[killjoy]

Wait till the bamboo gets there. That stuff is a serious plague.

Why do you have such a hatred for bamboo? There are two major 'types' of bamboo. Running and clumping. Most of the bamboo in the US is of the clumping variety. This includes the bamboo normally sold at commercial growers. Clumping bamboo is easily controllable since, as the name implies, grows by increasing the diameter of the grove. It can be controlled by simply cutting the new shoots as they show up around the perimeter of the grove. No different that pruning a tree.

Running bamboo sends out 'runners' away from the plant which pop out of the ground at different distances from the plant It can be a problem depending on species, but it is not commonly sold. Most of the people growing it and/or selling it know how to control it. It's spreading can easily be stopped through barriers which restrict the travel of the roots. Shoots that pop up can also easily be killed by simply cutting them.

Based off the Kudzu article, they are completely different animals.

[ArrogantBustard]

Bamboo can get out of control. Kudzu is out of control. Kudzu is bad medicine; it overwhelms everything in its path. Furtunately, Roundup^TM kills the stuff, but you have to see it as WAR.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

I have lots of firsthand experience with bamboo. Your description of controlling it is much easier said than done. Cutting the initial soft, thick shoots results in a harder thinner one taking its place. Even if you cut this as close to the root as possivle, it still leaves a very hard rootsystem poking out and/or running along the ground/yard which makes it impossible to go barefoot.

Bamboo will grow into the densiest hardware forest. It will run under roads. I don't think it spreads as fast as kudzu (which I don't have any real experience with), but it is still a nightmare and anyone who grows it should plan to spend quite a big of time maintaining it.