Another silly question... Bamboo shoots?

[cooked]

My son in law has mentioned his idea for cultivating bamboo shoots next year . I am delighted that he is thinking outside of the box. At first sight a trouble free project needing little investment and care. However looking at huge clumps of Dendrocalamus and Bambuse around here I am beginning to wonder if this is something that you would want on your land. Any ideas, anybody? I wonder why nobody has talked about this on the forum.

[mike123ca]

I can't say anything about cultivation, but the wife did cook up a pot of young bamboo shoots and they sure taste like cauliflower.

[Jotham79]

A guy near here put in a couple of rai about 10 years back. It is still there, but I don't seem him selling like he used to. It takes a couple of years to get going well and you don't get that many kg of shoots per square meter. We have a several types on the farm, but that is mainly for consumption (we do sell some0 and for the poles. To make money you need a good source of water. Most of the bamboo in the rural markets is gathered wild. Lots of folks have some along a border for personal consumption and sell a little. It would be a very difficult crop to make any kind of living on.

[teletiger]

A neighbour of mine (not too close) planted 5 rai of bamboo. He seemed to do quite well with it. The only problem I saw with it was the mosquitoes. Squillions of them.They loved the deep shade. One certainly couldn't live on site.

Regards.

[loong]

As I posted in another thread, my clump of bamboo is getting sparse because the shoots are stolen and so don't get a chance to grow.

If you are looking at this as a business, go into it in a small way at first. Probably uneconomical if you need 24 Hour security.

[Morden]

My wife has a small plantation of bamboo that shoots all the year round.

Once you have four good stems, you can crop the shoots. After a couple of years, let four more stems grow and cut out the old ones. Water occasionally during the dry season.

You won't get rich on bamboo but the shoots sell very quickly. My wife often has offers for the whole of one crop.

Apart from that, encourage the guy in his attempt to do something useful.

[peterb0576]

We have bamboo about 650 plants we have a watering system ie english style not thai a pump so to water in hot season I just turn it on and it waters all from The pond

We planted a year ago and we add compost from our chicken houses.This week we had 400 kilo sold in market at 15bht over 2 days all gone,in hot season can get 50 bht plus a kilo at the moment price is not high agent offered us 13bht a kilo we know next year the amount we grow will increase,The price you pay for 1 pant is not a lot and you should support him as we know they don't think outside The box

Edited July 3, 2013 by peterb0576

[kickstart]

When we brought our place we inherited some bamoo,eatch clump had about 20 + stems we chopped them down to 8-10 stems per clump mixed old and new stems,they seem to grow well the misses water 's them regularly,our land has a high water table which helps them .

last year we put some fert, on 16-12-8 left over from a crop of sesame seed, this year we put on 46-0-0 urea see if they is any difference,+ some cow manure.

The misses ,so far this year, has sold bamoo at15 bart /kg ,but it is not in season yet, round here still no rain.Last year it droped to 7 bart/kg at peak season,and she had to boil it ,bundle it before she could sell it, but as has been said you will not get rich, esp as the family allways help themselfs when they come to vist.

Problem we started to get last year,some clumps came in flower,then died,being trying to find out why, I know bamoo dose ,flower, then ,dies, asking around , some say it was old root stock, or root stock that has been chopped down, and used again for root stock , our's has been here about 7-8 years now,where the stock originally come from I do not know, any Idea's.

I have seen natural bamboo growing for years with out any problems, I will admit the natural bamoo taste's a lot better/sweeter than what we grow. We have it growing around the house,it does provide some good shade one clump has about 40 + stems keept for shade ,and we still get shoots from it.

Yours Regs,

KS

[peterb0576]

Our bamboo have 3 to 4 sticks we trim any side shoots which is so relaxing I can do all week in hot season we water all for 1 hr when the sun goes down if they go to flower we let the new shoots grow and cut out the old we do have a facebook page pandp farm have a peep

[jonnyscot]

We have about 2 rai of sweet bamboo planted just over a year ago, plenty shoots popping up from these plants, my wife is just taking sticks off the existing plants for replanting now,, shes also planting another rai of of the type of bamboo that produce shoots that you don't have to cook,, can't for the life of me recall the name, but it appears a much smaller plant than the other sweet bamboo we've already planted last year

[Jotham79]

Could some of you post some photos af what you are doing with bamboo?

thanks

[peterb0576]

The wife's sister cleaning some of The bamboo ready for cooking then selling

Edited July 5, 2013 by peterb0576

[peterb0576]

The Bamboo Farm and The wife with a local agent collecting bamboo

[peterb0576]

The Bamboo Farm and The wife with a local agent collecting bamboo

[jonnyscot]

Sorry don't have many decent pics specifically of our bamboo and currently I'm working away, but here's a couple below taken earlier this year

[peterb0576]

Jonnyscott how old are they look quite new

[jonnyscot]

Hi Peter, yes they're still young plants,, now I think just over a year old,, took the photos a few months back so I think in the pics they'd be around 9 months old,, the wife was telling me on the phone this week that she'd just taken the first shoots off,,, as I mentioned she's planting a couple rows from sticks taken from those planted last year, but she thinks it's still a bit early for that, but we'll see how they come on

[peterb0576]

That's what we are doing I want about 1000 plants as cheap and easy to look after,and tops up your income

[cooked]

Thanks for all the comments. If we go ahead with it I think at least three different bamboos and irrigation would be the way to go.

[Anita12]

bamboos very good if you do good can stay long time yeah but not let rain go to it

[Anita12]

We have bamboo about 650 plants we have a watering system ie english style not thai a pump so to water in hot season I just turn it on and it waters all from The pond

We planted a year ago and we add compost from our chicken houses.This week we had 400 kilo sold in market at 15bht over 2 days all gone,in hot season can get 50 bht plus a kilo at the moment price is not high agent offered us 13bht a kilo we know next year the amount we grow will increase,The price you pay for 1 pant is not a lot and you should support him as we know they don't think outside The box

yes if you do good very nice stay long

[Anita12]

my village have to much rain can walk i hear my friend say buriram no rain so who stay buriram please come to udon take rain go

[murrinman]

2 yr old bamboo we have plated 650 plants/trees over area of approx. 10 rai under full irrigation not a bad way to go planning to be able to harvest to sell in another 2 yrs and to sell cuttings next year

[loong]

bamboos very good if you do good can stay long time yeah but not let rain go to it

As far as I know Bamboo requires a lot of water, so why would you not let the rain get to it?

[jonnyscot]

I wondered about that too loong ,, maybe meant to be bamboo don't like too much rain or flooding,, although I'm certainly no expert on bamboo, we're just trying to learn as we go, I'm sure I read somewhere that although established bamboo is unlikely to be killed off by a bit of flooding, too much water in the soil may restrict the growth of new shoots

[jonnyscot]

I wondered about that too loong ,, maybe meant to be bamboo don't like too much rain or flooding,, although I'm certainly no expert on bamboo, we're just trying to learn as we go, I'm sure I read somewhere that although established bamboo is unlikely to be killed off by a bit of flooding, too much water in the soil may restrict the growth of new shoots

[Morden]

I wondered about that too loong ,, maybe meant to be bamboo don't like too much rain or flooding,, although I'm certainly no expert on bamboo, we're just trying to learn as we go, I'm sure I read somewhere that although established bamboo is unlikely to be killed off by a bit of flooding, too much water in the soil may restrict the growth of new shoots

A few years ago, my wife's bamboo plantation was under a foot or more of flood water for a week or two without damage.

Perhaps he was referring to either the shoots or stored cut stems.

[loong]

I wondered about that too loong ,, maybe meant to be bamboo don't like too much rain or flooding,, although I'm certainly no expert on bamboo, we're just trying to learn as we go, I'm sure I read somewhere that although established bamboo is unlikely to be killed off by a bit of flooding, too much water in the soil may restrict the growth of new shoots

My bamboo is at the lowest section of my plot and is often under water in the rainy season and it loves it.

It can be difficult to grow other things under the canopy because the extremely dense root structure sucks out as much moisture as possible. We've had heavy rains over the last week, no rain yesterday and today the soil under the bamboo is as dry as bone.

[IsaanAussie]

Bamboo is a grass that flowers once every hundred years. Now, does that make it special? No, I aint waiting that long to collect any seeds. But what bamboo does have is some really good BIM in the ground around a healthy clump. Ever seen a bamboo plant attacked by pests? Ever seen a mouldy stick of bamboo? How does it do that? Out with the boxes of rice boys, some seriously good bacteria available for free.

[loong]

I wondered about that too loong ,, maybe meant to be bamboo don't like too much rain or flooding,, although I'm certainly no expert on bamboo, we're just trying to learn as we go, I'm sure I read somewhere that although established bamboo is unlikely to be killed off by a bit of flooding, too much water in the soil may restrict the growth of new shoots

A few years ago, my wife's bamboo plantation was under a foot or more of flood water for a week or two without damage.

Perhaps he was referring to either the shoots or stored cut stems.

Perhaps he was referring to either the shoots or stored cut stems.

Cut Bamboo is often left to soak in a lake or a river for a month or so to make it last longer. I think that it has something to do with removing the sugars/starches