Can Do Bamboo

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Farm-grown, cured poles can compete with cheap imports if they are selected for a niche market. Find a repeat buyer such as a tepee or yurt manufacturer. Grow varieties whose cured poles retain their color, be it black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) or bory bam boo (P. nigra Bory). Cut poles long or raise them for superior quality. Produce highly prized square timber poles by placing square forms tightly around young bamboo shoots. The shoots will grow through the forms and take their shape. Square bamboo poles are so valuable and rare you can name your price for them.

Nursery Plants

The surest bamboo business is a nursery. Bamboo nurseries sell largely to suburban and urban dwellers who want privacy from neighbors or passers-by. Bamboo makes an excellent hedge because it's narrow, beautiful, evergreen and, if bought in small place-in-your-vehicle pots, grows to desired height within three years - then stops.

Dealing in bamboo starter plants has its advantages. Every shoot that comes up and leafs out can be potted and sold - and for significantly more than it would fetch as a vegetable. Consequently, bamboo nursery owners can often make a decent living on remarkably little land. Stan Andreason operates Beauty and the Bamboo out of his Seattle, Washington, home, located on a single city lot. For years until he got his greenhouses up, Gib Cooper ran his mail-order Tradewinds Bamboo Nursery with his entire stock occupying an eight-foot paved area alongside his house in Gold Beach, Oregon. Gib's bamboos are grown and shipped to hundreds of locations in one-gallon pots.

The American Bamboo Society currently lists on its Web site no less than 91 bamboo nurseries and product suppliers nationwide.

Sun Buckets, Windbreaks & Erosion Control

Plant bamboo to create microclimateson the farm. Fence off a grove of bamboo in the middle of a pasture. Animals will move to the shady side of the grove in summer and to the sunny side in winter.

Create a bamboo sun bucket. Plant a grove of timber bamboo to the north of a field and midsize bamboos on the east and west sides. The bamboo will block the north wind and reflect the sun, so that the field warms sooner in spring and retains more heat in summer.

Plant bamboo to prevent erosion and conserve land. Renowned for its extensive rhizome and root system, bamboo is planted in Japan on levees, on mountainsides and along the coast. In floods, the rhizomes and roots hold the soil, while the standing culms slow the rush of water.

Wastewater Mitigation

Like other grasses, bamboo is a glutton for water and nitrogen. When we dig bamboo in the Northwest the soil is always dry underneath, even during our rainy winter season. The bamboo taps the soil with its massive root system and its huge number of thirsty evergreen leaves. If a farm generates extra wastewater from dairy operations or aquaculture, for example, bamboo can turn that wastewater into biomass. Bamboo will also happily receive gray water from your house.

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