Can Do Bamboo

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I use a sharpened, narrow D-handled spade to cut the shoot below ground, where it attaches to the rhizome. By cutting below ground I get a heavier shoot (shoots are sold by the pound). Also, shoots stay fresh longer if the base is intact. Keep cut shoots out of the sun, as exposure turns them bitter. Wash them as soon as possible and keep them cold while hurrying them to market. I pack my shoots in clipped ice in waxed asparagus boxes.

Harvesting Poles

In spring bamboo shoots come out of the ground the diameter they will be when mature. Since canes are proportional, large diameter shoots will be taller than small diameter shoots. Two months after shoots have emerged from the ground, they are fully extended and their leaves are opening. For the next three to four years the canes will mature and become harder, but they will not increase in size. The cane lignifies during this maturing phase, going from watery to woody.

Harvest poles when canes are three to five years old. Cut close to the ground with a folding pruning saw, Sawzall or chain saw, depending on the number and size of culms to be cut. Choose poles with an eye toward improving the grove. Each remaining cane should be better than those harvested around it and should have room for all its branches to receive light while the floor of the grove remains in shade. There should be an even distribution of canes from each year group.

I harvest my poles in summer after harvesting my shoots. By removing the crowded poles, I create room for new shoots to reach the canopy and open their branches to sunlight. Another option is to harvest poles in late winter before shooting begins, thereby stimulating plants to produce more shoots to fill the gaps created by thinning.

When poles are two inches or larger in diameter, the lowest branches will be 12 or more feet above the ground. The poles cut from below the branches are smooth, round and generally the most profitable.

What to do with the bulky, branched tops of the poles? You can shred them and mulch the grove. Garold Nelson of Coquille, Oregon, cuts a few poles a day yearround to feed to his eager Beefmaster cattle. You can also cut poles at one work session in winter, pile the leafy tops and pull from the stash daily as the livestock need feeding (cut leaves stay fresh in winter). Or you can put the whole pole through a silage machine and feed the bamboo as green chop.

The salable lower part of the pole should be stored in a ventilated, covered shed. Support the poles carefully so they do not develop bends. Crooked poles can be straightened by heating the bent portion and torquing it on posts set in the ground. Green poles are a unique local product. Research the basket makers or craftspeople who might buy them. The poles will dry to a tan color in about six months and can be sold directly to the public or to retailers.

Bamboo is an amazingly versatile plant. My friends call it the miracle plant. I look forward to the day when I can walk into a grocery store to buy fresh bamboo shoots, into a lumberyard to buy bamboo plywood, and into an office supply store to buy bamboo paper - all of it homegrown. Let's plant bamboo, the grass that grows wood faster than trees!

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