How to limit Oldhamii footprint

[Poinciana87]

Hi
I have a few Oldhamii planted within a couple of feet of the common boundary fence. I want to make sure they don't go next door, so I was wondering what options I had to limit their footprint. Would digging a trench around them work? Or would the new rhizomes just follow the decline of the soil (it works for running bamboo).

Cheers

[ghmerrill]

A trench should work just fine for a clumping boo like that. A now non active member posted two or three years ago that he uses the square cement pavers around his boos to keep them from crossing boundaries....

I'm on a phone, so I can't search for a link for you, perhaps someone else has it handy, or you can find it via search... anyone remember if Roy posted that as a thread, or was it a post in another thread?

[Arachnotron]

A trench should work just fine for a clumping boo like that. A now non active member posted two or three years ago that he uses the square cement pavers around his boos to keep them from crossing boundaries....

I'm on a phone, so I can't search for a link for you, perhaps someone else has it handy, or you can find it via search... anyone remember if Roy posted that as a thread, or was it a post in another thread?

Here's the thread.

http://www.bambooweb.info/bb/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=711

[Poinciana87]

Thanks for the link.
It talks more about encouraging growth on one side via keeping one side dry. In my case this would just direct the growth one way, but I need to constrain the entire width of the clump - which appears hard to do

[ricshaw]

Thanks for the link.
It talks more about encouraging growth on one side via keeping one side dry. In my case this would just direct the growth one way, but I need to constrain the entire width of the clump - which appears hard to do

Do you do any culm thinning out or have you left the clump alone?

I maintain (restrict) my Oldhamii clump to only a 6 - 10 of the largest culms. I only remove mature culms that are 3 or more years old. I remove new shoots that are smaller than the larger culms. If a new shoot comes up close to my neighbor's fence, I will remove it with my Sawzall.

[jonjfarr`]

Killing shoots won't do it. The rhizomes will go under those right into the neighbor's yard. First, if my neighbor was growing Oldhamii, I would tell them "bring it on", but some "unawarians" like to take the fun out of boo. I'd say just a long, straight, deep rhizome barrier.