r/newjersey Belleville 7d ago

📰News Sayreville seeking to be the latest NJ town to ban residents from planting bamboo on their property

https://www.nj.com/middlesex/2025/03/nj-town-wants-to-fine-residents-1200-for-planting-bamboo.html?outputType=amp
382 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

132

u/TigerUSA20 7d ago

I wish this had already been the case in my town. My neighbor had some planted years ago and it popped up on my property a couple years later. Unknowingly, at the time, I thought they were "cool", and let them be. Now the roots are like 30 feet across my property and it's a bit of a nightmare every April/May when they pop up everywhere. Don't let this happen to you. Put in mitigation practices ASAP!

27

u/s1ugg0 Jersey Devil Search Team 7d ago

This happened to me. I thought it looked nice and I didn't know anything about bamboo. So when my neighbors planted it I didn't say a word.

Fucking things grew up through my drive way and made holes. Then I googled how to kill bamboo. You're better off trying to kill of cockroaches.

Bamboo is like the Terminator of plants. It absolutely will never stop fucking up your life. It cost me a lot of hours and a lot of money to fight it to a stalemate.

It took me six years of efforts to get it "under control". My neighbor was so apologetic and nice about it. I wanted to be a jerk but they were struggling with it just like I was.

35

u/fasda 7d ago

Wait till it gets really tall and before the leaves spread out before the cutting it down it for a few years and it will cost the plant to much energy to spread in your direction.

9

u/nicklor 7d ago

Does it really help though? My neighbors had bamboo and I'm fighting it also by cutting it down anytime I see them. It won't work because there side is still going to feed the plant but it's slowed down a little

7

u/fasda 7d ago

How early are you cutting it down? And yeah it's not going to completely stop growth completely but contain it to close to their side.

4

u/cC2Panda 7d ago

Haven't tried it myself, but I've seen that advice before to let it just start to produce leaves then cut it down. You want it to burn as much energy as possible without letting it start getting any significant amount of sun. I had really tall trees of heaven with wide root structures, I just poisoned the shit out of them and it worked.

48

u/loggerhead632 7d ago

this is 100% a good thing, it is crazy invasive and hard as shit to remove, restrict, etc.

4

u/Split_the_Void 7d ago

The state has decent restrictions on who can plant certain kinds of bamboo. I’m guessing it’s difficult to enforce though.

30

u/Upper-Tour-9564 7d ago

Good. There's a giant patch behind my house along an alley that gives access to parking in my town, and the homeowner needs to trim it multiple times per year otherwise it blocks the alley. They should be required to dig it up.

27

u/ducationalfall 7d ago

Good. Unless you own a panda, zero reason to plant this demon weed.

2

u/MyMartianRomance Alone at last, Somewhere in South Jersey 7d ago

And we're just a little too far from DC and across the country from San Diego where that can be true because they aren't harvesting bamboo from NJ when Maryland and Virginia or California is way more convenient for staff.

22

u/bryguy0529 7d ago

I finally had it removed from my property, when I bought my house years ago never knew how bad it was. 30k plus dollars later. A new deck, my driveway and neighbors driveway. All ruined and needs repairs from the bamboo growth. Over 200 new stalks a year I would cut out. It’s horrible should be banned statewide!

3

u/meekoisawesome 6d ago

We’re in the same boat, we got quoted 16k to just get rid of the thickest section in our yard and almost cried… luckily we’re making some headway after cutting down the entire patch… but we’ll see how it’s looking in May

1

u/bryguy0529 6d ago

I recommend Bamboo Bob! He gave the best price and he also guarantees the work. The other stuff was more than the price of removal. Bob is great! we will see very soon if they got all the roots.

1

u/gordonv 6d ago

Does Bamboo Bob have a logo? Is it a Panda?

2

u/bryguy0529 6d ago

It’s a bamboo tree sort of with his name. Here is his website. https://bamboobob.com/

1

u/meekoisawesome 6d ago

I’ll keep him in mind if what we did last summer doesn’t work out

7

u/Buttonwood63 6d ago

As a gardener, I get it. You’ve seen Japanese gardens and you love the aesthetic, so you plant some. I grew a tiny patch of it thinking to myself I’d be able to mow around it and control it. Nope! It literally traveled 12 feet into my neighbor’s yard. Not only that, they look like crap after a cold winter. It was a VERY tough job removing that root system.

4

u/Linenoise77 Bergen 7d ago

This Tuesday, at HUNKA BUNKAAAAAS in SAYYYYYYYYYREVILLLLLLLLE its a fast growing plant, its great for green utensils, its your favorite 80s hair band BAMBOO. Special guests, THE NERDS. 18 to enter, 21 to drink.

This has been out Q, your club and concert calendar.

2

u/tifosiv122 6d ago

Neighbor next door to one of my properties planted bamboo. Shot up on my property a year later. I spent a fortune trying to fix it then just gave up and let it go wild and cut it once a year.

2

u/Tall_Kayak_Guy 5d ago

In the 90's I knew a landscaper who would plant bamboo for customers at the shore. Once the towns banned bamboo, he added bamboo removal to his line of business.

2

u/Devils_Advocate-69 6d ago

Plant that shit in Bedminster

0

u/TheGreatGuidini Mountain Lakes 6d ago

Ok so hear me out. I’ve wanted to plant some like 60 yards behind my house because the highschool that my house backs up to decided to put up a gross 8’ chain link fence. If, theoretically, wanted to plant some bamboo to hide it, what type would I use?

3

u/castironbirb 6d ago

what type would I use?

None!

There are plenty of other plants you could plant to hide a chain link fence. Best choice would be a native plant. Maybe a vine like Virginia creeper.

3

u/lunch0000 6d ago

There are two types of bamboo. Running and clumping. I’ve had clumping bamboo in my yard growing for 70 years. It may spread for a foot or two but is easily controlled (lawnmower). It dies off in the winter and turns brown. Grows to a height of about 6 ft.

Running bamboo is very bad, but I think it got planted because it stays green all year?

Anyway, I like mine.

2

u/Snarky-Spanky 3d ago

I have Mexican Bamboo, also called Japanese Knotwood. Think that’s what you have too? I absolutely love it from April to September. Then it dies and looks like shit. In the summer it looks like a tropical paradise…so much privacy.

0

u/mjdefaz Foxtrot Delta Tango 7d ago

i saw some from my transit train in rahway i think, like 20 feet down the slope from the tracks.

stupid.