Bamboo – light and delicate, waving in the wind on the surface. But it's all the more heavily and massively rooted underground. The first question when you want to dig up a bamboo: Is it a clumping or grove-forming bamboo.
How to dig up bamboo effectively?
In order to successfully dig up bamboo, it is important to know the type (clustering or grove-forming) and to use appropriate tools, such as digging spades, drainage spades and clearing spades. Starting at the furthest point from the mother plant, sift the soil, remove rhizomes and backfill the soil.
Grove-forming or clumping bamboo varieties can be removed relatively easily. These include, for example, the non-hardy Fargesias. They form new stalks directly from the root ball and spread only slowly. They are more like large tufts of grass than bamboo fields.
Be careful with bamboo varieties without limits
In grove-forming bamboo, the rhizomes branch out so much that bamboo shoots sprout from the ground all over the garden. And they don't stop at the neighboring property either. Rhizomes spread as thick oval-shaped roots. They develop into new root balls with their own shoots. Examples of such bamboo varieties without borders are:
- Sasa
- Pleioblastus
- Phyllostachys
Their rhizomes branch up to 10 meters in all directions and up to 1 meter deep. Better early than late, the mother plant and all rhizomes must be dug up and removed. They grow through and damage masonry, buildings, sidewalks and streets!
Knowing how and having the right tools is half the job
Digging up an overgrown bamboo is a power project. Not only is your brain required here, you also have to plan and calculate hard work, backbreaking work and special tools and excavators. The garden needs to be dug up and replanted. Important: Digging must be completed in one growing season!
Dig up where the bamboo stalks furthest from the mother plant sprout from the ground. The closer you get to the mother plant, the stronger and harder the root system is. Sift the excavated soil and remove bamboo rhizomes before backfilling the soil. The best spades for digging up bamboo:
Digging spade Holstein for normal work
Drainage spade with fiberglass handle for digging bamboo barriersDigging spade with D-handle - forged from one piece - for digging up bamboo
Confine instead of allowing it to proliferate
The best weapon against overgrowth is to limit it: With a special plastic barrier you can clearly limit the bamboo location. Then the bamboo stays pretty securely within its boundaries and doesn't undermine the entire garden. Control is safest. Therefore, check often whether the rhizome barrier is tight.
Tips & Tricks
The rhizomes are not allowed in the compost! A new plant can form from every rhizome that is separated or left in the ground! And the work was free!
