permaculture

[Rick Valley <bamboogrove@cmug.com>]

> I'd like to plant bamboo over the drain field of our septic system . In
> "Gaia's Garden", Toby Hemenway mentions that roots clogging the pipes in the
> leach field shouldn't be a problem because bamboo roots don't grow larger
> over time like tree roots do.The bamboos I have are "phyllostachys vivax
> huanwhenzhu" and "phyllostachys angusta (stone bamboo)", both running
> bamboos that would be difficult to remove if there is a problem. The
> drainfield is located in a pasture, perhaps 30 meters into pasture before
> the drainfield starts.I'd fence the bamboo off so that grazing cattle  would
> keep these plants from becoming uncontrollable invaders.Any warnings or
> comments regarding this idea would be appreciated. I live in southern
> BC,Canada, about 100 km fom the ocean.

>> In your case the bamboo rarely has roots below 18in.  The minus side about
>> bamboo is that the root/rhizome area becomes thick with root - a bundle of
>> mass.

I must confess that I am Toby's bamboo info source. Bamboo roots are at
least as deep potentially as corn- which can go down 12 ft. Mike Brondi, on
the flats along the Skagit with groundwater at 15ft. finds that after 4-6
years he no longer has to irrigate a stand of bamboo. So the roots go down
15 ft. there. But I know of numerous cases where bamboo has coexisted with
septic tanks and leach fields. It is a grass, not a cottonwood, willow,
sweet gum or birch with cambium. Do not most septic fields have grass
planted over them? If anything, bamboo can improve a system that is
malfunctioning by sucking up surplus black water, and I have heard
professional bambusero testimonial to that effect, with 30 years of living
with a system.
Nor are running bamboos all that hard to remove, if you have the right tools
and an understanding of bamboo's physiology. Nor are running bamboos much
threat in the dry-summer west coast of N. Am., unless you are irrigating an
adjacent lawn. (can we assume this is not the case due to the audience of
this list?) Go ahead, plant over the drainfield. You won't be sorry.

-Rick
 
"raising cane since 1980"















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