I GET TO GROW BAMBOO!!! I GET TO GROW BAMBOO!!!

[gmendoza]

Panda Eggs




PM me, I know a guy.....

 

[Imp]

Quote: Does he have bantam Pandas?

Imp

 

[GardenerGal]

I have P. bissetii and it is a very good bamboo. The culms get 25' tall and 1.5" around or a bit more. P. vivax is beautiful and gets big culm diameters but the culm wood is brittle. But as a landscape screen it would be striking. Yellow groove (P. aureosulcata) grows quickly and forms a dense screen, but if you want the really big canes go with vivax.

These are the types I want/need:

Bory (Tiger) Bamboo

Bissetti Bamboo

Yellow Groove Bamboo

Vivax Timber Bamboo

 

[Mattemma]

I have some black bamboo,and so far I am liking it.The bamboo and my corkscrew willow has grown in fast.

 

[thaiturkey]

What great "poultry keeper"! I have bamboo splitters and maybe will try making bamboo laths to weave into baskets or a "keeper" too.
When I was in Nepal, I saw a a keeper with a slightly tighter weave, to hold a mother hen and her brood. The weave had to be a bit smaller so the chicks couldn't squeeze out.

Do the native bamboos shoot year round in Thailand, or during certain times? We have four season here in New England, so the shooting takes place usually from mid-spring to early summer. But I'd imagine that in tropical and subtropical regions it may not be so limited.

I've been looking on You Tube for information about building domes with bamboo but have found nothing.

For protecting mothers and chicks you need the weave to be tighter, as you say. The domes look better if you can split the cane into thinner strips.

Looking at our dome, I would guess that you start by laying the strips out flat in a circle. There's a circular hole in the top so, perhaps, a round tin or similar is place on the ground and the bamboo laid straight, passing the side of the tin. Then, the ends are lifted and strips are woven around to make the perimeter and hold the dome shape. Perhaps a hoop is made first and the strips pushed into it. There are several layers of edge strips. After that, the remainder of the strips are woven in. That's only my guess from looking at ours. If you're interested, I'll take pics. of it and post them for you.

The common bamboo in our area shoots only twice a year. I think that's partly because people don't bother to water them during the long dry season. We have bought saplings from north east of here that are of a variety that shoots all year round provided that they are watered, fertilised and cropped regularly. Care is important, as you know. We control them by topping appropriately, cropping shoots when they are ready and thinning out weak growth. Rooted cuttings sell here for the equivalent of $3. The edible shoots sell for about 70 Cents per Kilo (2.2lb).

 

[GardenerGal]

Thanks for that information, ThaiTurkey. And thank you for offering to take photos, though if it's a lot of trouble to do that, then no worries!
I'm guessing that making the domes is not too different from weaving a basket, just with a more open weave. I have some books that show diagrams on basket-making, and I'm going to look and see if any of the baskets are dome-like in design. Then I can modify the design to make a poultry keeper.

I actually have a photo of the hen-chick dome I saw in Nepal, which I snapped in the village of Dampus, and it's framed and in my kitchen! I'll have to take a close look and see if there are any hints as to how to start one. When I get an all-in-one printer-scanner-copier, I'll scan it and post the photo on BYC.

It's great that your bamboo is a marketable resource when it shoots. It's such a versatile natural resource. We don't have a plantation here, but we do get way more shoots than we can eat, so next year we may try selling the cleaned shoots to our local Cambodian market.

 

[thaiturkey]

Here is the dome we use. Small chicks could escape from it but a closer weave or some netting around the bottom would solve that.

Notice how the strips seem to pass the circumference of the hole in the top without being bent. The top circle is very rigid and used both for carrying the dome and lifting birds in and out. We cover it at night.










Bamboo shoots should sell well at a Cambodian market. Perhaps also rooted saplings from your pruning, domes and strips of bamboo.

 

[jtbrown]

First, great thread. Second, we were at US Botanical Garden in Washington DC over the weekend -- so cool, right up there with National History Museum or more in wow factor. Anyway, they had a bamboo grove in their children's garden. Small caliber, multiple paths through an area I guess 12 ft by 12 ft. I thought, what great shade and so, I knew I could find a 100 uses for the bamboo canes. Where does one find bamboo? I get a load of garden catalogues and I either have never paid attention or they aren't in those. I am in Ohio. We have 10 acres and would like a small grove. I can and will only plant this in a small area I can easily maintain, so I will mark this thread and may come a calling with some questions once I really start getting my plan for a grove together. We have clay soil that takes a while to amend for good growing of veggies, but working on it thanks to my poultry.

Bythe way, We had never been to the botanical gardens on all of our trips, we ended up there for 3-4 hours as they had a festival of sorts for kids with multiple hands on displays. We had planned on only spending 1/2 to 1 hour there as my pick for a quick stop and I thought the family would hate it. Everyone enthralled with the 'greenhouses' the carnivorous plant display, the children's garden, etc. and we called it really the best stop of our quick trip. We had no plans of staying there long, but had a blast and essentially spent 1/2 day there and tore ourselves away ONLY because it was a 4 day trip and my 5 and 6 year olds were promised space ship and dinosaur museums and we were running out of time. I highly recommend it, impressive!

So, again, I am ever amazed at what I find on this chicken forum, and where is a good source for buying bamboo?

 

[thaiturkey]

If you were nearer to us I could give you bamboo cuttings by the dozen.

Perhaps you folks can help each other. When bamboo needs to be topped, there will be cut stems with side shoots. You need about 2 inches of main stem with a side shoot from it. Those cuttings can be sent by mail. Pot them in compost and let them root. They like shade and plenty of water. Some will fail but others will grow shoots that then leaf. Once they look good, they can be planted out, 3.5 to 4 metres apart.

 

[GardenerGal]

Oh gosh - you have a longtime bamboo grower right in your own home state. His name is Jerry Burton and he runs Burton's Bamboo Garden:
http://www.burtonsbamboogarden.com/

He has been selling hardy bamboos for ages, and has a lot of experience with how to make 'boo flourish in Ohio.

First, great thread. Second, we were at US Botanical Garden in Washington DC over the weekend -- so cool, right up there with National History Museum or more in wow factor. Anyway, they had a bamboo grove in their children's garden. Small caliber, multiple paths through an area I guess 12 ft by 12 ft. I thought, what great shade and so, I knew I could find a 100 uses for the bamboo canes. Where does one find bamboo? I get a load of garden catalogues and I either have never paid attention or they aren't in those. I am in Ohio. We have 10 acres and would like a small grove. I can and will only plant this in a small area I can easily maintain, so I will mark this thread and may come a calling with some questions once I really start getting my plan for a grove together. We have clay soil that takes a while to amend for good growing of veggies, but working on it thanks to my poultry.
Bythe way, We had never been to the botanical gardens on all of our trips, we ended up there for 3-4 hours as they had a festival of sorts for kids with multiple hands on displays. We had planned on only spending 1/2 to 1 hour there as my pick for a quick stop and I thought the family would hate it. Everyone enthralled with the 'greenhouses' the carnivorous plant display, the children's garden, etc. and we called it really the best stop of our quick trip. We had no plans of staying there long, but had a blast and essentially spent 1/2 day there and tore ourselves away ONLY because it was a 4 day trip and my 5 and 6 year olds were promised space ship and dinosaur museums and we were running out of time. I highly recommend it, impressive!
So, again, I am ever amazed at what I find on this chicken forum, and where is a good source for buying bamboo?