Chemicals & Bamboo

Controlling pests of bamboo

Moderator: needmore

Post Reply
johnw
Posts: 1617
Joined: Sun May 06, 2012 1:28 pm
Location info: 0
Bamboo Society Membership: EBS - Germany
Location: HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

Chemicals & Bamboo

Post by johnw »

This may not be the appropriate section for these questions but here goes anyway.

I had two questions this past week concerning bamboos and I am on shakey ground with the both of them.

One was concerning the control of weeds underneath bamboo. The person in question wanted to use Scott's Killex (2,4D) underneath bamboo to kill a host of rather easy-to-kill and some not-so-easy -to-kill weeds. His logic was thus: the container says kills broadleaf weeds but not grass, bamboo being in the grass family should not be affected at all. Well that had me stumped but I suggested he better find out for sure before going ahead with that plan even though the logic is hard to deny. Is bamboo badlly affected by such selective herbicides?

The second was concerning using a retail root stimulator to hasten the establishment of newly transplanted bamboos. He thought he might even try it on bamboos that are doing well to make them "go beserk" First off "going beserk" will probably result in a subsequent castastrophe in my mind. The product in question is commonly available here as a liquid which is to be mixed with water and applied to the root system only. It contains a fertilizer plus the rooting hormone IBA. Now if one applies this as a drench and happen to get it on growing tips of any plant the growth will either be severely curtailed or distorted. I remember a fellow who would paint the trunk of a linden that always sent out shoots from swellings on the trunk and it did indeed suppress shooting. My thoughts were that if appplied to bamboo the developing rhizomes underground could be stunted or suppressed by IBA. So I cautioned against using it but I would like feed back on this too.

Anyone have an experience with these two products on bamboos?

johnw - +25c / humidex 34c
Last edited by johnw on Tue Sep 11, 2012 12:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
marcat
Posts: 838
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2007 10:11 pm
Location info: 28
Location: Seadrift, Texas

Re: Chemicals & Bamboo

Post by marcat »

I do mainly Trop Clumpers and use Root Stim Alot. Also use hormodin 3 when doing cuttings. Have used the Root stim on the few runners I have no negative results and it will not get them to grow crazy.IBA seems ok for bamboo.
Haven't tried 2,4,D around them yet but it is suppose to not bother grasses and where I have used it other type grasses are not effected. I would do a couple tests around bamboo just in case before risking entire groves.
MarCat
stevelau1911
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm
Location info: 42
Location: upstate NY zone 6B
Contact:

Re: Chemicals & Bamboo

Post by stevelau1911 »

After messing around with a handful of rooting formulas, it seems like roots excelurator gets plants established the quickest with the highest success rate. I'm finding it to be better than clonex, juicy roots, myccorhizal fungi, and bonide rooting powder. The only downside is that it costs $59 on eBay and supposively has only a 1 year shelf so it is supposed to be used up in the same season. I don't think rooting hormones really help bamboos out much after they get established initially since it depends more on sunlight, soil and water conditions afterwards. I think in order to make them go beserk, you basically have to give them very ideal conditions, with manure, full sun, warm soil temperatures, and adequate water. Unless you can replicate the climate of the southeast of the U.S., I really doubt that you can make a new division go beserk within only a few weeks.

I usually don't see many weeds under my bamboo groves to start with, but I usually load a few inches of horse manure or compost on top of the bottom of the grove, and it works perfectly as weeds can't seem to grow through.

If these are shrub like weeds, you could put some cardboard down before adding the manure. I know of someone locally who does this successfully.
johnw
Posts: 1617
Joined: Sun May 06, 2012 1:28 pm
Location info: 0
Bamboo Society Membership: EBS - Germany
Location: HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

Re: Chemicals & Bamboo

Post by johnw »

Just a look at what happens to 'Alata' when shoots in the lawn are sprayed with roundup. A few shoots die in the clump but not many, however many of the connected canes go hyper-branched as in this pic.

I wouldn't advise using roundup on them, a simple kick is much less dangerous.

P. bissetii shoots up from 1ft to 4ft since Saturday, obvious what kind of weather they like!

johnw - frightfully humid here, dense fog, 20c. at 10pm. We rarely get this warm weather for more than 3-4 days, this has been going on for a week or more.
Attachments
Kings, Subd. B-20120812-01418.jpg
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
stevelau1911
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm
Location info: 42
Location: upstate NY zone 6B
Contact:

Re: Chemicals & Bamboo

Post by stevelau1911 »

I think the hyper branching comes from an excess of nitrogen in the soil. It also seems to cause leaves to turn very dark. Perhaps the glysophate from the roundup breaks up into nitrogen. The only problem I see with that is that culms flop over so easily when they have so many branches which may cause breakage with high winds. Melons and squash seem to respond in the same exact way as high nitrogen will make them produce bigger darker leaves with more side branches.

Here's my bushiest bamboo as of late July, still only about 60% leafed out for the season with a lot of time to put on even more leaves.
Image
Post Reply