bamboo control

[miamicuse]

I have a predicament at a rental property.

There is a hedge of bamboo (I think "golden cane") on the other side of my fence.  The bamboo has emerged under the fence and started on my side of the fence.

I have since cut down all the bamboo on my end.

I don't know who initially planted them (they were there already when I bought this house in 2012), but has now spread deeper into my yard and wider into the left and right side properties.  In the sketch below, the red boundary is my property, I think it was originally planted in property C, but now they are shown in the shaded area.  It has spread into properties A, B and part of D, and into my property to the south.

Normally I don't mind bamboos, but for a rental property this is not practical, the leaves that comes down from these 40' tall bamboos are everywhere, some of the shoots would squeeze between the pickets and then grow and destroy the pickets.  Now I am trying to replace the wood fence, and there is no good way to do it.  The fence company is not even willing to provide me with an estimate because they think the post hole digger is going to hit the rhizome everywhere making the digging impossible.  Even if I am able to put up a new fence, it will be taken over by new bamboo again.

I was told by a landscaper I can install a rhizome barrier that runs down to 24" below ground, but to do so they need to use an excavator to dig a big trench on my side to get rid of all the rhizomes that has encroached, and if they do that, they would have disturbed the soil to the point that new fence posts will not be sturdy and stable along the property line.  If I do nothing, I will keeping having bamboo shooting up on my side and eventually swallowing up the fence.

Any ideas?

[Allen]

Each spring while the bamboo is shooting you will need to mow over or go and stomp over the new shoots before it grows and hardens off.  It only shoots one time per year but at a rental unit you have no control over this maybe.

[Merlyn]

I'd guess Bambusa Vulgaris Vittata, aka "Hawaiian Gold."  Unfortunately it is a fairly big one at up to 40' tall and 2-3" diameter canes.  And it sprouts multiple times per year, unlike the cold hardy species you'll find in TN.  The Bambusa I have here tend to shoot around April and randomly through the summer and quit shooting around November.  Also unfortunately I agree with your fencer...digging in a clump of bamboo is nearly impossible.  I manually removed at least 10 clusters from my yard, including a young Hawaiian Gold clump before it got out of hand:

  Around the bottom of page 1 and part of page 2 you can see the clumps I dug out.  Trying to put a post down in the middle of a clump is probably really tough.  The post hole digger (I'm assuming an auger-style) might get hung up in the fibrous mess of an underground culm.  It might cut through, it's hard to say.

I have been told that you can repeatedly kick over new shoots and eventually a clumper will stop growing in that direction.  I have not tried it.  I don't know if that would solve your issue anyway.  A trencher (chainsaw style) would go through the culms an allow you to install a rhizome barrier.  But yes, you'd need to remove ALL the rhizome on your side of the barrier.  Otherwise even the smallest pieces will grow into a new plant.  See these little pieces of Seabreeze that I missed, and were happily sprouting:

As far as rhizome barrier goes, I've read the thick plastic stuff works against the runners.  I don't know about clumpers, or what might actually control their growth direction.  I thought about galvanized steel roll flashing, which is supposed to last 30+ years underground?  In my case I planted at least 10 feet from the neighbor's fence, so when it tries growing off in that direction I'll be able to go in and lop off a big section of the clump to keep it going that way too far.

[miamicuse]

The shoots are coming at different times of the year.

Besides the leaves that fall all over during the winter months, the other issue is the new growth that comes to my side.

I guess I can monitor it on a monthly basis and cut off new shoots whenever I see them.  However, there is not a whole lot I can do when the new growth coming up from the other side of the fence, as they come up, and I believe since my yard has more sun, they tend to lean into my direction (south), and some will come up say 4' before they touch my fence, and as they get taller and taller to 20', 30', 40', they all lean on the fence, when the wind blows, it's like half a dozen bamboo all pushing the fence, so the top of the pickets, which are filmsy 5/8" pickets to begin with, with the sun and rain, the pickets basically get broken by the bamboo pushing against it at the top.

Now if the shoots are only say 8" away on the other side of the fence, they shot up, and hit the fence, they start to squeeze in between the pickets, and in a matter of days, they get big and break the fence sideways.  Here is a picture showing what I mean.  See the picture below where the red arrow is pointing.  That bamboo started on my neighbor's property, through the fence, into my yard.  I purposely did not cut that one off because I wanted to show my neighbor what I am talking about.

Usually by the time I see these offending ones the stems are already 2 inches thick and the pickets are either broken of nails popped loose and the damages have been done.  Some came through the fence only 6" off the ground, many higher.

[Allen]

I guess this is a classic don't plant bamboo by your property line if you want to be a good neighbor.  I would think about talking to the neighbor and telling them nicely at first that the bamboo is damaging your fence and see if they are good neighbors and would cut back on their side.  If your fence is on the line it is a problem as you really need to go on the other side and lob off all the bamboo on your property.  I would at least sawsall all the bamboo to the ground on your property side if you don't want it.  A neighbor here just had a fence replaced and used the same fence post holes by pulling them out but that is for a fence installer to look at.  I can certainly see their reservation about working on that.

[miamicuse]

2 hours ago, Allen said:

I guess this is a classic don't plant bamboo by your property line if you want to be a good neighbor.  I would think about talking to the neighbor and telling them nicely at first that the bamboo is damaging your fence and see if they are good neighbors and would cut back on their side.  If your fence is on the line it is a problem as you really need to go on the other side and lob off all the bamboo on your property.  I would at least sawsall all the bamboo to the ground on your property side if you don't want it.  A neighbor here just had a fence replaced and used the same fence post holes by pulling them out but that is for a fence installer to look at.  I can certainly see their reservation about working on that.

I guess that depends on where you are.  The SOP here is they will demolish the existing fence, cut the existing posts with sawzall at grade, the dig new holes between the existing posts.  Since we are in hurricane county the posts are usually 4' apart for 6' tall fences, so the new intermediate posts are 2' over each post.  The only time they will dig out the existing posts is when there is a gate involved and the gate posts have to be in the same spots.  The existing posts are typically anchored in concrete, if you dig it out may be the original 10" diameter hole when excavated turned into an 18" or 20" crater when chisels, pry bars, shovels, digging bars and sledgehammers are done with it.

[Allen]

1 hour ago, miamicuse said:

I guess that depends on where you are.  The SOP here is they will demolish the existing fence, cut the existing posts with sawzall at grade, the dig new holes between the existing posts.  Since we are in hurricane county the posts are usually 4' apart for 6' tall fences, so the new intermediate posts are 2' over each post.  The only time they will dig out the existing posts is when there is a gate involved and the gate posts have to be in the same spots.  The existing posts are typically anchored in concrete, if you dig it out may be the original 10" diameter hole when excavated turned into an 18" or 20" crater when chisels, pry bars, shovels, digging bars and sledgehammers are done with it.

Look into hydraulic post pullers.  They make a 4k one that pulls out telephone poles so I think pulling a fence post is doable with one.  

[miamicuse]

Last year I removed all the bamboos that migrated to my property, but I ended up with this.  I know I can dig deep and cut it below grade so avoid the this, but that's A LOT OF WORK.

[Jack Lord]

Years ago, I removed a ton from both sides of my mother's yard. As per usual, it was coming in from the neighbors.

 

Grueling work. I found that a pick axe was the best weapon. Plus vigilence as it eventually comes back.

[D Palm]

It is nice bamboo.
 

If it were me, I would rent heavy equipment, dig it out, place a barrier, cover. If the post start to shift, throw quick Crete in the hole and water. Support the post and Cover back with dirt. Keep working. Hope for the best. Then bring the receipt to the neighbor.