My Rubro and Madake aren't too terribly far from one of my property lines (I know, poor planning on my part). My neighbor on that side is an undeveloped 35 acre tract of land. They mow parts of it for hay sometimes, but for the most part it sits idle.

This is the first year both of those are growing enough to start crossing the property line, and I'm trying to decide how much effort I should put into keeping them on my side of the fence. Part of me wants to be a good neighbor, rent a trencher, and put in about 300' of barrier between the bamboo and the fence. Part of me remembers how much crap I have had to clean out of his that he let grow over our shared fenceline and let nature run its course. The big difference, of course, is that all the stuff of "his" I've had to clean out is naturally occurring in this area. I have purposefully planted these here.

Am I jerk for even thinking about this?

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"The Way is in training" - Miyamoto Musashi

Can you mow it on your side and not let any culms stand from 20' away? 15'? Then can you patrol the fenceline during shooting season and hop over and cull any run aways? Don't you have that killer tractor attachment you can rhizome prune with or was that some other tractor device I'm thinking of?

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Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/

Like Brad, I was thinking that once a year drive down the property line with the tractor and plow/prune those rhizomes!

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

Brad, You might be thinking about the rippers David and I made for the mini backhoes. I look forward to having enough bamboo to use mine. Haven't heard how David's worked. Don't see why a sub-soiler on a tractor wouldn't work great.

The North East Tennessee Matt...

An option might be to educate your neibour about bamboo and ask if he even minds if it spreds to his place.
MarCat

I got my Matt's in TN confused - didn't know there were 2

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Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/

I see how there can a confusion in Matt in Tenn. There are two. As for the topic; I found it way too easy to prune the rhizome that went into my neighbors yard and now those cuttings have shoots. I do know it's harder when the plant is more mature, but in my little experience, to me, it seems very easy to control the spread if you want.

You can try to plant the native Arundinaria species between the property lines. IT cant be invasive if its native, and it should help detur the other boos from going through?

Would it? I doubt it can stop spreading of well established grove.

Yep - Tennessee is full of Matts!

I'm afraid I've got no root ripper, and there's no room for our big tractor to pass through there anyway. I could mow between the boo and the fence, but the rhizhomes would bypass me and pop up on the other side of the fence anyway. This would be much easier if I had any kind of relationship with my neighbor, but we've never met and he rarely visits this land. I guess I could seek him out and see how he feels about bamboo before I put too much work into this. People either seem to love it or hate it.

Truth be told I don't know that this guy would care (or even know) if the bamboo grew on his side of the fence. I'm more worried about his son (a difficult man we do know) inheriting the place and causing an issue, or them selling the place to be developed and the new owners raising a stink.

I wish I could just buy it - then I wouldn't have to worry any more!

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"The Way is in training" - Miyamoto Musashi