Bamboo for Fishing Poles

Hello y’all, I’m looking for the best way to treat or cure bamboo for fishing poles. I’ll also be making poles for fish gigging so I need them to be as strong as possible after the curing and drying process. I’m a beginner and appreciate any help that I can get. Thanks.

Cooling Effect of Bamboo - Microclimate Protector

In my research of various bamboos, I came across some accounts of Moso bamboo working as a natural swamp cooler, carrying moisture into its canopy and dropping it down to have a pronounced cooling effect on the understory. Logically, I would think any bamboo that covers a wide enough area consistently would have this effect. Could I expect this effect from Guadua bamboo as well, once fully established? And, if the understory is cooled, what are your thoughts on using the newly formed microclimate to farm perennial shade plants (such as coffee) in environments that would otherwise be a little too hot for them?

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⭐ Best Answer:

Yes Guadua, and all giant bamboos for that matter, have a cooling effect. At our farm I have noticed a 8 degree Celsius drop once you stand under a bamboo canopy compared to full sun exposure. There is also a wide variety of understory plants growing in natural Guadua forests.

Although Moso is a runner and Guadua is officially a clumper, their growing habits are somewhat similar. Guadua has long-necked pachymorph rihzomes, which means culms could grow as far as 2.5 meters apart. Since there is quite some space between the culms, and diffuse light can still enter the forest floor, many tropical plant species grow vigorously in such environment.

In the coffee zone of Colombia, native Guadua and coffee plants grow side by side. If you plan on establishing this combination from scratch I would suggest to plant a row of Guadua a few rows of coffee, again a row of Guadua, etc. This will facilitate maintenance and harvest. Between a row of Guadua and coffee plants you should keep at least 5 meters of space.

Are Shoots of the Ghost Bamboo (Dendrocalamus minor 'Amoenus') Edible?

Are shoots of the Ghost bamboo (Dendrocalamus minor 'Amoenus') edible? When boiling bamboo shoots, how many water changes are required?

I harvested Gigantochloa atroviolacea shoots and had kind of a bitter almond cyanide compound odor which dissipated on boiling. What would be the recommended cooking times and water changes to optimize safety and minimise nutrient loss?

On steep rain forest slopes with clay soil in hurricane prone areas, what edible bamboo species would be better for erosion control and withstand uprooting of hurricane force winds? Guadua? I read it spreads out almost like a runner. Does Guadua produce edibility shoots?

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⭐ Best Answer:

I did not find any information saying Dendrocalamus minor is edible, nor is Guadua for that matter (with the exception of Guadua sarcocarpa).

Bamboo shoots need to be peeled and cooked before using. Do not eat bamboo shoots raw as they are bitter tasting and can be hard to digest. Trim the roots, peel the outer leaves (sheath leaves), and remove any tough flesh of the shoots before cooking. Tender leaves can be left attached and eaten. The shoots should be cut across the grain into one-eighth inch slices. If very tender, the shoot can be cut into any pattern.

Cook bamboo shoots in boiling water in an uncovered pan for 20 minutes. Leaving the pan uncovered allows the compounds that cause bitterness to dissipate into the air. If there is any bitter taste to the shoots after cooking, boil them in fresh water for 5 more minutes. Bamboo shoots can also be microwaved, in an uncovered shallow pan of water for four minutes. Bamboo shoots will still be crisp and crunchy after cooking.

By Tariga, Dr. Jonathan Necor, Tariga, Jonathan

Removing Toxicity from Bamboo Shoots

The usual practice to remove toxicity from bamboo shoots in the Philippines, is to remove the skin of the bamboo shoots and grate it in a course grater making strings about the size of spaghetti and boil it for about ten minutes. Then rinse the shoots in cold water and then it is ready for any dish. Is this enough to remove any toxicity in Dendrocalamus asper shoots?

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⭐ Best Answer:

Bamboo shoots of Dendrocalamus asper do contain cyanogenic glycosides (mainly taxiphyllin), which can release hydrogen cyanide if eaten raw. The good news is that taxiphyllin is heat-sensitive — boiling easily destroys it.

The common Filipino method (peel → grate → boil ~10 minutes → rinse) is effective and widely practiced. Discarding the boiling water is essential, since that’s where most of the toxins go. If the shoots are still bitter after boiling, cook them a second time. When prepared this way, D. asper shoots are considered safe to eat.

A study found that boiling D. asper shoots in 5% salt water for 10 minutes reduced cyanogen levels from 0.016 g/100 g to just 0.002 g/100 g, a substantial (88%) reduction, while preserving nutrients.

The Bamboo Shoot Chronicles: Research and Recipes

By Tariga, Dr. Jonathan Necor, Tariga, Jonathan

Are the Outer Leaves of the Bamboo Shoot Edible?

Are the outer leaves of the bamboo shoot edible, good for compost or bamboo broth, or useful for anything besides throwing away? It seems that the vast majority of the shoot is not good for eating.

I have several other questions as well. First, when I buy canned bamboo shoots, the canning liquid is both edible and tasty. Is this true of the water used for boiling, or must it be thrown out? Is it useful for anything else?

What is the best way to identify an edible variety of bamboo growing wild?

And what are the most commonly sold (in nurseries) types of edible bamboo (that is, which types of edible bamboo would one be likely to find for sale in a nursery)?

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⭐ Best Answer:

Outer sheaths of bamboo shoots are not edible — they’re tough, fibrous, and often contain more toxins. Best use: compost or mulch.

Boiling water from fresh shoots must always be discarded, because it collects the bitter cyanogenic compounds you’re trying to remove. This is very different from canned bamboo brine, which is safe because the shoots were pre-detoxified before canning.

Identifying edible bamboo in the wild: Nearly all young shoots are technically edible after proper peeling/boiling, but bitterness varies by species. Always discard the first boiling water, and when in doubt, cook longer.

Most common edible nursery species: Dendrocalamus asper, Bambusa oldhamii, Bambusa vulgaris, and in temperate regions, Phyllostachys edulis (Moso) and Phyllostachys aurea, among many others.

Is Guadua angustifolia Edible?

I wonder if Guadua angustifolia is similar to the Chinese kind of bamboo and if it grows all over Latin American nations? Which Latin country can harvest and export bamboo shoots? I am asking 3 questions here. Can anyone help?

Bamboo as Reinforcement in Concrete

I am working with others developing a new kind of town and it would be consonant with the sustainability goals of the project if bamboo could replace some or all of the steel rebars in the concrete construction planned for all the buildings in such towns. Is there any experience, research, testing, or certification of bamboo concrete reinforcement?

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⭐ Best Answer:

There are a lot of test results available online for reinforcement of concrete with bamboo, here are a few of the most important references:

Image © Professorship of Architecture and Con- struction Dirk E. Hebel, ETH 3) Zürich / FCL Singapore

• Study on Bamboo as Reinforcement in Cement Concrete

• A Comparative Study of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Beams 

• Research and Development on Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Structure 

• Experimental Investigation of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Slab 

• Bamboo as Reinforcement in Structural Concrete Elements

• Building Bamboo Reinforced Masonry in Earthquake-prone Areas

• Investigation on Behaviour of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Member

• Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Construction

We also had an interesting discussion about using bamboo for reinforcing concrete on our Facebook page:

What is the Best Bamboo for Making Charcoal

I've been reading a lot on bamboo these last few days and am interested in growing bamboo to make charcoal. What is the best bamboo species for this? Would I also be able to make furniture with that same bamboo?

I would appreciate any answer that you could provide.

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⭐ Best Answer:

Bamboo charcoal can be made from any woody bamboo species as it is often produced from waste materials (branches, roots, imperfect culms). Personally I think it is better to chose the bamboo species according to your furniture needs and make charcoal as a by-product because furniture will give a higher financial return than charcoal (especially for smaller plantation projects). Attached also a video where you can see the production process of bamboo charcoal and bamboo gasification.

Click the following link for: instructions about making bamboo charcoal and kilns.

Growing Edible Bamboo in Cold Areas

I live in Central Victoria Australia and want to start growing edible bamboo. Can you please supply me with a list, if any at all, of edible bamboos which will be happy in frosts of down to -7°C? Actually this temperature is rare here but we got it once. Normally -5°C is the coldest.

There certainly are bamboos which grow here. I have a list of 4 which I did believe were edible but none of them appear on your edible list:

• Phyllostachys Boryana

• Phyllostachys Nigra Boryana

• Bambusa Textilis

• Bambusa Multiplex Fernleaf

Are you please able to confirm with me; are any of the above 4 bamboo species edible and to what degree? If you can suggest a list of other bamboo types which are edible and can grow here, that would also be much appreciated. Many thanks for your help.

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⭐ Best Answer:

I found one source saying Bambusa textilis has edible shoots of average quality (not sure if it was reliable information though). For the other species I haven't found any indication that they are edible.

By any means Bambusa bamboos are tropical clumping bamboos whereas the genus Phyllostachys consists of temperate running bamboos. Therefore, I think the latter would be the most recommended for your particular climate conditions.

The Bamboo Shoot Chronicles: Research and Recipes

By Tariga, Dr. Jonathan Necor, Tariga, Jonathan

Is Moso Bamboo Edible?

Is Moso Bamboo edible and does it contain cyanide at all? If a bamboo shoot which contains cyanide is eaten by an animal, say, a buffalo, would the animal die?

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⭐ Best Answer:

Yes, Moso Bamboo is definitely edible.

Moso bamboo is known by the scientific names 'Phyllostachys heterocycla pubescens' and 'Phyllostachys edulis.' "Edulis" translates as "edible," which makes sense, given that Moso bamboo shoots are imported to the United States from China and "are likely the ones you are eating at your local Chinese restaurant," according to Bamboo Valley, a U.S. Bamboo grower.

The poisonous one that you are referring is "Cathariostachys madagascariensis" This bamboo species found in Madagascar. These bamboos contain cyanide in growing shoots.

So not only your animals, even you can eat Moso Bamboo (* particularly its bamboo shoot).

Edible Bamboo Leaves for Cattle

I have been visiting bamboo fields in China and India and happened to learn during my trip that only some (maybe only one) species of bamboo have edible leaves for cattle. Usually only the bacteria in Panda's tomach are strong enough to process bamboo leaves and moreover the bamboo leave fibers can hurt cattle stomachs. Seeing many time on websites that bamboo can be a perennial grass field for cattle grazing I think it would be very useful to determine which bamboo species have edible leaves (without prior processing like cooking).

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⭐ Best Answer:

I think it is rather the contrary (although this is not my field of expertise). Maybe some bamboo species pose a digestive problem to particular animals, but here in Colombia horses, cows and buffaloes love to eat the leaves of Guadua angustifolia (as you can see in the picture below). As a matter of fact, we need to fence of all our bamboo plantations as cattle could cause severe damage to young bamboo plants.

I also found an article about using bamboo leaves for chicken fodder, where they talk about feeding the chickens with leaves of different Bambusa species.

The USDA has also published a study about the nutritive quality of bamboo browse for livestock. Here they list several temperate bamboo species that are available in the USA.

Buffaloes eating Guadua bamboo leaves

Bamboo's Culm Sheath Usage

Floral Art with Bamboo Culm Sheaths

I am a dried floral artist living in NE Florida and enjoy the culm sheaths of bamboo for use in my floral designs. It took me quite a bit of research to finally find a picture of 'culm sheaths' that were labeled as such and this was on your site.

My question is: As a very big business growing and selling bamboo (culms), do you use the 'sheaths' as a product in any capacity? It has a 'balsa wood' quality and I just would love to know if you consider it a 'waste' product?

Attached is a picture of the way I use this part of the bamboo plant.

Comments

Stéphane Schröder

Thank you for your post and image. I'm aware of the many handicrafts made from bamboo culm sheaths, but we consider the sheaths as "waste".

Culm sheaths naturally fall from the bamboo culm at a certain point of maturity. With some bamboo species the sheaths fall faster than with other species. Since it is organic material it does serve as a natural fertilizer in the plantation, so the sheaths do have a final use for us after all.

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Michelle

I am interested in finding out how to "preserve" or "cure" bamboo SHEATHS to cut and use for artwork. I cannot find any sources to help me with this. Any ideas? Maybe curing is not necessary for long life after being glued to paper?