Removing 1.5 Acres of Bamboo in Towson, MD

There are 3 species of Arundinaria native to the US, all in the SE/Appalachia area: A. appalachiana, A. gigantea, and A. tecta. That's all we've got for native bamboos. There are others in N America, in Mexico and Central America. Mexico, for instance, has 8 genera and 35 species.

If you want to know more:

formatting link

Reply to
Kay Lancaster
Loading thread data ...

...

i'd be calling around, there are likely some people who'd want it, it does have many uses.

flooring, fencing, roofing, matting, blinds, walls, construction, musical instruments, food, ...

cheaper to get it locally than to import it.

songbird

Reply to
songbird

Actually, the Arundinoideae are not bamboos. They are reeds. None of the bamboo genera fall within that subfamily.

Reply to
David E. Ross

Oops! Arundinaria are NOT part of the Arundinoideae. Instead, they are indeed bamboos.

Reply to
David E. Ross

I'll bet the Amish could build some neat stuff with it.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

I had a half acre lot down in Ga my parents bought for me as a gift. Some gift! I could mow it down and there were be 6 inch sprouts the next day. The lot was in town but my neighbor had goats on a little hobby farm out in the country. We fenced in my lot and put the goats on it. It took all summer and fall but the goats finally won out. A new job took me out of state so I let my neighbor grow a garden on the lot until I could sell it. Think it would take too many goats for yours.

Jimmie

Reply to
JIMMIE

Thank you David, and everyone else for the responses thus far. The county would not be opposed to this, but would ask for grading permits if we were to do any serious excavation. Just cutting it all down wouldn't require any notice of the gov't. One of the neighbors informed us that the old homeowner used to sell/give the bamboo to the National Zoo for its Panda. No joke!

100,000 lbs is a lot of bamboo! I don't think that's far off though. It is very dense, hard to walk through even, and the heights range from 10 to 30 feet in spots. I'll get some pictures, its quite a sight to see.

Theres a new problem of some possible underground utilities and maybe a septic field amidst the bamboo. This could explain the rapid growth. We'll have to use caution with mowers and tractors until we know where that is.

Thanks again for all the responses thus far.

Reply to
Elliott P

Arundo is in the Arundinoideae; Arundinaria is in the Bambusoideae. I think you're confusing the two genera.

Arundinaria are the giant canes; they are found in N. America and S. Africa. When you read about canebrakes, they're talking about big stands of Arundinaria.

Kay

>
Reply to
Kay Lancaster

why not leave the stand of bamboo by whatever name and resume donating it to feed pandas or other zoo animals?

this equals less grass to cut:)

Reply to
bob haller

Greetings all. A new property of my family's is covered by a massive stand of running bamboo. The lot is six acres rectangular, where about

*one and a half* acres of the total acreage is covered by a very dense stand of running bamboo. It is 350 feet long deep at its longest dimension The plants have been there for decades, as the property was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. It is our intention to restore the property, inside and out.

Options for removal I've seen generally target small areas. However this is a much bigger problem! My first thought is to hire someone with a bulldozer to come push it all down, and then put it all in a commercial wood chipper. This could get expensive though. What else can we do? What problems does my scenario present? Hiring a panda bear would probably not go over well with the neighborhood.

The property is in Towson, Maryland.

Thank you in advance.

If you're in MD, your 'bamboo' is most likely Japanese Knotweed. It's REAL tough to get rid of!

JAS

Reply to
John Simpson

I cane "beat" my wife & her grandmother with a chunk of it. You should see granny try to wheel away from me when I get the big stick out. She gets it twice as hard when she tries to make a break for it.

Reply to
Home Guy

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

This came through after I found the initial statement... should have known you'd know when you stopped to think about it!

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

Both Wikipedia and Sunset's "Western Garden Book" indicate that Japanese knotweed is Persicaria capitata. This is a ground cover that, in my garden, forms a mat about 6 inches thick. Through most (sometimes all) of the year, it has small clusters of pink flowers that resemble the flowers of white clover. For that reason, P. capitata is also called pink clover although it is definitely not a clover at all.

However, Wikipedia also indicates that Japanese knotweed is also Fallopia japonica (aka, Polygonum cuspidatum or Reynoutria japonica). This indeed grows like a bamboo to 10 or more feet high. If this is really what Elliott P has, a grass-specific herbicide will not work because Fallopia japonica is not at all a grass.

All this illustrates the fact that many different, unlike plants often share the same common name. This is why I try to use botanical names when possible. This also illustrates why the plant should be positively identified before any attempt to eradicate it. If a neighbor was correct in reporting that this was cut for feeding pandas at a nearby zoo, however, this must be a bamboo and not F. japonica.

Reply to
David E. Ross

David and others,

I uploaded several pictures I happen to have of the questionable plants to my Dropbox account. You can see the gallery here:

formatting link
took these before posting this, therefore I don't have any close ups of the leaves really. The first shows a fox I found running in there. The next four are various angles, where you can see how massive these are. There are also some in the snow, and then one showing how a large tree has fallen among the bamboo causing some damage.

I'll take more when time and daylight allows.

Reply to
Elliott P

ahh you admit a fox in the area. thus you have a wildlife preserve. and will require federal state local government approval. must catch and relocate all the wildlife. and meet EPA and other requirements. plus post bonds and get inspections to prove the standards were met

why not just leave this island of whatever alone?

what ae you planning on doing with it? planting grass?

thats just more grass to cut:(

Reply to
bob haller

Your property looks completely overgrown with all kinds of vegetation. To get rid of that bamboo you are going to have to till deep and rake out the roots. I suggest you obtain a dozer, bamboo stumps will pierce tractor tires. You have a lot of work to do over the next few years... you are not going to get rid of that bamboo in one season, probably take five years of constant attention. Consider yourself lucky it's not on a slope. After cutting it to the ground the first thing I'd do is hire someone with a backhoe to dig a trench around the entire perimeter, deep and wide. Once the bamboo is eradicated I suggest seriously considering installing a 2 acre pond. Anyone who plants bamboo, any kind, is an imbecile.

formatting link

Reply to
Brooklyn1

i guess you missed where the OP said theres utility lines and a septic tank in the bamboo area.

Whats wrong with just leaving it grow?

Reply to
bob haller

 
formatting link
quoted text -

I guess you missed where the OP said there MIGHT BE utility lines and a septic in the bamboo area.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

Control methods here:

formatting link
carefully for spray drift. Desirable plants that get hit with Roundup/Rodeo can be rescued by immediate treatment with muddy water to bind glyphosate.

My first inclination, seeing those photos, would be to consider brush hogging the area and then hand application of glyphosate to the new sprouts. I'm pretty sure that will work, but will require constant vigilance and respray for a couple of years.

And yes, I will consider using carefully chosen chemicals, preferably applied in the most directed manner possible, for control of large weed infestations.

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.