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?

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?

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 (as demonstrated in the video), 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)?

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?

Comments

Julio

It has been done before, so I gave it a chance while building my house in Colombia, I am thrilled!

• 5 times less man hours, working with bamboo is fast and doesn't require great skills or machinery.

• 30% less sand, gravel and concrete because guadua bamboo creates more volume.

• A fraction of the cost compared to steel.

• Solid as a rock, the result is stunningly sturdy and sound isolating.

• Seismic resistance is a given.

• Immunised bamboo doesn´t corrode.

I can only recommend guadua bamboo for all sorts of construction uses, especially for roofs.

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Yohan (John) Morgan

Thank you for your info about using bamboo in your house in Colombia. Can you share any more about the design you used for the bamboo concrete reinforcing?

Like:

1. How thick we're the walls?

2. Did you do vertical and horizontal reinforcing with the bamboo?

3. What diameter bamboos did you use, and at what spacing?

4. How were they treated?

5. Split or whole?

6. Do you have any plans or drawings of these construction details?

7. Did you need or get any engineering on the design?

I have BTW come across some detail on such use of bamboo on a text book on soil cement construction I recently acquired. Do you know any other texts that are useful?

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Stéphane Schröder

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

• Bamboo Composite as a Reinforcement in Structural Concrete

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

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Michael Meredith

Did anyone ever make walls with whole bamboo in aircrete? Seems to work with a test model I made. Aircrete is a great insulation and it floats so a boo aircrete boat is in order. Asphalt makes the crete stick better but I am not sure that it is necessary.

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.

Comments

Stéphane Schröder

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).

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Albert

Thanks. Can you also help me with plans on how to build a kiln to make charcoal? Dimensions and a bit of process info. I have looked on the net but i'm concerned most of those might not be the right way of doing things. If you look at some of those designs they seem a little way out.

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Stéphane Schröder

Yes, there is a very good pdf presentation from the NMBA available on our website about making bamboo charcoal and kilns.

Attached also a video where you can see the production process of bamboo charcoal and bamboo gasification.

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Keith

This is something I would recommend to investors as the world scene is changing rapidly. Renewable energy produced from bamboo is a very sustainable venture to benefit all, however, because of politics these seem very hard to implement. Nevertheless, the concept is very good.

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Muyideen Badru

I have always known that bamboo being a renewable resource could help a great deal in poverty alleviation in my country Nigeria, but I found it very difficult to get the necessary funding from my Ministry to promote the utilization of this versatile plant that is readily available in most of the ecological zones of the country while I was in public service.

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Ami

Can bamboo charcoal also be made from recycled bamboo or bamboo salvaged from deconstruction of existing built forms (construction waste) or does it have to be freshly harvested bamboo?

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.

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?

Comments

Jack Carter wrote:

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).

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Stéphane Schröder replied:

Nevertheless, all bamboo shoots, doesn't matter from which species, need to be boiled before consumption. Boil the shoots for at least 20 min, rinse, and boil again. This will eliminate the cyanide and bitter taste from most bamboo shoots.

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).

Comments

Stéphane Schröder

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 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.

Buffaloes eating Guadua bamboo leaves

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.

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Ecotrancoso

Thank you Stephane for you responsiveness and useful links. Considering that pastures are a really poor agricultural model in the tropics, bamboos could be a very interesting way to fuel increasing demands on dairy in South-America.

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Guy Solomon

I felled a clump of Bambusa balcooa and then milled the leaves for cattle. It smelled like good fresh hay and the cattle loved the chop. I am going to use cattle to clean my Dendrocalamus asper plot too. It will be interesting to see if they eat the leaf fall. I like the photo of you with the cattle and the background. Is that how you dry the bamboo poles?

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Using Bamboo as a Water Container

Can bamboo be used as a water container? If it can, will it reduce the bamboo's lifetime? It will be really helpful if you can answer my question.

Comments

Stéphane Schröder

Yes of course, in fact bamboo culms naturally contain water in the internodes. When submerging bamboo in salt water for a few weeks it will actually preserve the bamboo fiber. Here is an example of a bamboo water container...

View fullsize

Source: Lee Beatrous

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Arunesh Dutta

I want to know the suitable bamboo variety that can be used for making bamboo bottles, also to mention I am from Raipur(CG) India so guidance of variety related to my city and state will be of added benefit.

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?