A Happy Seedling
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Starting to Farm Bamboo

I just ordered 100 bamboo seeds from rarexoticseeds.com and am planning to start a small bamboo farm so I can benefit from the bamboo poles. I might consider selling later. The seeds didn't come yet, but I wanted some pointers on how to grow them. My yard is tiny but I am planning to clear a spot in the local woods to grow them, so I covered the space requirements. I just need watering needs info, how to start, scarification/stratification needed? Also, when I clear the spot in the woods, I'll only clear saplings I can cut with bush trimmers. How can I use the wooden poles from that for gardening? I was thinking tomato stakes.

tomc
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Growing bamboo from seed is one thing I have never done. Seed is only made as the old rhizome dies. I expect they could be started in a greenhouse in cells. And later planted to field.

All bamboo runs, some more than others, but rhizomes are the feet of all bamboo. They simply must have a barrier. Repeat all bamboo must have some kind of a root barrier. Or your neighbors will sue your estate after they shoot you.

Read up on trench barriers, and shield barriers.

Yes, bamboo poles will make fine tomato tripods. About year three or four in zone 5 & 6.

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rainbowgardener
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agree with tom!

Clear a spot in the local woods? This is not property you own? Then DO NOT plant bamboo in it. I expect it might be illegal, but either way you will be initiating the destruction of the woods. Not a nice thing to have on your conscience.

Preferably plant your bamboo in large containers on your own property.

A Happy Seedling
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Ok thanks. Good to know--although the said woods already have a native rivercane grove. Rivercane is a type of bamboo that grows in my area.

I'll grow in large pots/huge cardboard boxes/dump truck backs??!?! :hehe:

tomc
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River caine was all I could grow in Monadnock region in NH. For tomato stakes.

If you have an indigenous bamboo, why not move some clumps of that rhizome, and plant it into some 1/2 barrels in a nice sunny spot and fertilize them for your tomato stakes???

Sounds like free and easier (to me).

A Happy Seedling
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How? Besides I already ordered them.

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rainbowgardener
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How? Dig some up and plop them in a pot. :)

A Happy Seedling
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They are pretty inaccessible--behind a big inchthorn vine (they call it that because it has inch-long thorns).

LIcenter
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You also might wanna check your local laws on growing bamboo. In many states it is now outlawed to plant this invasive beast of a plant. In NY laws are now being created through out the state to fine people big bucks if they do not remove all bamboo on their property. I believe there is some sort of clump species that is legal to grow, but couldn't tell you what it's name is.

A Happy Seedling
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I did check; it's legal as long as I don't let it spread into other property.

A Happy Seedling
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I think it's Bambusa nutans, but I can't be sure until the seeds arrive. By the way, can you figure out the name of my local forest? Look under my username for my location.

imafan26
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Yes, bamboo will get out of hand in the ground even with barriers, it only slows the growth and does not stop it. I don't know how cold hardy bamboo is, but it is not easy to kill. Even when the wind knocks down the 100 ft green stripe bamboo, it grows back in a few months. Even after the bamboo blooms, only the older part of the clump dies, the younger parts remain and it takes a backhoe or bulldozer to get the roots out. Even bamboo in pots have to be watched and moved frequently or they will try to break through.

P.S. The smaller bamboos are mostly runners, the 100 ft bamboo are the clumpers, you still have to remove suckers at the edge of the patch all of the time and it isn't easy to do.

A Happy Seedling
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Oh. Then I will grow in pots and be very careful what the roots do. This is a smaller bamboo, so it runs. Maybe plant in long storage bins so it has room to run?

LIcenter
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You my friend are not a neighbor I would like to have living next to me. Your total disregard of this 'HIGHLY' invasive plant is astounding! What,,,So you can make a couple of bucks? Read this, and pay special attention to #5 on the list.
https://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-fa ... -your-yard
If you really would like to cash in on this bumper crop; Then by all means come to my little town, and you can cut all you like while the big machines are trying to eradicate it.

A Happy Seedling
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Not to make money, to USE the bamboo! I already said I'd be careful! In retaliation: https://bamboohabitat.com/creative-uses- ... boo-poles/

A Happy Seedling
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By the way, LIcenter, lol on the big machines trying to eradicate it. Yeah, there are bulldozers in the rivercane patch in the woods too, but there are new shoots every time they come back to check. Lesson: You cannot get rid of bamboo :D so just enjoy your everlasting resources! Food, wood, panda magnet...what could be better?

A Happy Seedling
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The bamboo came! Please tell me how to germinate them.

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rainbowgardener
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Really? True bamboo seed is rare, expensive, and difficult to find and it does not remain viable for very long. If you paid less than $.25 per seed, it is probably not true bamboo. Some varieties of bamboo only flower once in a human lifetime.

I've never tried it, but here's an article about germinating bamboo seeds.

https://www.gator-ventures.com/bamboo/ba ... nation.htm

A Happy Seedling
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This is Bambusa nutans, and I paid $1.50 per seed. I would say it is real! Thanks for the article, I will try it. I am still trying to find sphagnum moss, but I'll figure it out--I need it for my pitcher plant seeds...and my other pitcher plant seeds.

A Happy Seedling
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I have TWO out of 100 that germinated. But, I guess, it's some. What do I do with them? They are in a seed starter now, because the shoot on each is half an inch long, but they will reach the top soon. Help!

tomc
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You can pot up. Into larger pots. Bamboo will run and make more corms? rhizomes? Children by roots. So if you've got one, there will be more.

Plant to your outdoors into contained bed in late May.

A Happy Seedling
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Ok, thanks! I can't believe they survived my neglect--the hundred were in a bowl of water for two months, three sprouted, then the water evaporated, and two survived. They were on a shelf near the ceiling and I had forgotten about them. I went to clean the shelf and discovered the parched seedlings. I immediately rinsed them thoroughly and put them in a seed starter, because I had no pots on hand.



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