Howdy folks.

I've been reading the forum posts about barrier seams, and there are lots of horror stories!

Currently, my barrier system is this: Along fence (property) lines I have the plastic barrier installed, and on my side, I have a trench. The bamboo beds are rectangles--about 40-60 feet long (left to right) and three feet tall (back to front). The barrier runs along the long side and the two short sides. There's a trench along the other long side.
I hope my bamboo doesn't pierce the barrier.

Anyway, I'm extending the beds (left to right), so I'll have to create a seam in the barrier. What do ya'll suggest for securing the seam? Some folks have suggested brackets and bolts and others two sided tape. Interestingly, the bracket and bolt method appears to be the one with the most failure horror stories.

I'm wondering if I could use rubber cement on a two-foot long overlap and use tape to hold it together while it dries.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

jp

It seems glues don't do a good job sticking to polyethelene. Perhaps you might want to investigate hot air welding. I don't recall anyone using it for root barrier, but it might be worth investigating to add to the knowledge base.

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Southern Indiana. Theoretically the same climate as 'needmore' & 'Eastlandia'.
My Bamboo List.

"Take Dog apart. Disinfect. Reassemble."

Rubber cement is definitely not going to work. There may be some epoxies that will bond to the plastic and would work, but you're talking about something that needs to last 10+ years underground. If it were me I'd go with the clamp method. If you do it right, it should be fine. I've read the key is not to overlap the two sheets flat, but to clamp them perpendicularly. I don't have experience with barriers though.

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Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

Do all the work at once at use a single continuous 60-80 mill HPDE barrier?

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M

Thanks guys.

Moriphen,

I'm extending the beds, so I have to create a seam or not use a barrier.

jp

I have welded Poly with a solder gun wasn't very good but the poly will weld so one of those hot air types might work with a bit of practice. I would over lap the poly a few inches and weld the ends to the other sheet a smooth as posible so as to not give a rhizome a place to catch and penatrate if the welding works.
MarCat

In the end just keep in mind that you don't want any area that the roots can stick into and push the seam apart. I seen a website that sells the barrier and they use a metal strip of some kind to fix the seam. Check http://www.bamboogarden.com/barrier.htm if you want to see what I'm talking about.

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I usually overlap the seem and clamp on both sides with pressure treated wood with a screw gun & deck exterior grade screws (star or square drive self tapping wood screws) The picture sort of shows it, look at bottom. 2x4s work just as well as the 5/4x6

Dependable,

That looks like a great system.

How much do you overlap two barrier pieces?

jp

Maybe a foot or two, plastic in an open trench is cheep compared to trying to dig it up or patch it should you make it too short. You don't want to cut it so close that if you have a cave in or slight angle change you will be trying to get a few inches by pulling against a few tons of soil.

Thanks Dependable.

Where is the wood joint and screws in relation to the overlap? Is it in the middle of the overlap? The end?

jp

That would be the middle, jp. If you tend toward the obsessive, you could clamp it at both ends of overlap.

Thanks Dependable.

Have you ever noticed rhizomes pushing against the wood to get between the wood and the barrier?

jp

Hello again guys.

In reading the forum posts regarding barrier, the consensus appears to be that it should really be called deflector and that pruning should be used in any case.

I'm confused about the latter part. I have an open trench on one side, so pruning is easy there. But how do you prune near the barrier? Should there be another trench inside the bed near the barrier?

jp

The whole point of having a barrier is to avoid having to use other systems like root pruning and trenches that people could accidentally step into and twist an ankle or worse. A properly installed barrier that is deep enough and thick enough is the best barrier system. At some point you will have to ask yourself what your more comfortable with and go with it. If your worried it will break through the seam, then dig a trench next to it so you can watch it. Yes, barriers are a "deflector" because when the roots hit it, they literally turn (or deflect) into another direction. You block their way into other parts of the yard or neighbors so the only issue area would be where the seam is located. But trenching and using barrier in my opinion is a waste of time and money.

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Want to learn more about bamboo? Check out http://www.knowbamboo.com