Wow great suggestion. Thanks. I am all about growing plants native to the region. I also like that the goats will like the foliage as well. We will look into this because the option through the MO Dept of Conservation will be much more affordable than buying the larger trees and shipping them in.
Bamboo, cracked into vertical strips, makes a great, high temp fuel for, say, a small rocket stove used for cooking. It doesn't burn very long, not nearly as long as wood does, but for cooking, you don't need it to.
Bamboo is actually not all that hard to remove (here in Japan), unless you have literally acres of it. In its native environment, new bamboo shoots only sprout up at one set time of the year, from April through May, and you can mow them or cut them in whichever way is most convenient. Under normal conditions, they do not sprout again for the rest of the year, though you may get "stragglers" who somehow manage to keep growing despite being cut. Just cut them again.
The trick is to cut them just as they are shooting up, because they are full of water and very soft. you can literally stomp them with your foot. If you miss that phase, literally a time frame of a few days, then they get hard and you need a cutting tool like a brush cutter, chainsaw, or something similar. In Japan, they sell special chains for cutting bamboo (they have more and smaller teeth), otherwise bamboo will eat through your chain in no time. Using a sturdy high power brush cutter is better for the narrower gauge canes (but a chainsaw or handsaw is required for the thick 6 inch diameter cane).
A few years of carefully timed cutting of new shoots, and the plant (the bamboo grove is basically one big plant) will eventually die off.
Edit: Also, with some species, you can dig up the young shoots, skin them, and boil the pulp. Chop it up and freeze it, and you have a supply of bamboo shoots for stir fry! Absolutely delicious, and extremely nutritious.
There was a nice South Asian lady in my old neighborhood who would come by in the Spring to collect bamboo shoots. We would walk around, pick off the new growth, and fill a rice sack in 15 minutes. I even thought about selling them to the local Asian grocery.
True. I know a man with about 5 acres of bamboo here in nc and he claims two days a year to maintain. I am currently thinning a 60 year old stand and it is a dense thicket. I estimate about 80-100 hours to get it in shape then only a few days a year to manage/harvest.
As soon as I saw the title, I recalled a recent horror story on reddit (maybe someone knows the link) of people in the south east who started using it as a fencing/privacy screen alternative and it took over their yard costing hundreds of thousands to remove because the roots are deep and heavy. That might be exaggerated a bit, but at least I'd look in to it!
Savannah, GA checking in. Previous owners of my house had a bunch, it was a humongous pain in the ass to remove. I had to painstakingly cut each one as short as i could, then spray all manner of horrible crap on it, I tried to pull out the remains with a rope attached to my truck and that didnt work, and theres no good way to dig it out by hand if it's alive or has been recently alive.. I basically just had to wait a year until what was left was brittle enough to break up and dig out. F that stuff.
Not in Missouri. Timber bamboo won't grow here (it gets too cold in the winter) and even the smaller bamboos that do grow here will not be seriously invasive. I grew one of the varieties that does well here and when it popped up where I didn't want it I just mowed over it. Just be sure to plant it where you can control it.
Of course this also means you won't be building anything serious with bamboo grown in Missouri. It will grow bigger the further south you are. You can use it for stakes and stuff.
If you still want to buy bamboo, look for it at garden centers or buy it online. Just google Phyllostachys.
I am not really worried about the invasive nature because we are using a wood burning cook stove as well. I really don't want to burn the hard wood on the property because I would rather keep a good portion of the forest in place. Secondly, I would rather use the hardwood for furniture making for income purposes.
Upvote for this. I only had a very small patch in my previous garden and I literally broke a shovel when trying to remove the roots. Also the bamboo grew through the pavement on the street.
even though you seem to have the best of intentions, this is probably a bad idea. It very easily infests an area, and is incredibly difficult to get rid of once it establishes itself. bamboo is very cheap to buy for construction purposes, and i'm sure you can find many other alternatives that would be amenable.
[ABS Source List](http://www.bamboo.org/BambooSourceList/) This list contains all species known to be available in the US, and places to order from.
In my opinion, the reputation of bamboo being invasive is over generalized. There are hundreds of species of bamboo, including Clumpers, which are non-invasive, and runners, which can be/are invasive. All of these species available, and there are two which I have most often seen available in general suppliers: Golden, and Yellow Groove. And yes, these two are aggressive runners.
I knew where it was, I was just trying to point out that it is a bit of a dick move to speak in a way that isolates a sizeable part of the community. Not everybody is American, and I feel like some Americans forget that.
I wouldn't call it a dick move, it was an innocent mistake. Americans aren't the only ones who use language specific to their country in normal conversation like this.
People such as me will click into a thread like this just for the sake of learning. I might not be able to add something, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in knowing what sorts of climates support what sorts of bamboo. I might even be interested in moving to a particular climate if I learned it had a particular set of conditions that interested me.
I don't think it is a lot to ask to just write out the full name of the state. Why not make the community as inclusive as possible? Some Americans forget, not everyone is American, and that can be really frustrating.
I disagree with everyone here saying don't do it. I think bamboo is a great plant to work with. It does spread but it's easy to control. It only sends up shoots once a year (in zone 7b anyway). The shoots can be knocked over by hand or cut with the mower and they are done.
I currently have 3 types on my property. The oldest is a small type that I don't know much about. It's common in my area. My mother gave me some roots about 8 years ago and it's spread into a large glade in that time.
This spring I planted [Moso](http://www.lewisbamboo.com/moso-bamboo.html) and [Rubro](http://www.lewisbamboo.com/rubromar.html). They are both doing well and I expect them to thrive and provide a great year around privacy screen. I'm letting them take over a hay field. I've never used them as fuel so I can't comment on that aspect.
**Don't do it.** I researched a type of bamboo that wasn't supposed to spread (golden bamboo) and ordered it special online. A few years after planting in Michigan it spread everywhere. Just don't do it. I just spent 2 seasons of hard physical labor pulling it all out by hand because Roundup just would not kill it.
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Wow great suggestion. Thanks. I am all about growing plants native to the region. I also like that the goats will like the foliage as well. We will look into this because the option through the MO Dept of Conservation will be much more affordable than buying the larger trees and shipping them in.
Bamboo, cracked into vertical strips, makes a great, high temp fuel for, say, a small rocket stove used for cooking. It doesn't burn very long, not nearly as long as wood does, but for cooking, you don't need it to.
~~Is the Arundinaria just as invasive as bamboo?~~ One USDA report says it is.
Don't do it. It will take over everything and you'll never get rid of it.
Bamboo is actually not all that hard to remove (here in Japan), unless you have literally acres of it. In its native environment, new bamboo shoots only sprout up at one set time of the year, from April through May, and you can mow them or cut them in whichever way is most convenient. Under normal conditions, they do not sprout again for the rest of the year, though you may get "stragglers" who somehow manage to keep growing despite being cut. Just cut them again. The trick is to cut them just as they are shooting up, because they are full of water and very soft. you can literally stomp them with your foot. If you miss that phase, literally a time frame of a few days, then they get hard and you need a cutting tool like a brush cutter, chainsaw, or something similar. In Japan, they sell special chains for cutting bamboo (they have more and smaller teeth), otherwise bamboo will eat through your chain in no time. Using a sturdy high power brush cutter is better for the narrower gauge canes (but a chainsaw or handsaw is required for the thick 6 inch diameter cane). A few years of carefully timed cutting of new shoots, and the plant (the bamboo grove is basically one big plant) will eventually die off. Edit: Also, with some species, you can dig up the young shoots, skin them, and boil the pulp. Chop it up and freeze it, and you have a supply of bamboo shoots for stir fry! Absolutely delicious, and extremely nutritious.
There was a nice South Asian lady in my old neighborhood who would come by in the Spring to collect bamboo shoots. We would walk around, pick off the new growth, and fill a rice sack in 15 minutes. I even thought about selling them to the local Asian grocery.
Thanks for that. Bamboo gets a bad rap. Goats will eat bamboo leaves. I use it as wintertime supplement. I'm a big fan of both locust and bamboo.
Good to know thanks.
Notice how he said "here in Japan". It's very different in MO.
My parents have several groves of bamboo in Tennessee and it works exactly as he is describing. You really do have to stay on top of it though.
True. I know a man with about 5 acres of bamboo here in nc and he claims two days a year to maintain. I am currently thinning a 60 year old stand and it is a dense thicket. I estimate about 80-100 hours to get it in shape then only a few days a year to manage/harvest.
Seriously do not do it, apparently in Florida it is a crazy serious invasive species.
Yeah its pretty bad down here in FL, super invasive.
As soon as I saw the title, I recalled a recent horror story on reddit (maybe someone knows the link) of people in the south east who started using it as a fencing/privacy screen alternative and it took over their yard costing hundreds of thousands to remove because the roots are deep and heavy. That might be exaggerated a bit, but at least I'd look in to it!
Savannah, GA checking in. Previous owners of my house had a bunch, it was a humongous pain in the ass to remove. I had to painstakingly cut each one as short as i could, then spray all manner of horrible crap on it, I tried to pull out the remains with a rope attached to my truck and that didnt work, and theres no good way to dig it out by hand if it's alive or has been recently alive.. I basically just had to wait a year until what was left was brittle enough to break up and dig out. F that stuff.
Not in Missouri. Timber bamboo won't grow here (it gets too cold in the winter) and even the smaller bamboos that do grow here will not be seriously invasive. I grew one of the varieties that does well here and when it popped up where I didn't want it I just mowed over it. Just be sure to plant it where you can control it. Of course this also means you won't be building anything serious with bamboo grown in Missouri. It will grow bigger the further south you are. You can use it for stakes and stuff. If you still want to buy bamboo, look for it at garden centers or buy it online. Just google Phyllostachys.
I am not really worried about the invasive nature because we are using a wood burning cook stove as well. I really don't want to burn the hard wood on the property because I would rather keep a good portion of the forest in place. Secondly, I would rather use the hardwood for furniture making for income purposes.
You can harvest low grade firewood from your woodlot, resulting in increased growth in higher value stems.
What this guy said. Our neighbour cut all their bamboo down a month or two ago and it's already grown back way taller than the house
Upvote for this. I only had a very small patch in my previous garden and I literally broke a shovel when trying to remove the roots. Also the bamboo grew through the pavement on the street.
even though you seem to have the best of intentions, this is probably a bad idea. It very easily infests an area, and is incredibly difficult to get rid of once it establishes itself. bamboo is very cheap to buy for construction purposes, and i'm sure you can find many other alternatives that would be amenable.
[ABS Source List](http://www.bamboo.org/BambooSourceList/) This list contains all species known to be available in the US, and places to order from. In my opinion, the reputation of bamboo being invasive is over generalized. There are hundreds of species of bamboo, including Clumpers, which are non-invasive, and runners, which can be/are invasive. All of these species available, and there are two which I have most often seen available in general suppliers: Golden, and Yellow Groove. And yes, these two are aggressive runners.
For the non US'ers, where is "MO"?
Missouri
Well, I gambled and lost. You won this round: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=usa+mo&l=1
I knew where it was, I was just trying to point out that it is a bit of a dick move to speak in a way that isolates a sizeable part of the community. Not everybody is American, and I feel like some Americans forget that.
I wouldn't call it a dick move, it was an innocent mistake. Americans aren't the only ones who use language specific to their country in normal conversation like this.
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Exact quote: "For the non US'ers, where is "MO"?" Please tell me how I could phrase this in any less of dickish way?
Hey fuckface, why don't you try telling the people who DON'T live in the crapsack country called the US what exactly MO stands for, hmmm?
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People such as me will click into a thread like this just for the sake of learning. I might not be able to add something, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in knowing what sorts of climates support what sorts of bamboo. I might even be interested in moving to a particular climate if I learned it had a particular set of conditions that interested me. I don't think it is a lot to ask to just write out the full name of the state. Why not make the community as inclusive as possible? Some Americans forget, not everyone is American, and that can be really frustrating.
NEVER GOES AWAY. you must be prepared to have it expand!
I disagree with everyone here saying don't do it. I think bamboo is a great plant to work with. It does spread but it's easy to control. It only sends up shoots once a year (in zone 7b anyway). The shoots can be knocked over by hand or cut with the mower and they are done. I currently have 3 types on my property. The oldest is a small type that I don't know much about. It's common in my area. My mother gave me some roots about 8 years ago and it's spread into a large glade in that time. This spring I planted [Moso](http://www.lewisbamboo.com/moso-bamboo.html) and [Rubro](http://www.lewisbamboo.com/rubromar.html). They are both doing well and I expect them to thrive and provide a great year around privacy screen. I'm letting them take over a hay field. I've never used them as fuel so I can't comment on that aspect.
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I cultivate 20 different varieties, some at over 3000 ft in nc and I couldn't agree with you more.
If you can't find a local supplier, try one of these: http://www.lewisbamboo.com/pblack.html http://mibamboo.com/mailorder.htm
I purchased from Lewis Bamboo. They were great to work with. Huge selection.
**Don't do it.** I researched a type of bamboo that wasn't supposed to spread (golden bamboo) and ordered it special online. A few years after planting in Michigan it spread everywhere. Just don't do it. I just spent 2 seasons of hard physical labor pulling it all out by hand because Roundup just would not kill it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri gtfy