Why cutting it down does nothing
Worth understanding before you spend a weekend on it, because it explains every other decision on this page.
A bamboo plant is not the canes. It is an underground rhizome system, and the canes are simply what it pushes up into the light. Cut them all off and the rhizome is entirely undamaged, still holding its energy reserves, and it responds by sending up more.
Worse, cutting removes the only map you had. The pattern of canes and new shoots is how anyone works out where the rhizomes have actually got to, so clearing the top growth before a survey makes the job harder to price and easier to under-quote.
Repeated cutting over several years can exhaust a small stand by starving the rhizome, and contractors sometimes use that as part of a plan. On its own it is a multi-year commitment with an uncertain ending.
The four methods, and when each is right
Combinations are normal and often correct — excavate what is against the house, barrier the boundary, and treat any regrowth that appears while the ground settles.
What a proper excavation involves
So you can tell whether a quote covers the job or just the visible part of it.
- Establish the extent
Exploratory digging at the edges of the stand and around anything the rhizomes may have reached — paving, drains, boundaries. This is what sets the excavation boundary, and it is the step cheap quotes skip.
- Clear the top growth
Canes are cut and removed to give access. On its own this achieves nothing; it is preparation.
- Excavate the crown and rhizomes
The infested ground is opened up and the rhizome mass lifted, typically 40–60cm deep for a running type, following runners outward to their ends rather than stopping at a tidy line.
- Sift and remove the spoil
Fragments of rhizome with a live bud will regrow, so the soil is worked through and the material taken off site rather than tipped in a corner of your garden.
- Reinstate
Backfill with clean material, and make good the lawn, border or paving. Confirm before work starts who is responsible for this and whether it is in the price.
- Watch for a season
Any missed fragment shows itself as a shoot in the following spring, and is dealt with then. Ask what the firm's position is on that before you sign.
Bamboo waste is not classed as controlled waste in the way that Japanese knotweed-contaminated soil is, so there is no licensing regime around disposing of it and no legal reason it cannot go in normal green waste.
But rhizome regrows from very little. A pile of excavated rhizome dumped behind the shed, or spread as fill somewhere else in the garden, will simply start growing there — so it wants to leave site or be thoroughly dried out and killed first. Ask what a contractor does with it.
Can you do it yourself?
Sometimes, genuinely, and it would be daft to pretend otherwise.
A young clumping bamboo in open ground is a hard afternoon with a spade, a mattock and a pruning saw. There is no reason to pay someone for that.
An established running bamboo is a different proposition. The rhizomes are woody and tough enough to blunt a spade, they often run under paving, fences and shrubs, and any fragment with a live bud that you leave behind will send up a new shoot. Half-finished DIY digs are one of the commonest reasons people call a contractor: the bamboo comes back thinner, in more places, and now it is growing through whatever went back on top.
If you do take it on, the two things that decide whether it works are getting the full depth of the rhizome mass out, and not backfilling with soil that still has fragments in it. A mattock is more use than a spade, and a reciprocating saw is more use than either.
Frequently asked questions
How deep do bamboo roots go?
Shallower than people expect, which is the one piece of good news here. The rhizome network of a running bamboo generally sits in the top 20–50cm of soil, because it is travelling through the loose, warm, well-aerated layer rather than heading down. Fine feeder roots go deeper.
Excavation is therefore usually specified around 40–60cm deep, which is why the job is wide rather than deep — and why how far it has spread sideways matters far more to the cost than depth does.
Will bamboo grow back after excavation?
Only from something left behind, and that is the whole game. Rhizome fragments with a live bud will regrow, so a thorough dig that traces the runners to their ends and removes the spoil properly should end it.
What you should expect is honesty about the possibility rather than a promise it cannot happen. Ask what the firm does if a shoot appears next spring, and get the answer in writing. Guarantees on bamboo work vary a great deal between firms — there is no industry-standard product — so read what is actually covered.
What's the best time of year to remove bamboo?
Any time, really. The rhizome is there year-round, and excavation is not seasonal the way herbicide treatment would be.
Late autumn to early spring has two small advantages: contractors are less busy than in the spring rush, and dormant top growth is easier to work around. Very wet ground makes access and spoil handling harder, which pushes the other way. If it is damaging something, the best time is now.
Can I remove bamboo that's growing under a fence or patio?
Yes, but that is precisely where the cost climbs and where it stops being a DIY job. Rhizome under a slab or a fence line cannot be reached without lifting what is on top of it, so the quote has to include taking up and relaying the paving, or removing and refitting fence panels and possibly posts.
Leaving it because it is awkward does not work either: rhizome under hard landscaping exploits joints and weak points, and it is still travelling. Get the extent established before deciding — sometimes only a small section has to come up.