Curing Bamboo Immediately after Harvest
What's the notion of this harvesting technique? Cut green culms and place them in a 5 gal. bucket with 3 gals. of a 10 % solution of Timbor (a borax / boric acid solution) in water. This happens in the grove for a month.
Shouldn't the boric solution be drawn up the culm by capillary action yielding a cured culm in a month? After a month remove the culms to finish drying vertically in a shady spot for another month. What do you think?
⭐ Best Answer:
What you’re describing is a soak-and-draw treatment, it’s basically using the fresh culm’s own capillary action to pull the borax/boric acid solution up and replace the sugars that bugs love. A month standing in the bucket is usually more than enough (even 1–2 weeks should do it), then drying vertically in the shade is the right call to avoid cracks.
Just keep in mind uptake isn’t always even, especially on thicker culms, and older poles (3–5 yrs) will be more durable. For max protection, full soak or sap displacement works better, but this setup can give you serviceable, bug-resistant bamboo (especially for small- to medium-diameter poles).
