Live Baboo??

[ReptileLove18]

so today i went and helped a friend move into a new house and behind the new house was a bamboo garden. she wants to get rid of all the bamboo so i asked her if i could take some with me thinking i could maybe use some in the large screen enclosure well be getting for our next baby cham in a few months. she told me that the previous owner had tried to kill the bamboo with weed killer right before they moved.. so this is what i did:
first, i cut down 3 shoots to scrup with water and soap and let dry to use as horizontal perches in the enclosure.
then i dug up 3 shoots and their root balls to try to keep alive to plant into a large planter in the enclosure. that is if bamboo is a safe plant for them!!! my plan was since they had been sprayed with weed killer to cut down the shoots as far as i could, scrub the remaining shoots, take the root balls out of the contaminated soil, get as much soil off as i could and replant in fresh soil... all of this i thought of when i saw the bamboo so any thoughts or anything are so appreciated!!!! i would love to use this bamboo in my chams large enclosure

 

[absolutbill]

You can use bamboo in your cham's cage, but you need to find out whether or not the weed killer that was sprayed is a systemic. What that means is that some weed killers actually seep deep into the roots to kill a weed from within. Therefore it would probably still be in the bamboo's system depending on how long ago it was sprayed. As a side note, bamboo usually can only be killed by digging it up and removing it - it's a hardy grass that can take over. Hopefully someone with more plant knowledge than I can chime in on how long a systemic takes to get out of a bamboo's system, but it's something to think about.

 

[NachoTacular519]

Yeah you definitely want to keep it away from them for a while to flush everything out with water...With bamboo I would soak the whole root system in water for a day, throw the water out and repeat a few times. If it was something like roundup used then its just a plant hormone based thing which isn't supposed to affect animals. That said I would personally keep it away for about a month and flush with clean water, new soil like you said for sure too.

 

[ReptileLove18]

thanks for the input guys!! i have several months before we'll be ordering the big enclosure (we havent brought the new baby home yet, and we wont be getting it until he's bout 5 months old) so i have lots of time to flush its system out really well!
any other ideas or thoughts anyone?

 

[ReptileLove18]

***bump***

 

[SMCNARY]

You can buy all the bamboo at Lowes in different sizes cheep (dead) and also they sell live starters that are perfect for Cham cages without the hassel and worry of chemicals You deffinately get an A for effort but I would be careful as you stated what you got was treated with chemicals!!! With the V day holiday even Krogers is selling live bamboo starters cheep here. I used to work with herbicides and they stay in some plants for a very long time!!! Bamboo IS one of those plants!!!) It stays in the woody tissue.

 

[ReptileLove18]

okay thanks for the info! do you think i could use the dead shoots i collected still if i soaked them in water and soap? if not i wont use them but i am curious i like the idea of the live bamboo because dead its pretty strong for perches and live its flexible, strong, and provides some foliage for cover

 

[SMCNARY]

okay thanks for the info! do you think i could use the dead shoots i collected still if i soaked them in water and soap? if not i wont use them but i am curious i like the idea of the live bamboo because dead its pretty strong for perches and live its flexible, strong, and provides some foliage for cover

The herbicide stays in the woody tissue and could possibly leach out in a humid Cham cage,I would not take the chance!!!

 

[ReptileLove18]

kay i definitely wont! thank you sooooo much for commenting on this thread i would be horrified if i had used it and hurt my baby cham... ill check out the bamboo at my local lowes and see what they have to offer.