Killing Bamboo

What does it take to really kill bamboo, like you have been killing weeds all your life? JUST A LITTLE PATIENCE, that's what. Forget everything you've read about destroying bamboo. Just follow the easy directions and bamboo is history. You'll love how easy it is!

1. Find one of your saws and head for the clump of bamboo. Go about two inches up the bamboo stalk and cut through the trunk with the saw. That's all! It doesn't matter how tall the bamboo is, 5 feet or 30 feet. Just saw through the stalk two inches above the ground. WATCH OUT 'cause the bamboo could fall on you if you're not careful. If possible, have someone grip the overhead bamboo after you've cut.

2. Usually, there are lots more bamboo stalks to worry about, so cut each and every trunk the same way.

3. Stop at the garden shop or nursery. Ask the manager to point out the 41 percent liquid concentrate Roundup. Buy a quart container of the Roundup. If the store has plastic measuring cups for measuring pesticides, buy one. You'll need it. Buy a small bag of white marble chips 'cause you'll use them to mark where you treat the bamboo.

4. On a day when it's not raining, bring the Roundup and the measuring cup with you to the bamboo. Carefully pour one ounce of Roundup into the measuring cup, then pour the liquid into the cavity of the bamboo stalk. No reason to go overboard with the Roundup, just one ounce. Now, place a white marble chip on the soil next to the bamboo to indicate that the stalk has been treated with Roundup.

5. Continue the same scenario for treating other bamboo stalks, always with one ounce dribbled into the cavity and a white marble chip placed next to the stalk. Treat all bamboo stalks one after another on the same day.

ONE WEEK LATER (day number 7)

1. You repeat the scenario to each bamboo stalk, but now you are treating each cavity with only a half-ounce of Roundup. After each pour, pick up the white marble chip previously placed atop the soil next to the bamboo. This way, you will be able to tell every bamboo stalk has been treated a second time.

TWO WEEKS LATER (day number 14)

1. Repeat the procedure of applying a half-ounce of Roundup to each bamboo stalk. After pouring the Roundup into the cavity, drop a white marble chip on the soil next to each stalk.

THREE WEEKS LATER (day number 21)

1. This is your final treatment of bamboo. Dribble a half-ounce of Roundup into the cavity of each bamboo stalk. As you do, pick up the white marble chip beside the bamboo stalk.

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