permaculture

[Elfpermacl@aol.com]

Yes, there are specific ways to harvest bamboo and yes 5 to 6 years of age are
regarded as the optimum age to harvest.  Serious bamboo workers mark each clum
with a date or put a new scratch in a uniform location each year.

Termites also eat cured bamboo, done by the ideal.  The option of boric acid,
generally applied by gravity with the leaves till on the plant to pull the
material full, needs to be weighed against the option of rebuilding
periodically and avoiding a material with a high potential for phytotoxicity. 

More information on harvesting and treating bamboo is available from Adam and
Sue Turtle's TEMPERATE BAMBOO QUARTERLY.  the info on curing is relevant to
tropicals.  some people refer to the species mentioned below as Bambusa
gradua, by the way, if you look it up.  It has very lignous clums, very thick
wood, and is very strong.  Other species may show more elasticity and other
poperties.

To get the most from bamboo, it is important to manage a clump well, weeding
weak and deformed clums, and leaving at least the maximum diameter between
clums.  Of course one can eat the surplus shoots.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since 1982),
Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and annual correspondence
courses via email.  Copyright, 1998, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52,
Sparr FL 32192 USA  Internships. YankeePerm@aol.com  

We don't have time to rush.

A list by topic of all Yankee Permaculture titles may be found at
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalog.html
Elfin Permaculture programs are listed at the Eastern Permaculture Teachers
assn home page: http://home.ptd.net/~artrod/epta/eptahmp.html


In a message dated 11/3/98 6:40:10 PM, you wrote:

<<> -----Original Message-----
        >I'm interested in any
> > experience with bamboo and termites.
> 
        (The following comes primarily from my notes from the First
International Hawai'i Bamboo conference about three years ago)

        "Immature" or "green" bamboo will be readily demolished by
termites (or other bugs, or fungus and rot - there is a pest called the
powder-post beetle that is a bamboo-lover) - three years is the minimum
age for a "mature" construction culm and five  is recommended.  Once
mature, some bamboos fare better than others (don't have a
species-specific list, but Guadua Angustifolia is a preferred timber
bamboo in some tropical areas - Colombian bamboo researcher/author Oscar
Hidalgo's favorite, I gather).  

        I've seen various schemes for treating bamboo for bug- and
rot-resistance.  Some involve those same nasty chemicals we'd rather
avoid.  The most benign I've heard of are 1) boric acid solution
(soaking, sometimes in hot solution, or pressure treatments of various
kinds) and 2) saltwater soaking (as is also done with wood).

        Colombian architect Simon Velez related how termites attacked
his first commissioned bamboo structure - and it survived:  he had
designed a very large horse stable for a client, basically an open-sided
bamboo structure supporting a massive tile roof.  Several months after
completion, he said he could *hear* the (millions of) termites chewing
away when he stood near or inside it.  He figured it was a goner...but
eventually the termites were gone and the structure was as solid as
ever.  It turned out, on closer inspection, that they had eaten only the
soft (non-structural!) inner portions of the bamboo culms, and had not
eaten the outer, harder structural portions (the culms used were
appropriately mature for construction).  

        The American Bamboo Society ( http://www.bamboo.org/abs/ ) is a
good place to hunt down further information.  They have a bibliography,
species lists, etc. etc.

        John Schinnerer>>