Bamboo and damage

This rampant bamboo is growing to within a few feet of this 1936 terraced house which is built on ground which has the top 12 inches being Loam and then Clay below that.

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this situation result in excessive moisture absorption by the bamboo resulting in movement to the foundations?

Reply to
Dave East
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It apparently unusual for bamboo roots to go deeper than 12", so its unlikely they will go under the foundations.

Trees are far more dangerous - willows in particular.

I would not worry.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Probably not is is quite shallow rooted. Nice clump of bamboo BTW. Not really rampant either some species can grow to 20' or more.

Regards, Martin Brown

Reply to
Martin Brown

No-one mentioned the several clumps of bamboo we have when we were having our subsidence investigated. They were much keener on the leylandii hedge to the North and the oak tree whose canopy touched the house.

Reply to
Huge

Bamboo is a problem for being invasive, but much less so for structural damage. Its roots are relatively flimsy and shallow, not like tree roots, so they don't do much for levering apart pipe joints or masonry. This also means that they're pretty easy to control, either with shallow buried barrier fences or just by grubbing them out. Really I don't know why gardeners complain about bamboo invasions at all, they're really quite easy to deal with. The best thing for digging them is a Japanese root chopping sickle (Axminster) - a small serrated sickle, great for bamboo and smaller brambles. Favourite garden gadget at the moment.

A bamboo will extract moisture, and if you extract enough moisture from clay, then you get shrinkage and possibly movement. However if you have a layer of loam over clay, I'd be really surprised (but check first) if the bamboo was rooting into the clay, rather than preferring to stay in the surface layer.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

I had bamboo roots go through 4" of a concrete pond once.

Jonathan

Reply to
Jonathan

I am surprised at your reference to "the main root", as a taproot is not normally something that any grass has.

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
nmm1

I had bamboo roots go through 4" of a concrete pond once.

Jonathan I am surprised at the answers unless there are different types of bamboo. I had to go down to 2' 6" and I still broke the main root off. They drink a considerable amount of water and their roots will go through almost anything and this is in southern England. In the tropics they are capeable of growing

1' in a night. It was a favourite torture of the Japs to stake out people over a growing bamboo shoot. So unless you want it for a privacy screen get rid of it or have it far away from any buildings I gave mine to a workmate who lives on an island in the Thames. It stops the island getting smaller and stops nosey people on boats looking in Robbie
Reply to
Roberts

Mine is contained by wavy plastic lawn edging driven in until flush to the ground.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

A great many species of bamboo - although comparatively few will grow well in the UK. All of mine died last winter when the sudden onset of snow and frost occurred before they went dormant. Being an optimist I haven't dug them out yet but there is no sign of life at all :(

Some of the tropical and subtropical bamboos that go really tall to 40' or so tend to be deeper rooted but I can't see them doing too well in London. Root/rhizomes a couple of feet down and still fairly thick I can believe in the taller growing varieties that will survive in the UK.

Regards, Martin Brown

Reply to
Martin Brown

Thanks for interesting information. The sister of the plant I dug out has now reached about 20' after growing through a tarmac path. In removing the other one it was neccessary to winch it out as the main root was way below

2'6". The main root when removed was too heavy to lift. I hope Colin does not have the same species of bamboo! Robbie
Reply to
Roberts

Probably not. The wavy bit of plastic has kept it in place for the best part of a decade and a half and, when I lifted some to make room for a shed, the roots were only a few inches deep.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

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