Can Do Bamboo

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5. Allow coyotes, the great eaters of mice, access to your bamboo groves! Provide habitat for owls and hawks.

6. Optional: Set a windbreak/sun shield to the south and west of your bamboo. Use burlap or shade cloth fastened to stakes or bamboo poles. The culms and leaves of young, newly planted bamboo turn yellow in full sun, even in gray Northwest winters. Bamboo is a forest plant; tempering its immediate environment with protection from sun and drying wind may allow young bamboo to grow faster.

To plant a grove:

To establish a farm grove, some people plant bamboo as close together as five or ten feet. Others plant it 20 to 25 feet apart and farm the alleys in between for a few years while waiting for the bamboo to close rank. Either way, the grove requires considerable mulching, watering, thinning and weeding, at least for the first two years. Water your bamboo an inch a day during the growing season and you will be astonished at the shoots it sends up the following spring. Remember, few er plants with outstanding care will far outproduce more plants with less care. This is particularly true in the Pacific Northwest, with its arid summers and aggressive feral weeds such as blackberries, field bindweed and reed canary grass.

A planting of bamboo takes seven to ten or more years to mature. A mature timber bamboo sends its shoots upwards 50 or so feet in two months. Hardy running bamboos then shoot their rhizomes sideways all summer, until the soil cools down in October; their rhizomes will extend 20 feet in a single growing season.

Ultimately, a productive farm grove will be a forest that allows the farmer to walk in its shade. The canes will be evenly spaced, averaging three to eight feet apart. Spacing depends on the height of the average cane, since each cane grows branches in proportion to its height and those branches need light to maintain their leaves. Tall canes with long branches need more space between them than do short canes with short branches.

Harvesting Shoots

Bamboo produces shoots when the soil warms up in spring. Casual harvesting is easy. Take a kitchen knife and cut at ground level any fat shoot that extends about six inches above the soil. If the shoot is tough, leave it there to rot. If it's tender, put it in your bucket for later cooking. Don't take all of the new shoots from any single plant; allow enough shoots to mature into culms to replace the poles that you will be harvesting.

Commercial harvesting is more complicated. Your goal as a commercial grower is to produce in quantity the largest shoots and poles possible. A grove with large canes spaced far apart produces more and bigger shoots than a grove with small canes spaced close together. It also produces a greater gross weight in poles, even though the number of poles is fewer.

To ensure a productive commercial grove, mark the biggest and best shoots and allow them to grow into poles. Limit your takings to small and midsize shoots. Only harvest the biggest shoots if they will crowd each other as they grow. Once your grove matures, and assuming it's well-man aged, there will be excess large shoots to harvest and sell. Harvest every second or third clay while the grove is shooting.

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