# Will they clear bamboo?



## For the Love of Dirt

The property I just bought has an acre of bamboo that we need to get rid of, as it is were I want to put my garden, and I was wondering if anyone here new if pigs could get rid of it? I know people use pigs to till so I was wondering if they would dig up the roots, and keep the new shoots under control while we cut down the larger stuff? Would they be strong enough, and would that be something that they would go after? There's not really anything else in that area, although it is already fenced. We think it used to be a catch pen type area for cattle, but most of the fencing is still in great shape, we would just have to fix the gate. It's mostly hog panels and I think some barbed wire in a few spots, which eventually we would change out anyway, so that is no heartache to replace. It's just getting to be a pain to cut this stuff down and leave behind all the stumps and now the shoots are popping up everywhere!


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## B&B Happy goats

Pigs may do it, but i know my goats would have a great time eating it up !


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## For the Love of Dirt

I am planning on getting goats at some point, and they would take care of the new shoots, but I don’t think they’d go after the root, and this stuff is soo big they wouldn’t be able to reach the leaves. Some of it I can’t even touch my thumb and middle finger when I put my hand around it!


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## B&B Happy goats

Sounds like the pigs are the way to go ..........


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## Mini Horses

My pigs LOVED to root up roots!!!   Go for it.  Trust me, if they like the shoots, they will destroy the roots in short order.   They don't call them "pigs" for nothing.


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## B&B Happy goats




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## B&B Happy goats

Then you can make them or your soon to be goats bamboo huts .....   if you cut the big ones down first to use.


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## For the Love of Dirt

We’ve cut down a ton of it to use for trellising and possibly a gazebo, but building goat and pig shelters are also great ideas! There’s plenty there, so I should have enough. We even went out this weekend to trim up what we have already cut down, and there bamboo shoots popping up EVERYWHERE! We have cleared out a space about the size of a double wide trailer, and it is now spotted with the darn things! Thing is they weren’t there last weekend, and some of these things are already up to my knee!!!


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## Baymule

I have used pigs in my garden. They dug craters, rooted up everything, pooped and added their fertility to the soil. For an acre that infested with bamboo, I'd get 3-4 pigs, minimum.  

I got tired of going in the pig pen to feed them, finding their tub and trying to not get knocked down by hungry pigs. I also got tired of them flipping their water tub over immediately after I filled it up. I built a dedicated pig pen, shelter, bought a feed bin feeder at Tractor Supply and made a water barrel with a hog nipple poked through the wire. It made feeding and watering pigs almost labor free. I suggest that you get a feeder like I did and secure it to the fence posts so you can fill it from the outside of the garden and make a water barrel like I did. It will save you a LOT of hard work. 

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/baymule’s-pigs-2018-herefords.37448/page-6

Then to make them root even more, toss whole corn out over the garden. You can drive a pipe in the ground, then fill the hole with corn and they will root it all up. You put enough pigs in there, for long enough and they will turn every square inch and make it a barren waste land. They will also poop in it and increase the fertility tremendously. 

Pigs need to be cool, they cannot sweat. That is why they wallow in water and mud, to cool off. So make them a nice mud hole, they will root it out even more. When they have rooted it all up. make another mud hole. 

The best part? You get to eat them when they are done! And you can sell a half or whole hog to friends and family. 

Definitely use hogs to destroy the bamboo!

After the first garden, get more pigs in the fall and put them in the garden for the winter. You might want to build a pig pen next to the garden to put them in if they are not ready for slaughter when it is time to plant. 

I built a Hawg Hut on skids for my first pigs.

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/hawg-hut-or-goat-or-sheep-or-dhs-new-digs.32088/#post-403114


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## Hipshot

Yes pigs will root up bamboo . Bamboo is sallow rooted the problem is the way it grows underground .It grows  another stalk under ground, to anchor itself and to spread .  . My advice would be get a mini excavator and dig it up. And keep digging it up till you kill it all .  It would take some very large hawgs to root up an acre. With any speed that is . And then there is the fencing. And it all has to go or it will just come back . Bamboo shouts good eating .


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## For the Love of Dirt

I have looked at how to kill bamboo, and the method I’m going with will take a while, but it works. You basically just keep the shoots under control. As long as you don’t let them get to the leaf stage then eventually they rhizomes will expend their energy and die. It may take several years, but they only send up shoots in the spring, and if the pigs will help to at least dig some up, then it’s a lot less work for me. Once we clear the garden area and the pigs have had their fun then I will be following them with sheet mulching. We may have to garden somewhere else on the property for a little while, but we already tried digging it up with a bobcat and the roots are so tight it didn’t do much good.


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