From:   Michael Vanecek 
Date:  Mon Jun 23, 2003  10:57 pm
Subject:  bamboo rhizomes 


The bamboo rhizomes I dug up seems to have survived. Well, day two 
anyway. I need to plant them here pretty quick. A bucket of water does 
not make a good home for bamboo. A few more of those and a few years and 
I'll have a wall of bamboo to give us some privacy. 

Oh...a 12" deep by 12" wide trench and a pair of snips is all that's needed to 
control the spread of these guys. Seriously. Trench the bed and snip any rhizome 
that pokes through periodically. Behind the cut new tips will branch out and go 
*along* the trench and not across it. Amazing. 

Much more effective than those 3' deep plastic barriers - a solid barrier 
motivates the rhizome to go up or down - and if down it can breach the 
bottom of the barrier and go under. Now...a slanting barrier can help 
motivate the tips upward. Anyway, a trench is just air. The rhizome 
tries to cross it at it's comfortable depth. When cut, the branches go 
along it since there's no barrier to motivate it to go down. Pretty neat.

Have fun,
Mike 
