Increasingly in the movement for society as a whole to become more "green" I see bamboo promoted as a "green" alternative to wood. Whole Foods Market (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/issues/greenaction/greenmission.html) provides a good example of this (and a perfect showcase of incomplete knowledge concerning the silviculture of hardwoods, look under "Green Building").
I have no problem with bamboo, in fact, I think it looks really good in certain situations. I don't believe it is "more green" than conventional hardwoods or softwoods. I do question how it is grown and how it could be better for the environment than conventional woods. It would seem that bamboo production is very similar to any crop, be it forest or agricultural.
I'm wondering if anyone knows the specifics of bamboo production and the "agrostculture" (since bamboo is a grass I think that term applies better than silviculture) behind it. Is a four-year rotation on bamboo something that produces chopsticks or material for wider products like the bamboo spatula my wife has (2.5" wide, solid bamboo)? How would you compare bamboo plantations with commercial forestry operations? Is there anything about producing and using bamboo that makes it better than conventional wood? Where is most of the bamboo grown?
Any help sorting these things out would be great. I find the subject of bamboo very interesting but it is also very difficult to find any solid information on it. Thanks.
Clark
PS - If you are like me and object to the way Whole Food Markets has skewed the subject of growing trees for harvest, please write them a letter as I will be doing this next week.
It's too bad they won't be in NB. We haven't 200,000 residents in a 20 minute radius here. ;D
All kidding aside I see nothing to complain about healthy foods.
I guess I didn't browse through their site enough to catch their spiel on the bamboo. Basically, they are just using a natural resource. I guess they feel if the rotation is quicker they have less of an impact, but I don't know how that equates to being greener. I think there is more impact because water and nutrient demands are much higher. In forests we generally have much longer time between entries, 10 years, 30 years, maybe 60 years. Longer time for the ground to replenish itself.
It's interesting they target areas with high percentage of college graduates or students. Maybe they are the most impressionable. ;D
Under the right conditions, usually here in the south, bamboo can be an invasive species. It spreads like grass, and if unmaintained will take over a place. The fiber is limited use, exterior to "hard", for lack of a better phrase, and the interior to soft, again, for lack of a better word. It works well as a cylinder, and bamboo is used for some flooring and such, but right now, limited use in the western world.
I recently heard that bamboo is being used with cotton to make clothe that is very much like silk. This is completely hearsay - as in I heard it said...
You could probably make rayon, but it sure ain't silk. :D Many people that have used it says they are softer than cotton though. We have a couple pulp mills here making rayon for the Asian clothing market from hardwood and aspen pulp. Actually, I buy those super absorbent rayon cloths for dish cloths. Only costs a buck and after I use one for two weeks I toss it and get a new one.
It is supposed to be pretty nice - but I have never had a chance to try it yet - perhaps I will in the future. We don't exactly get the latest and greatest things down here.
I think the flooring markets are trying to push Bamboo right now.
Bamboo will take over if you let it. Got these sticks for making some craft stuff.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13635/Bamboo_Pics_003.jpg)
I have a book (in Spanish) on the silviculture of bamboo. It is very similar to growing trees except that you better not use grass killers - for obvious reasons.
One interesting thing is that bamboo will stay established and keep spreading from the roots (sends out shoots like some grasses that are hard to get rid of) until it floors - but it usually only floors after nearly 100 years. When it does, it dies.
At least that is what the book was saying about the bamboo here in Costa Rica.
Young shoots are good eating. Check with your favorite local oriental neighbor for cooking instructions.
Quote from: dail_h on February 24, 2008, 09:15:30 PM
Young shoots are good eating. Check with your favorite local oriental neighbor for cooking instructions.
Careful there - only a few varieties - others are poisonous. There are lots and lots of different varieties of bamboo - just like with trees. That is like saying mushrooms are good eating - yeah, many are, and some will kill you really quickly.
If I remember correctly, you would not want to eat a bamboo grown for construction - they tend to be the poisonous ones. Makes sense if you think about it.
Thanks for the information...but I'm guessing no one on here really knows the where, when and how of bamboo growing?..
crtreedude - What exactly do you mean by "flooring"? I've never heard that term used for any plant except after it has been cut down!
Clark
Sorry - not floors - flowers. That has to be a new one for my fingers. When bamboo flowers, it dies back, till then it keeps producing.
In the tropics - we figure about 5 to 6 years to harvest - and then it is sort of cut and come again as it were.
I've run across patches of bamboo (not river cane) while cruising in SW Arkansas that people have let get away from them in their pine stands...makes it pretty hard to cruise because the stuff is so thick...looks to be very invasive, so I wouldn't introduce it onto any property that I owned unless I could isolate it in some way to keep it from spreading.
We have a type of bamboo up here that dies back each fall from frost. You can't kill the Dang stuff, comes back from roots. I'd like the strangle the idiot that brought it here. :-X