Yes, I have. Had pictures posted a while back in the gallery. 40 mil barrier, failed within the first four years. Hand dug and installed a total of over 400 feet. All that work, down the drain...and all that bamboo...running wild.

Kt

I've wondered if there couldn't be some sort of motor driven device that would dig a thin trench the barrier could slide right into. Something that could cut through any rocks it encountered.

A small DitchWitch with a narrow cutting chain would do. The phone company uses a device that leaves a slit in the ground. The problem is the corners, or the spot where the barrier has to make a turn. Also, the space where a barrier is usually needed, is small and cannot fit machinery.

Maybe there is a hand powered device, similar in size to a tiller, that is available, I don't know.

Kt

DitchWitches a couple different sizes can be rented a Home Depot. I think people use them for putting in sprinkler systems. They can dig trench 24 - 30 inches deep and about 6 inches wide.

I hate ditch witches. Used one in my yard for laying electric underground to garage. Ended up with lots of hand digging. If you have JUST sand or soil, I'll admit they work well, throw in even a few rocks and it becomes a royal pain in the rhizome.

If you have much (like more than one) rock rent a mini excavator. Not much more expensive, and lots more fun. :)

Will mowing all new shoots repeatedly control running bamboo?

I have to agree with Chris on the ditch witch. If soil is really rocky, they're pretty useless. You can avoid most hand digging if you don't mind spending a few bucks. Rent a back hoe, and that will do a decent job even in many rocky situations.

Wanna Run Faster
Mowing works fine if you don't care what the area you're mowing looks like. Mowing will restrict the size of the grove, but it doesn't kill the rhizome beneath the soil. So if you don't care that a certain area is bare (because the soil is permeated with rhizomes underground), mowing is good. If you want lawn or other plants where the shoots are coming up, try rhizome pruning instead.

well lucky me, i live in florida and all i got is SAND, so the ditchwitch should be working fine, Now to my question:
how deep do the rhizomes run under the soil?
i got two acres of land, but planning on planting Bamboo, just the fun. my idea is to run a ditchwitch for the perimeter and then using some aluminum flashing as barrier, question is, how deep will i need the barrier? i can get flashing about 18 - 24 inches, held by pressure treated 4x4's on corners or were needed, flashing will be visible about 2 - 4 inches above ground and the "island" filled to the top then. Any suggestions?

http://www.jmbamboo.com/

This website says 24" is appropriate .

Have to say anyone that knows bamboo knows well that bariers do not work period. They are just another item to sell to suckers and dreamers. Up north where boo stays semi dormant all year long i've heard they do work well but personally thats a small reward for living in a frozen hell 6 months out of 12.

Well, at least we, in the "frozen hell", can make snow pandas
to guard our Boo. :)

Kentuck

Did you say "bamboo running wild"?
just let me know, i'll get my rope and we'll round up
those doggies.
R.R.

The nice thing about frozen hell, is we don't have to feel compelled to do yardwork for 6 months. We can relax with a hot mug of rum-spiked coffee in front of a nice fire in the woodstove, with a pile of garden magazines and books, and enjoy downtime. I like doing that while looking out at my well controlled running bamboo, contained in their unbreeched barriers and gracefully bowing under a pristine blanket of snow, out in the garden.

I dug a 12 Deep 6 inch wide trench and poured cement, I purposly left the top 2 inches with mulch and dirt so I can just rip out the the rhims that grow over. So far so good but we are only on yr2. Not sure if this was deep enough once the boo gets 3 inches in diameter. Also I hit limestone big time at 12-16 inches so really couldnt get any deeper unless I had some machine.

Just installed 30" barrier (about 150 foot circle), around a Negra grove. The whole project cost $233, not counting the work. Lot of digging for an old guy. Used $30 worth of stainless steel "self perforating" #8 hex head screws to join the 40 mil barrier strips one to the other. I put the screws practically on top of one another, and very near the barrier edge, hoping to discourage any interlopers. Thoughts I've had regarding barrier failure: Are they really a fool's rush, as one poster suggests, just something more to sell? Do the failures happen mostly at the seams? Where is the "hardpan" in the soil? If you have a long hot summer, and only water enough to feed the main plant (or grove), will shoots still emerge even if there is a barrier failure? It seems like nobody knows the answers to the questions for sure, though everybody is sure, based on their personal experience, that they know for sure what happened to them. Is there anybody out there who has seen barrier security after 20 years?

Sonds like you got a deal on barrier material. I don't have 20 years of experience, but I will tell you that barrier works...mostly. I'm lazy and rhizome pruning works for me, so I don't use barrier. However, I have done a number of digs in the Seattle area and found that rhizome is mainly deflected by barrier but not always, and all of the penetrations I've seen have not been at the seams: the rhizome simply managed to go right through somehow. For example, the last dig I was on was a modest clump of Ph. humilis that had been in the ground about 5 years; the clump was about 5' in diameter and had pierced the barrier in two places, but most of the other rhizomes had simply hit the barrier and circled. I've also seen the large vivax grove at Clinton Bamboo Growers in Burien, which is about 13 years old and has 4" diameter culms. It's about 20' X 20' and they have had no problems with the barrier as far as I know.

My view is that your barrier will contain most of the rhizomes, but you may have some breaches, so you should patrol it for escapees. Then you can do what I do: get a sharp shovel and rhizome prune...

Kudzu: You aren't lazy if you rhizome prune, but I like your attitude, which seems to be if you have a "breach", no big deal. Sometimes, in extremely rocky soil like I have, you only want to dig once, when you put in the barrier; but kudos to kudzu for temperament. Do you have a wife and kids? What if you sell, or get taken out in a car accident? I don't want to sound like an old woman here; just saying, these are the thoughts that drive me to install barrier protection. I figure condoms fail too, but that doesn't mean they aren't sometimes a very good idea. Ron Anderson, at Andersons Bamboo in Monroe, sells the 30" 40 mil for $150 per foot.

SeattleBoo-
I just moved to this property about a year ago and I'm here for the long term. I figure that, when it's time to get rid of the place, it'll either be sold to another bambusero or we'll have to have the biggest free dig in Seattle to make it more acceptable to buyers. I think your observations are correct, but I've spent my whole life being neurotic, and since I've retired I've decided to do what I want to do and worry less about the consequences. Besides, rhizome pruning helps me stay in shape!

I agree that a barrier breach is no big deal. Same thing if you miss a small area when rhizome pruning. If a shoot shows up outside the area you expect, just pull it up. The rhizome runs pretty close to the surface so keep pulling up the rhizome until you get to the area you expect the bamboo, and cut it off.

The bamboo nightmares really occur when people ignore the bamboo for five or ten years, and are then horrified. It's like lots of things, no big deal if you do a little maitenance.

On the "frozen hell" theme that weaves its own thread... I'd also add that yet another benefit to living in frozen hell is that the need for rhizome barrier vanishes. Woohoo! Come on snow and ice! Where are you?

Here's an idea I read somewhere -- water. Supposedly the rhizomes won't go through it. So I'm thinking about building a MOAT.

According to bamboo.org, most rhizomes are going to be in the top 8-10" of soil. So:
"If the bamboo planting can be surrounded by a shallow trench 8 to 10 inches deep, this can be a cheaper and easier method to control itÂs spread."
Just check the trench for rhizomes in the fall and cut them off. This might be better than a plastic barrier, because that doesn't stop the rhizomes, it just causes them to turn and go deep.
???

A good source of barrier is used concrete irrigation pipe. Here in Central Calif the farmers have tons (literally!) of the stuff laying around. Get some buddies with strong backs and scout around. For free I got three 30" in diameter X 18" length rounds that the farmer was glad to get rid of. My boo doesnt go anywhere, and on a city lot it stays in place for my other tropicals. I don't have a grove, of course, but three rounds sunk in the ground 18" keeps it in check.

I'm new to the group, just put in my first
Rubromarginata. Got a 26' long by 5' diameter
piece of road culvert from the county highway
department. It's dug in, and I'll hope it holds
things in place. If the 'boo "leaps" by the
third year, I should have starts available to
get others interested. The departmentw, and some
road contractors, will usually sell offcuts for
the scrap price of the metal.
(Macomb, IL Zone 5)