Bamboo

Kind of regretting planting bambou phyllostachys bissetii (just found the label) in March 2010. It was such a sweet little plant and we're sure it said it wouldn't spread much. It's now about 10m x 4m. It is classed as a running type as opposed to clumping. Some sites describe it as a vigorous runner, but that doesn't seem to be the case for us on clay in southern France.

Every year we remove new shoots and it's usually several hundred. 2023 gave ~560. 1 popped up in the middle of the drive, so I felt it was time to investigate. A trench revealed 8 rhizomes under the concrete drive.

There is no commercial product to kill rhizomes (possibly stump killer) and glyphosate only works on leaves. We'll be chopping the rhizomes off and watching for new growth.

 Almost every year our neighbour has told us a story of bamboo appearing in his house from his neighbour on the other side. Luckily it's a long way from his house...

I've just dug a test trench and it looks like I'll 'only' need to trench down to 0.5m to install the barrier. The soil is almost normal there and from the 2010 pictures it is firmly clay.

20/3/24 Dug a trench about 13m along all around the bamboo. Had to cut out 3 large parts, one towards the ditch and 2 towards the large rock. I had originally decided to trench more towards the drive, but decided that the level changes would be too tricky to bend a barrier around. Bought a 1mm barrier from here https://barriere-anti-racine.com/sol-standard-1-mm/126-569-barriere-anti-racines-eco-1mm-speciale-bambous.html#/33-rouleau-050m_x_25m. Even at 1mm thick it could be fairly readily creased and pleated to keep a slight lean, and still go around corners. 69.49€ delivered.

Barrière anti racine ECO 1mm spéciale bambous

Référence : JAR_BA_50_10_25_R

Polyéthylène Haute Densité (PEHD), noir, 100% recyclable, densité 940 g/m², épaisseur 1 mm

Got 16m of barrier and had some spare. Angled slightly, and back filled just as a storm started.

Found the 10cm outlet pipe from the fosse at 45cm deep on the uphill side. The join is about 20cm to the right of the pipe. Didn't find the pipe at the other side.

31/3/24 removed 10 shoots outside the barrier ditch side. 3 good size ones inside.

4/4/24 removed 35 in last 2 days. A lot inside the barrier

5/4 54 removed. 2 out of reach.

14/4 Kind of got bored of picking shoots, so spent an hour or so over the last week digging out the remaining clumps.  I got lucky with a few into the ditch that were thin. I now have a very impressive pile of rhizomes drying in the sum before I knock off the soil and return it to the increasingly holy area around the bamboo. Today I dug some more out that sprouted including a stealth one that had mad it half way to the road.

23/4 found another 2 stragglers today. They grew 15cm overnight. Not particularly long and had been cut off from the mother originally. New growth inside seems vigorous and has in some places exceeded the existing height of approx 1,5m. 1.5m at the rear, ~2m at the front was chosen last year as easier to maintain and get the bramble out.

27/4 A final (!) shoot with tiny leaves, and very short. It led to another few which had been severed from the main plant and were just below the surface.

Bamboo was beyond the 3 rocks bottom right

Ditch to the left. This was all bamboo.
Plenty of new growth inside the barrier to the right

Plenty of new growth

Originally it went from the left of the large rock and down the slope to the right

Research sites

https://bambouenfrance.fr/racines-bambou/ table showing root depth (to ~40cm but phyllostachys bissetii  not mentioned)

https://lewisbamboo.com/pages/controlling-bamboo trench to 45cm generic bamboo

https://www.gardenersguild.com/5-things-to-know-about-the-bamboo-plant

tough horizontal bit is rhizome. Thin bits are roots.

Like the roots of other non-rhizomatous plants, these are the soft, white, fibrous tendrils that creep down into the dirt. In bamboo, the roots tend to emerge from the nodes of the rhizomes. While the rhizomes spread out and generate the growths that will become new shoots and culms, the delicate roots mainly grow downward and are responsible for drawing water and precious nutrients out of the soil.

https://bambubatu.com/bamboo-anatomy-9-parts-of-the-bamboo-plant/

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1735570/phyllostachys-bissetii-clumping-or-runner

'Most definitely, positively, NOT a clumping species. '

no need to remove rhizomes - they die.