Bamboo Shoots

[somo]

There was a short discussion of this a while back but can't find it so have started a new one.

I have a Thai friend who seems to be making good money from growing bamboo shoots and wondered if anyone from the community here had given it a go. My plan is to plant about 6 rai and see how it goes but any advice would be appreciated.

[Gonsalviz]

Gonna take a few rainy seasons to get them going good unless you have irrigation.

[kickstart]

Hi somo

I can remember that discussion ,my first thought was 6 rie ,if all that come on stream all at the same time ,ie when the rains come ,you will have a lot of bamboo to sell ,and the labour needed to harvest it ,dress it ,bag it them sell it ,that is if you can find a buyer for a large amount of bamboo .

According to my misses 2 popular varieties around here are ไผ่หาวน and ไผฅรง, Pie-Dong and Pie- Wun,.

Pie -Dong grows tall and gives the big bamboo shoots ,some I have seen up to 6 inches wide ,but it grows tall 30 -40 foot , Pie wun gives the smaller shoots and does not grow so tall .

As for growing it ,it likes water ,with the advent ot of drip irrigating that is not a problem ,they was a piece on Thai TV about bamboo they said it likes some manure and a compound fertilizer ,and to keep a clump down to 10-12 poles .

Our own bamboo ,is no more it was about 12-13 years old ,and in two years 85 % flowered and died (,rip-roy).

Asking about I was told it was probably second or third generation ,meaning ,it was grown ,then split and used as new root stock ,and then split up again ,buy the time we got it ,it had run out of steam ,other problem at the time bamboo was the new in thing ,so farmers were growing any bamboo they could find ,not bothered where it come from .

I would say now it would be easier to find some some good quality root stock ,now the whole bamboo thing has died down .

Selling bamboo, like most Thai commodities ,prices go up and down ,one guy use to buy it from us ,between 15 - 25 baht /kg ,in a year with a lot of bamboo as low as 10 baht/kg the misses has sold it as Nor-Mie -Dong ,fermented selling it in plastic bottles ,very labour intensive .

We thought about growing some more but the resent drought and no irrigation we decided against it .

[Iamemjay]

My wife grows it and sells it and in most years makes good money. But because the shoots naturally come in the wet season, there is normally a glut which send the price to the floor - not possible to cover costs as it's preparation for sale is hugely labour intensive.

The idea is to trick the bamboo into producing shoots in the off-season, when no-one else has it. My wife does it around end January, by applying a very generous dose of Urea (ie. Nitrogen) and then irrigating heavily every 3 to 4 days, thereby creating an artificial "wet season". Instead of receiving the usual 10B to 20B per kilo during the real wet season, she gets up to 120B kilo.

The shoots produced during the real wet season are then ignored, (They become new stems for the next year) or eaten by us or neighbours and friends for free, on the condition they do the work themselves. Most of the old stems are systematically removed for use in the rest of our farm, thereby always ensuring fresh stock and avoiding the ageing effect referred to by Kickstart. This way our plot has now been productive for many years.

[somo]

Thanks for the input kickstart.

One of the main reasons I am thinking of giving it a try is that there is a buyer just down the road. He also farms it and we had a good look around his place the other day. At this time of year prices are low. 8 Baht/kilo for the shoots straight from the ground but 23B for the par boiled and stripped ones. Stripping loses half the weight and there is a cost involved in boiling them but they have a very efficient set up. Those prices can be 50% higher once the rains ease of and the wild bamboo stops appearing.

The interesting point is that the price is still four to five times that of cassava which I grow at a profit. From what I have seen the tonnage/rai would not be less than half that I get growing casssava so there should be a better profit.

Not sure of the type but he also can supply us with root stock at 35-40B/plant. We bought a few two weeks ago and they are growing really fast in our garden. The type we will grow has two shooting spell/year of about two months each. With irrigation it would give another one or two. They take two years to reach maturity but supply some shoots after just 9 months.

Once mature they will give a steady income for another 8 or 9 years will very little maintenance after which they will need to be dug up and replanted which will be expensive.

Below are some pics I took of their operation.

[Chowna]

Hi Somo

Very interesting topic with some good information thanks,

Regards

Derek

[Smithson]

We have a lot in the garden, plus 3 rai of D. Asper.

It's so labour intensive that we don't even collect the shoots. There's a shortage of workers in our area.

Irrigation is help, it can give you an early harvest and better prices.

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[somo]

We are lucky in that there are plenty of workers in our area at 220 Baht/day. 

One guy can easily collect 220 kg in a day so cost is only around 1 Baht/kilogram + a bit of transport. This is about double the cost of harvesting cassava which sells for about one fifth of the price.

The other vital ingredient for any farming project is a ready market for your produce and there are numerous small businesses wanting to buy in our area. The army has called a halt to gathering wild shoots for this year so prices are creeping up. Shoots straight from the ground now fetch 10 Baht/kilo and as mentioned above that can double or triple in the dry season.

It's early days but so far so good. Will update with the pitfalls when I come across them!

[thoongfoned]

the wife has got bamboo planted all over the place ie. borders ect. some very mature stands that are massive . this year we have planted about 100 new plants  mainly around the farm where we live. next year when we get the sugar cane out the ground gonna grow bamboo there instead. have access to loads of waste water from the working farm on site. if she can not sell it her and the children will be eating the shoots througout the year. 555. yes there is a market of sorts for the shoots year round. so far this year we have planted mainly the sweet one with a few of the don yai just to mix it up abit. apparently people here prefer the sweet one.

a village afew clicks away produce the off cuts to be planted. they range in price from 15 baht to 25 baht. last time i was there the girl was giving us 2 plants free for every 10 bought.  me i can not eat the stuff!

[Smithson]

I think it would be helpful if ppl can name the varieties they are growing and their location.

The most common variety here is Pai Liang. Another variety becoming more common is bambusa beecheyana, because it's flood tolerant and can be grown in rice paddies.

We are mainly growing Indonesian Dendricalamus Asper, as the large diameter poles are much sort after timber. The Thai D Asper is better for shoots.

The comment about the army preventing collection of wild shoots is interesting.

In the past in our area they collect wild shoots from the np and sell them for B3 a kg. I'm not sure if they did it this year though.

Culms (poles) have also been taken from the park. I'd predicted this would happen, so we planted D Asper. Hopefully the return will eventually be worthwhile if the labour situation improves.

Bamboo shoots can be eaten, sold or pickled. Culms can be sold for a decent price and unlike other crops there is no rush to harvest.

While waiting for a bamboo plantation to get established, other crops such as corn can be grown.

Here is a comparison of guadua bamboo vs teak http://www.guaduabamboo.com/guadua/guadua-bamboo-vs-teak-plantations

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[somo]

We planted Pai Liang (sounds like lee ang) as that was also what our friends in the pics above grow and make good money with. I am only interested in the shoots not the poles. Having said that next spring I plan to plant another 10-15 rai and we have been encouraged to check out varieties called Inju and indor. In our research we have come across these as equally marketable. 

We may just be lucky but in our area of Chayaphum there are lots of outlets who will to take as much as we can produce. In fact we are being courted by 3 of them for a harvest that won't be available for at least another year.

We have for some years been buying wild shoots collected from the hills around us. We buy for about 8B/kilo then shred it and store it in brine. Total cost works out at about 18B/kilo. We then store it and during the dry season it sells for 35-45B. We don't do it in a big way but it provides work for some friends and a small profit for us. There are companies around that do it big time.

The army's attempt to call a halt to harvesting it is well intentioned and designed to let some shoots grow into culms but rather ineffective. The guards at the exit roads all go home at 6pm!!

[Smithson]

Pai Liang is a great all round variety. Have you looked selling the timber? Uncut poles sell for around B20.

Apparently the shoots are some of the most delicious.

It's interesting about not allowing the shoots to be harvested, as the bamboo has been planted and is not indigenous. This is why it's commonly found on the periphery of forests.

In India ppl are campaigning to allow harvesting of bamboo. As they say it will give the ppl a sense of ownership and help prevent poaching (those collecting the shoots are supposed to report on poaching).

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[somo]

Re the timber we won't have much as once we have half a dozen culms/plant or so all new shoots will be harvested. Maybe later if we have some old poles we want rid of we could sell some. It is early days for us so we are just copying what some successful people are doing. That is one thing I have learnt. Copy success rather than reinvent seems to be the way to go.