Timber Bamboo
 

I just got 2 3gal starts of P. Vivax bamboo. In about 5 years it will be putting up shoots 5" in dia. and reach 70' tall.

I've got about 4 acres I'd like to turn into a bamboo forest. I'm probably gonna plant some Moso also, it reaches 7" dia. and 90' tall, but it takes at least 10 years to produce mature canes.

Hopefully, there will be a market/barter for timber bamboo in the future.

Anyone else have any experience with or stories about timber bamboo?

I grew up farming, so there's not much I can't grow. (we have an 8-9 month growing season on the Gulf Coast.)

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Sounds good as long as you never plan on wanting to remove it.

For reference purposes: http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=359621

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

I plan on "removing" it on a yearly basis :s9:

It's priced at about $28 per 10' section right now. When mature, each cane should be worth about $140. According to the nursery, it's super easy to control. All the new shoots come up at the same time, once a year in the spring. When one comes up where you don't want it, you give it a good kick & it snaps off at ground level, and the shoots are eatable & yummy.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Yes, the shoots are delicious and nutritious.:emotions16:

I bet there's good money in supplying fresh, locally grown (organic?) shoots to gourmet oriental restaurants.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

I want some too. I think the biggest key to it is moisture content in the soil.
I just don't think it'll spread anywhere it's too dry. Like here. After about five years there'd be 2 or 3 canes and after 10 years about 3 or 4 canes. I mean those are some big grass blades. Lotsa water. Unless next to a pond or lake.
But still, I really like that stuff. I'd like 5 acres of it.

We got some black bamboo in it's third or fourth year and it's just starting to catch.
It's not timber bamboo, more for decorative purposes or smaller furniture type stuff. Very slow to get going. Also some yellow clumping, some Buddha Belly and a couple more clumping types which all give some nice poles and stakes and pretty doodads.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

I love bamboo shoots - and the canned ones just won't do. Yes, the shoots all come up around the same time. Over in Japan the new shoots are taller than a man right now. If you have asians around, they will happily remove any excess for you every spring.

As for Moso, when dried it has a tendency to crack badly, and so useless for making certain craft items.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Nice! I really like the look of bamboo. I was thinking about getting some of the more decorative types, like the black. I'll probably get 10 more sets of the Vivax next week so the acreage will fill out faster. I'm planting it close to a "bottom" area so water shouldn't be a problem. There is a wet weather stream about 60 ft. from where it's going in.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Now that's some needed information. Thanks, man.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

I love em too. We have a large Vietnamese community, so I probably won't have a problem getting rid of excess shoots.

I didn't know that about Moso, I was mainly wanting some of it because it gets so large. I was told that the Phyllostachys Vivax was a good one for crafting, do you know anything about it?

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

That should work out perfect. I'm on top of a hill of sand basically. Not so good for bamboo or willow. A lot of irrigation requirements. Too much really. The wind just sucks the ground dry.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Good luck kicking the tops off of 5 acres of bamboo.

The stuff is a noxious weed.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Friends don't let friends plant bamboo.

Google the word "Rhizome Barrier" get comfortable with that name, then realize for bamboo it needs to be a 1/4" thick steel plate driven 18" into the ground.

If you dare experiment with bamboo by god get the clumping variety. Don't dare plant the running type.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

I'd make sure it's environmentally friendly.

Ever hear of Kudzu? That's a vine that grows wild in the south.

Kudzu was introduced from Japan into the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where it was promoted as a forage crop and an ornamental plant. From 1935 to the early 1950s the Soil Conservation Service encouraged farmers in the Southeastern United States to plant kudzu to reduce soil erosion as above, and the Civilian Conservation Corps planted it widely for many years.

However, it was subsequently discovered that the Southeastern US has near-perfect conditions for kudzu to grow out of control � hot, humid summers, frequent rainfall, temperate winters with few hard freezes (kudzu cannot tolerate low freezing temperatures that bring the frost line down through its entire root system, a rare occurrence in this region), and no natural predators. As such, the once-promoted plant was named a pest weed by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1953.

Infestation of Kudzu in the United States.
Kudzu is now common throughout most of the Southeastern United States, and has been found as far northeast as Paterson, New Jersey, in 30 Illinois counties including as far north as Evanston,[12] and as far south as Key West, Florida.[citation needed] It has also been found growing (rather inexplicably) in Clackamas County, Oregon in 2000. This is the first infestation west of Texas.[13] Kudzu has naturalized into about 20,000 to 30,000 square kilometers (7,700�12,000 sq mi) of land in the United States and costs around $500 million annually in lost cropland and control costs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

I never posted this in the linked thread, but I'd do a lot of research before putting it on my property.

When I was at Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville, NC, I rented a house on a small lake. I remember seeing a 4' high bamboo cane near the house after we moved in, and thinking, "Why would someone plant one of these?"

As the months went by, I started noticing shoots all over the yard as I was mowing. Then, about a year and a half after I moved in, my next door neighbor came to the fence while I was outside one day. He said, "I know you're just renting, and you'd be justfied telling me to piss up a rope, but would you be willing to dig up that damned bamboo in your yard? The previous owners planted it a few years ago, and now the stuff is all over my yard, and a couple of shoots just came through the liner of my swimming pool." They were decent folks, so I agreed to do it.

It took me about a week of evenings and a whole weekend to dig all that shit up on a half acre lot. I followed runners all over the yard, and I finally found the mother lode - a clump of roots about twice the size of a basketball. That's in addition to a few smaller root clumps.

I'd definitely talk to your local (probably at the county level) agriculture extension before proceeding. They should be able to tell you how this stuff will grow and affect the vegetation around it. Don't know how your property situation is, but you might need to consider whether the bamboo will invade your neighbor's property, and what affect it will have on whatever (if anything) they're raising. You probably wouldn't want to be on the hook for the contol and eradication of the stuff on your neighbor's property if he/she doesn't want it there.

Love your initiative, but I'm from the school of "Nothing's ever as easy as it seems." Just suggesting you get as much info as possible. Good luck!

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Thanks for the feedback guys.

LOL, I'm very familiar with Kudzu, been fighting it on the west property line for years (I'm on 20 acres, next to property that used to be an experimental plant station about 60 years ago. Plants from all over the world were brought in to test grow for viability.)

BTW, Kudzu can't keep up with about 20 goats, they love it.

I have a tractor & bushhog for land maintainance, and a back hoe for heavy work. I was planning on a 2 bush hog wide peremeter around the grove. I shouldn't have a problem with neighbors, the 'boo will have to cross the bottom and go up a hill on the east, the north side is wild and thick woods, south & west it would have over 100 yrds. to travel (on the south it would eventually get to a paved road.)

There is some wild bamboo in the county, and the nursery said I'm in a good place for the timber 'boo to reach it's maximum potential. At $140 a cane, I hope it does grow like a weed! It doesn't grow nearly as thickly as the thinner 'boo though.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Yeah, there is invasive bamboo for sure. Mostly in semi-wild suburban surroundings and lowland area's around bodies of water. And yes, it's a very good idea to research any major changes intended on your property.
I wonder though, if anyone has ever heard of timber bamboo gone wild? The kind that grows from 40 ft. to 100 ft. tall and is as thick as a mans leg? I haven't, not around here anyway. There was a patch growing down by the water on a lake where I lived at a few years back. It was wild, but nature seemed to keep it in check. It never traveled and never really seemed to get much bigger at all. It was beautiful though.
I imagine, to grow a forest of giant timber bamboo from scratch would take many long years under ideal conditions.

Then, one day, as you're sitting on your porch with a cup of tea admiring your forest, suddenly, the floor of the porch cracks open and a shoot the size of a fist gapes up at you and before you're able to get your chain saw to stop it, it's broken right through the roof and is heading straight for that channel 6 news helicopter with terrorist hatred for democracy and our way of life pulsing through every fiber of it's alien being.

Oops, don't know where that came from...

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Did you get it at a nursery? How much does it cost for "starts"?

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

I've forgotten how to insert links, but I got it from www.lewisbamboo.com.

It's going for $65 for a 3 gal. size. It comes with 4 ft. canes, UPS, in a 10"x10"x4' box.

I've never heard of timber bamboo going wild and causing problems later either, but I guess I'll find out! I hope to avoid it spearing through the house, lol, it's going to have to eat through a concrete slab before it goes through a roof. :s1:


Yea! the link worked!

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

I'd doubt it will be a cash crop for too long - everyone loves bamboo flooring at the minute, but tastes change. Make sure you can eradicate it if you need to, sell it when you can, and you should be onto a winner for a few years!

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

I make longbows by gluing a bamboo back onto hickory, osage, etc. It makes them almost unbreakable. I love that stuff.

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How are you planning on cutting it? We had to build some fence through a patch of it one time. Oy Vey! Chainsaws were useless against it. I think we finally knocked a spot out with the bobcat, but it was a half day affair.

To whom will you sell it? Just because someone gets x for it doesn't mean everyone does.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

you would about have to use a sawzall.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Hey, here's your first customer!

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

LOL, It's great to have a customer base before the product even comes to market!

I haven't looked into the cutting yet, I figured that someone in Japan/China probably makes the perfect cutting device for bamboo, they've had a few thousand years of dealing with it :s1:

If the bamboo market crashes, at least I'll have a grove of giant bamboo to wander through. (and a ready supply of fresh bamboo shoots) :RockOn:

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Dude, you just don't get it. You don't wander through a grove of bamboo like it was a nice pecan orchard, or mott of live oaks. It grows fast and thick like kudzu, but is woody, and exceedingly hard. Think about a hedgerow, solid bamboo, from a foot high sprout to 20+ feet tall. And every day it gets wider.

It's almost impossible to control, much less remove once you realize the error of your ways. You really should go slap the moron at the nursury who sold you on the idea. He's trying to dump his problem on the next sucker.

If you want to eat sprouts, more power to you, but you can grow them in containers, never letting them get into your precious earth. Once they do, you've opened pandora's box. Just wait until you start getting lawsuits from the neighbors because your bamboo forest is putting shoots out on their land, destroying their property.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

They're called Gyokuchos, but harvesting timber bamboo might be a job for a chain saw here in this day and age.
The expression 'watching grass grow' is possible with Moso. You can literally see it grow by the quarter hour from what i have been told.
It can grow up to 2 or 3 feet in a single day during peak shooting under ideal conditions.
I think you'd be wise to install rhziome barriers, and do it right. I don't think that'll be either cheap or easy though. Good luck. Look forward to some pictures in the future.

PS - just kick it over at ground level, huh? I'd be careful following that advice too. I've gotten some nasty cuts from bamboo.
Google - Bear Grylls bamboo. Mr Man vs Wild damn near lost a finger

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

The economics of bamboo sprouts is promising. In a few years when 100 million Chinese immigrate to the U.S. there will be a tremendous market. Good luck but remember mosquitoes love to hang out in bamboo forests. It gives them wind protection or something.

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Bamboo basically has it's own set of "chainsaw chaps" - your saw will pull out a load of filaments, jam up the drive sprocket, and quite possibly throw the chain off every time you try to cut the stuff! No matter whether you go for a little homeowner electric saw, or a monster Stihl 880 - it's not just like cutting through saplings.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

On top of all the above,

The silicon in the plant will dull a chainsaw quick!
think trying to cut glass.

In Thailand, I saw groves that had stalks that
were at least one foot in dia.

They cut it down with hand saws. (fine teeth)
then split it with knives as needed.

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Have you ever seen a grove of timber bamboo? Watch "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", parts were filmed in a timber bamboo forest in China. Timber bamboo does not grow anywhere nearly as thickly as small bamboo. Go to the link I provided earlier in the thread to see what a timber bamboo grove looks like. My dad wandered through timber bamboo groves in SE Asia, they are very open, with very little undergrowth. New canes of timber 'boo come up several feet away from the old canes. The requirements (water/neutreants) of timber 'boo don't allow it to grow that thickly.

People in Asia have been living with and using bamboo for several thousand years, it hasn't taken over there yet. Neighbors are not a problem, I'm planting it about 100 yards from the closest, my sister. (I'm on 20 acres.)

If it gets close to the N property line, where the dense woods starts, I might need the rizome barrier, but that's a few years down the road (if I don't end up buying the land).

Re: Timber Bamboo
 

Never ever heard that. But I ain't never tried cutting any either. Never grew any but worked with it for years. I know some of the farms I bought from used chainsaws, as did guys in some of the posts on the forums I used to read back then.
Can't speak to how messy it is.
Here's a photo from one of them (bamboo workshop) of a farm grove in louisiana taking a chain to Moso:

<TABLE class=tddetails cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle>http://www.bamboocraft.net/workshop/...50212-345F.jpg


Here's a photo from Mr Bamboo's site (he recommends a tungsten chain). This for transplant:

http://www.mrbamboo.com.au/UsedJPEG/...a/mbcrtp01.jpg


</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Photo caption: To cut bamboo, the tool of choice is a chain saw.


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