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Bamboo is one of the most useful permaculture plants. You can eat it, build with it, fuel fires with it, make biochar from it, weave with it, feed it to animals and more! Why aren’t more people planting bamboo? It’s amazing!

30 Comments

  1. Question: where can I find some RUNNING bamboo that will go nuts in zone 9B FL? Lots of places to find clumpers, but I can't find a source for a runner.

    I absolutely love bamboo. We have a 10 acre property in south Florida and we have several clumping varieties going, but I've got an area that I'd like to make into a bamboo forest with a runner.

  2. When I was in elementary school I would get together with my cousins at my grandma's house and take our machetes down to the river to cut bamboo, which we then made stuff (mostly spears) with. I laugh when I think about what kind of reaction a bunch of 4th graders with machetes would get these days!

  3. Bamboo is technically a type of grass as well and their new shoots emerging from the ground can be cut with a lawn mower too.

  4. Fine, however, with respect, more info, please.

    What does bamboo take from the soil? What does bamboo contribute to the soil, if anything? What are its fertilizer requirements? What are its companion plant specifics? How to keep it from spreading, especially to neighbors’ yards/land? Etc.

    Or pointers to references for same.*

    *I tried looking, but was buried in furniture offers and eradication info.

  5. From my 20 plus year experience with yellow groove bamboo, here in zone 6, I control the spread with dewitt weed barrier. It just doesn't come up thru it at all. All I started with was 1 5 gallon pot, I planted to hide my junky neighbor. It worked, you wouldn't even know they even exist anymore. Birds just love the bamboo for nesting.

  6. Bamboo is an extremely beautiful and useful plant. People only think its invasive because they plant running types od bamboo. The clumpibg types are tge way to go for them. They stay in neat little bushes and grow up tall

  7. I planted bamboo in the edge of my woods. I love the way it filled in the egde of my woods and i use bamboo for all sorts of things

  8. I agree. Bamboo is off the scales useful and amazing! People who don't get it are damaged somehow. When I talk to people about growing bamboo by choice look at me like I'm an alien. …and with a bit of disgust.

  9. I always loved bamboo. If someone gets hurt dies anything happens it can take over and become a problem. But in places where fencing isn’t possible like a narrow roadside bank right above a home or yard these are great. Fun to throw into the fire green, great for projects, make nice fires and furniture

  10. It’s pretty funny when the only problem with something is that it grows too much lol

  11. This information causes a lot of problems, though, when people come through and cut a lot of bamboo out, leaving punji traps and massive mosquito breeding ground by accident…

  12. not scared, just don't have the climate for it, far as i know… i'll be testing some varieties none the less

  13. Bamboo stalks also make good garden fences with a bit of wire rigging, it's also pretty good mulch if fed through the right kind of wood chipper.

  14. Just keep it away from your foundation. There was bamboo (or baobob per "The Little Prince" at a condo I used to live in and it was SERIOUSLY CHALLENGING the foundation of that building. It is AGGRESSIVE. AND it is a wonderfully practical crop if you have space for it to grow as far and wide as it wants to grow. Now I have a house with a septic tank and I'd love to plant it, but septic tanks are expensive to replace. 🙂

  15. You should ONLY use the species native to the environment. There are some native to US, others are invasive- like Japanese Knotweed, etc. Those damage the ecosystem.

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