HOW TO GET RID OF BAMBOO from your yard!

Attention potential viewers of this video - the advice is to cover the bamboo and starve it of sunlight. I just saved you 8 minutes that I'll never get back.

Here in Japan, we cut the bamboo off at about 1 meter high, and leave it. This should exhaust the root system as it keeps pushing sap up the stem. Then after a year or so you can just push and pull it out of the ground. A lot of the root will have died back, but whether or not this eradicates the whole underground system, ..........? However, we chip up the green bamboo stems, which makes the best mulch, (especially for fruit trees), to get sweeter, bigger fruit, and deep, soft free draining soil. Hope this helps.

I will testify, NEVER plant this.

You're right on. I went through the same process - cut it down, sprayed RoundUp on the re-sprouts, then cut another grove down and painted straight RoundUp on the stumps. Ran a continuous war against the re-sprouts. Four years later I seem to have won the wars and now have areas covered with dead bamboo stumps. I'm renting a mini excavator in a week or two to remove the stumps and rhizomes. Should have done that years ago! The good news is that the bamboo has converted hard, sticky clay into friable soil great for gardening. I still love bamboo, for all the reasons you stated. But, Not In My Back Yard!

He gets to the point at 4:40. You're welcome.

Just like others I came on here looking for options to control my bamboo. Glad the black plastic sheeting worked because that's what I was considering. I've already painstakingly cut all of it down but now little sprouts are appearing. Going to cover the area with a big tarp and hope it works like you described!

About twenty years ago a previous owner of our place (get this), a biologist, thought it would be nice to have bamboo. I began to attempt to eradicate it three years ago. I followed your regimen exactly. The result is that I daily have a new crop of sprouts all over, and each day I cut them down. I can't do any landscape work because renegades are sprouting up 50 feet from the original grove among desirable plants. I'll try your method. I have no choice. Pray for me!

OMGosh! Thank you so so much for sharing! We bought a house that the woman before us would dump all of her dead plants in a corner of the backyard, and I thought the same, I'll just cut it down. Well, no1 told me (But they didn't care to watch me do it, until I was finished. I guess they thought it would only span my own yard. ), that it would come back 100x's worse. Well, jokes on them now because each neighbor on either side have groves, and the 3 houses behind that span me and my 2 neighbors ALL have groves now. That's kinda funny to me, even though we've ALL now been combating this Bamboo for 14 yrs! 🤣 But also had tried everything but the backhoe idea, and plastic, so we're gonna give your plastic idea a go! I'll let you know how it works out! Wish us luck...🤞🏼.

I planted two clumps about 25 years ago. Last week I set half of my patch (50' x 100'?) on fire as it stood. The wind was at 15 mph and out of the south, and all ash would fall on my own land, and the road would be clear of smoke. Double Fire breaks around the area were mowed low so all was safe. The local police showed up on their own to watch the show and we yelled at each other to hear, 500' away from the blaze and fireworks. It was the biggest fire we have had in 30 years, and we do a lot of burning, working with trees and clearing land to plant out orchards. (Chestnuts, jujubes) We regularly use fire as a tool to maintain different areas for different things. Never burned bamboo down, but if it works to renew it and manage it, it is a lot of fun as well.

I'm so glad that you shared that hot tub picture. Thank you so much!!!

Lol,, dude those pictures where hilarious!!

Aloha from a Maui Native....we have a bamboo forest, and half of Maui on the Hana side is toast, all bamboo. My best friend and I spent the day designing a sweet little food forest garden, yoga area, and shaded seating area today, until we realized her bamboo hedge had other plans. Plans that no amount of poison would change. Now, we are considering pots, decks, hugel culture beds...& crying we are laughing so hard. The magnitude of the problem was clear: Over 297,000 views of this video!

thank you for this. What a genius idea and you showed it works. I needed this. You saved my back yard and possibly my house 😅

Black plastic as ground cover prior to starting your vegetable garden is the best way to eradicate unwanted vegetation. But it's the heat that kills the plants down to the roots, long before they die due to lack of sun light. During the hot summer months the ground only needs to be covered for a week or so and then you can remove the plastic and nothing that was previously growing there will survive. (Then til, fertilize, and start your garden) BTW, don't cover the plastic with leaves or foliage, The black color attracts more heat from the sun and kills the unwanted plants quicker.

Thanks for the great tips!

Good information, thank you for sharing!

Been fighting it for 15 years in Columbia SC. Sledge hammer and or pick ax gets out stalks from after cutting. Here bamboo has a growth spurt in spring and more after a rainy period. Have to cut everything that grows up. Kick over new sprouts once or twice a day. (It's called the cane walk.) Key is to stop photosynthesis. All stalks in the colony feed each othet thru the root system. Even cut stalks will make bamboo 'bushes'. Cut these with shingle cutter (hook blade). Bamboo is supernaturally strong. Be careful. Respect it. I once broke a finger against it cutting it. Stuff will push up thru just about anything. It is pretty but if you want it in your yard, get bunching type bamboo, not the running type, which is the kind everyone hates . Bunching is also prettier and does not invade. Roger on This Old House did a segment about it on an episode once. My condolences to those with running type bamboo. Almost as bad as getting cancer.

Thanks so much for this video!!! I have a 40 Ft wide mini forest in my backyard....my neighbors have it on their side of the property line as well. This video gives me HOPE!!!! Thank You! 

I have the same issue and I live in central NC. I have used the box blade on my tractor to try and pull some up. It is taking over some of my driveway. I do not have a backhoe, but may consider hiring someone. After that, I can cover it with plastic. Thank you for your video.

In China we pour cement on them, and build expensive follies that nobody uses.