Farming Bamboo

Bamboo as Forage

farmingbamboo — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:39:51 +0000

We have found that herbivores like bamboo. We think that because bamboo is evergreen, it is a useful adjunct to pasture grass and hay. Bamboo is good in winter when the grass is dormant and in droughts when the grass … Continue reading →

Bamboo is great Forage

farmingbamboo — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:30:25 +0000

Llamas eat bamboo

Compost Tea

farmingbamboo — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:23:58 +0000

I bought Erath Earth Compost Tea over the Internet. It lists the ingredients as liquid compost, liquid humate, orange oil and molasses. I mixed up two gallons at a time and sprayed one gallon on each of my research plots. I drenched a small circle around each pole, especially the ones that came up this year thinking that that is where the roots are and where it would do the most good. In Bonaire I sprayed the Robert Young, Japanese timber, moso, henon and Houzeau. Earlier I had sprayed in Fort Valley the Robert Young, Vivax aureocaulis, Henon and praecox. I was able to spray there because there is irrigation. With the soil moist from irrigation, it is more likely that the microbes in the tea would survive. I had waited a month for there to have been some rain. There is no way that I can measure in leaf color or shoot production whether this exercise did some good.

Selling poles at SE Chapter Meeting

farmingbamboo — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:42:32 +0000

The SE Chapter had its annual Bamboo Festival on July 9 and 10, 2011, at the Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina. I brought 69 poles to sell cut into 6′, 8′ and 10′ lengths. I also brought a pile of scrap poles to give away. The 6 footers ere priced at a dollar each and the 8 and 10 footers for $5 each. Every pole sold, skinny ones and fat ones, golden ones and green ones. I had washed them carefully and cut them with the upper septum intact. I put the free scraps on the ground. The first three women who walked by took them all eagerly. After they got their car and loaded the scraps, they bought a few poles in addition. “What are you going to do with the poles?” “I don’t know… Make something.”

I displayed my poles in my wagon: the dog-powered bamboo pole selling machine. I did not bring the dogs so the wagon was stationary. The poles seemed to make people happy.

Irrigation is essential

farmingbamboo — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:11:45 +0000

In March 2011 Tobaris Holmes planted 300 moso bamboo on his family farm in Unadilla GA. He then went overseas on military duty. Georgia usually gets an inch of rain a week. We counted on that rain to grow the 300 three gallon moso plants.

Drought hit. No rain for two months! Should we dig a well, pump the nearby pond? The well was too expensive; the pond dried up. Plants were dying. Tobaris was in Kuwait.

Tobaris’ father, uncle and brother filled a tank with water and watered the bamboo. But it took three men! One drove the tractor, two managed the hose.

The solution had to involve one man, not three men. They enlarged the saucers around each plant to hold more water; they applied mulch to hold in moisture and cut down on weeds. They retrofitted the tank to deliver water from a hose held by the driver of the tractor. Tobaris’ uncle now watered the bamboo by himself. He watered many days a week. The remaining plants look GOOD.

The moral is that if you want to farm bamboo, first spend money on irrigation. Then buy and plant the plants. It is better to plant a few plants and water and care for them well, than to plant many and leave them on their own.

Thin the Praecox for poles

farmingbamboo — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:34:41 +0000

I now am beginning to thin the groves for poles. In Fort Valley I set the sprinklers in Robert Young, Vivax aureocaulis, and henon. I then began thinning the 1000 square foot research plot of Phyllostachys praecox while the sprinklers were running in the other groves. I used my trusty DeWalt reciprocating saw with a new blade: Ace Hardware 6″ 6TPI. Cut fast and clean.

Between March 8 and 23, 2010, I harvested 35 pounds of praecox shoots (delicious!) from thie 1000 square feet. This yield is equivalent to 1500 pounds per acre. Today I cut poles. Cutting poles is part of my upgrading of the grove. I forgot my measuring tape so I did not cut them to length. I will cut them to sellable lengths tomorrow. My caliper measure gave me:
Under 3″ = 3 poles
Under 2 1/2″ = 1 pole
Under 2″ = 8 poles
Under 1 1/2″ = 6 poles
Total = 20 poles per 1000 square feet
= 871 poles per acre
I watered half an inch on the Robert Young and Vivax. I did not have a measuring device in the henon. I think I will buy timers as I want to lay down an inch of water per week.

Introduction

farmingbamboo — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:44:06 +0000

My mission is to add bamboo to American Agriculture. I moved from Seattle, Washington USA in October 2010 to Perry, Georgia USA. I moved to Georgia because Robby Russell and Mike Hotchkiss of Georgia Bamboo, a wholesale bamboo nursery, invited me to work with their groves. They support my research both by allowing me to use their groves and by providing me with advice and encouragement.

I staked out 1000 square foot research plots in four of their groves in Fort Valley GA and eight of their groves in Bonaire GA. I will say more about my work in later blogs. Meanwhile I am fortunate to have moved in June 2011 into one of Robby’s rental houses in Perry. Here is the view from my bedroom window.

For information about bamboo as a farm crop go to my website www.bamboofarmingusa.com.

Bamboo Farming

farmingbamboo — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 17:49:18 +0000

I post observations on bamboo as a farm crop as I work in the groves and create data to share. My web site www.bamboofarmingusa.com has data from research at WSU in Puyallup and data from my work in Georgia in … Continue reading →