Scheduling Maintenance on a Rhizome Trap (Sand Trench)

3/31/20 UPDATE: We no longer recommend a sand trench but instead a pruning trench, which is basically the same thing as listed below except it's only 12" deep and it remains open. We find it is much easier to service and as long as you have heavy clay soil as is found in most of the Piedmont, the trench is very good about holding its shape year after year. You will have to clean out the leaves and other debris about once per year, which is probably the hardest part of the process but for most people is not more than 1~2 hours per year. The benefit the the open air is that you can see everything that is going on and most of the rhizomes will air-prune themselves. IE, once they hit the air they stop growing. About a third of the rhizomes will come out then dive down into the soil and these should be cut both at the point of exit and entry. Pulling any rhizomes out of the ground  is unnecessary as newly escaped rhizomes won't be established enough to survive on their own - they'll just rot in the ground.

OLD ARTICLE BELOW:

Many people choose to use a sand trench to manage their bamboo. It is simply a 14" deep trench filled about 12" with sand. To maintain, simply take a flat-bottom spade and sink it into the sand, cutting through and rhizomes that have passed through. Pull the spade up and move to the side, making sure to overlap about an inch and repeat, until you've gone down the entire line. We find 100' takes about 15 minutes. Below is the schedule:

Two times per year
-end of July
-end of October

Three times per year (recommend)
-end of June
-end of August
-end of November

Four times per year (if having warm winter)
-end of March
-end of June
-end of  August
-end of November