everyone should pay extra attention to.
It comes easily, but it doesn’t go that way.
Bamboo is a sneaky fast growing plant.
This means that it can go out of control very quickly.
There are many ways to kill bamboo but some methods rely on chemicals or complex steps that require a lot of digging. So how can you kill a bamboo naturally?
Before we delve into the steps, we should first dive into how it grows.
There goes a saying that in the first year, a bamboo sleeps. In the second year, it grows, and in the third year, it leaps.
There’s a hint of truth in this saying but it’s more applicable to what we call leptomorphs.
Leptomorphs, or “running bamboo” is the kind of species that people must be vigilant with.
Even vigilance isn’t always a cure.
Pachymorph, or “clumping bamboo” grows in groups and is much slower when it comes to spreading.
Running bamboo, however, can be invasive, even going beyond fences and structures.
So how can we stop or control the growth of such bamboo?
According to Darrell from the YouTube channel Nature’s Always Right, the natural way comes down to a single thing – patience.
He discussed that the way to control or kill bamboo is through relentless “pruning.”
Bamboo spreads fast because of the underground stems that will only reveal themselves once canes start sprouting.
First, cut off all the canes.
Then, probably the most ironic one is to let the bamboo regrow. This is the “second year” part of the saying where the rhizome system shoots up canes.
This process takes a lot of energy for the system so you want it to expend as much as it can.
After a while, the bamboo can grow branches. This is where you need to be a bit vigilant.
The moment the first leaf sprouts cut off all the canes again.
By that time, the rhizome would need some time to rest and recover.
For the next couple of years, you’re going to wait for the canes to grow once more then cut them all down once a leaf shows up.
You need to prune it as soon as leaves start growing so it won’t have the chance to feed itself.
With the constant pruning, the whole system weakens over time until it won’t have any energy to use for regrowth.
A little sad, but definitely effective.
Darrell boasts that while this will take a whole lot of time, the whole process doesn’t use bulldozers and chemicals.
Darrell is a regular guest on the YouTube channel.
He runs a homestead in Tennessee where he grows various crops, including bamboo.
He can also be seen discussing his craft with different gardening channels like Late Bloomers Show.
You can watch a full tour of his homestead on Nature’s Always Right channel.
Hear Darrell explain how to use bamboo’s very own nature to control it in the video below!
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