The Top 5 Tips for Harvesting Bamboo to Use in Construction
A single bamboo plant consists of several poles (also known as culms) that are referred to as a clump. Once the culms mature, we can harvest them for a variety of purposes. Here at Bamboo U, we use these mature poles for construction.
Sustainable bamboo harvesting also plays a crucial role in maintaining the long-term health, productivity, and quality of bamboo poles. By harvesting bamboo each year, the clump continues to develop and the quality of the yield is improved.
By following these 5 steps, you can ensure that your bamboo will be suitable for use in construction. This will also allow for your clumps to be well-maintained and ensure that they will yield healthy, high-quality poles during the harvesting season.
Over the last 10 years, we have honed our technique for harvesting bamboo sustainably. This way, we can ensure consistent quality of our bamboo poles, without compromising the health and yield of our bamboo clumps.
In this guide, we will share 5 best practices for harvesting bamboo sustainably allow us to maintain healthy clumps and consistently produce high-quality construction materials.
5 Sustainable Harvestry Guidelines:
- Harvest Mature Bamboo
- Cut Bamboo Above the Nodes
- Mound with Soil and Compost
- Remove Problematic Culm
- Treat Your Bamboo
Tip 1: Harvest Mature Bamboo
Harvesting the RIGHT Bamboo
For sustainable bamboo harvesting, you must harvest mature bamboo poles. This is bamboo that is suitable for harvest (ie. mature) and is roughly 4 years of age.
As bamboo develops, it contains less sugar/starch levels and increases in strength. Mature culms have stabilized sugar levels and enough strength for construction.
If the bamboo is too young, it will not be strong. If it is too old, it will become brittle, making it prone to cracking and splitting.
If you plant a bamboo culm today, it will first develop a rhizome system. Rhizomes are the part of the bamboo plant that produce the energy necessary for the growth of the clump and
maintain the plant’s health.
However, it takes 7-10 years for a bamboo clump and its rhizome system to become established before you can begin harvesting 4-year old poles. Every year, a healthy rhizome system will give birth to at least one (if not more) bamboo shoots.
In a bamboo clump, you can find bamboo of various ages. These are shown below.
Tip 2: Cut Bamboo Above the Nodes
Harvesting Strategies
When cutting a bamboo culm, it is vital to cut just above the 1st or 2nd node from the ground. This is to prevent damage (either during the harvesting process or as a result of an insect attack) to the culms and the delicate rhizome network whose health is vital to the clump’s overall growth and wellbeing.
Additionally, cutting at a slight slant also prevents the creation of a flat surface where rainwater can be collected. This moisture buildup leads to rot and decay, which weakens the rhizome system, inhibiting its ability to give birth to new culms.
Also, be sure not to harvest or damage your rhizomes. Your rhizome system is essentially the body of your plant. If you were to compare it to a tree, it acts as the ‘trunk’ of the bamboo. Keep these to continue the growth of new shoots each year.
Post-Harvesting Care
Once your bamboo has been harvested, it is important to clean up the bamboo culms. To do this, start by removing the leaves and branches along the length of the pole.
Pro Tip: When cleaning up your culms by cutting away the leaves and branches, be sure to save at least one branch so that you can propagate this in a new location to set up a new clump. Meanwhile, the leaves and branches can be used for mulching your bamboo clump (see Tip 3!)
Once you remove the branches and leaves, cut off the top of the pole where the culm begins to taper and cut your poles to the desired length(s). This final step will aid in the safe transportation of your culms and the treatment process.
Clump Care: Boosting Nutrition
When harvesting mature bamboo, the clump loses a source of nutrients. This is because there are fewer poles with tall branches and leaves to obtain nutrients from the sun through photosynthesis. These nutrients are brought down to the rest of the clump and dispersed to the other poles.
By mounding soil around the clump, especially new shoots and younger bamboo, you can replace these lost nutrients and help create robust, healthy poles.
The soil used for mounding is often dug from under the same clump’s canopy soil which contains a good amount of nutrients that the clump needs compared to the soil from a different place.
Adding compost will also help speed up the growth and improve the health of your bamboo. You can also use the leaves and branches from the culms you have harvested (see Tip 2) as mulch.
This will help protect the root and rhizome systems and enhance the nutrient levels in the soil. In turn, this boosts rhizome development and clump productivity.
Nutrients to boost Clump Growth
Some of the best nutrients for bamboo are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Nitrogen is key for the bamboo’s health and helps boost the plant’s overall growth.
Meanwhile, phosphorus provides carbohydrates. These help the plant store nourishment in the root system. Finally, potassium boosts photosynthesis and enhances the clump’s metabolism.
These three key nutrients can be provided to the plant by mounding the bamboo with rich, healthy soil, compost, and mulch made from the bamboo’s branches and leaves.
Tip 4: Remove Problematic Culms
Clump Care: Pruning
It is important to keep your bamboo clump healthy by removing any problematic culms. Be sure to cut away culms that are bent, have stunted growth, are broken, too old for use, or are diseased. These poles should not be used for building once cut.
Of your problematic culms, the diseased poles are the most crucial to cut away and their removal must be done quickly and carefully. This way, you can avoid disease spreading to other poles or plants nearby.
We recommend checking bamboo poles regularly to avoid compromising the quality and wellbeing of your clumps. If a clump does become diseased but the affected poles are removed, it can take over a year
for the clump to recover from stress.
This can impact the quality and productivity of the plant for multiple shooting seasons.
Remove the Problematic Culms:
By pruning and mounding your bamboo regularly, you can ensure that your clumps will remain productive and produce high-quality culms. These two steps are vital for clump care and management, and should not be overlooked.
Without healthy clumps, you cannot have Upon harvesting these healthy culms, they can be used for a variety of purposes, including for furniture design and construction.
Tip 5: Treat Your Bamboo
Long-term Bamboo Preservation
You should treat your bamboo as soon as possible after harvest. This is because preservability of the bamboo decreases with time after harvest.
Pro Tip: During the treatment process, avoid laying your bamboo on the ground directly as this will accumulate moisture and rot and will compromise the durability of your bamboo.
There are many forms of treatment, these include methods such as the Vertical Soak and Diffusion (VSD) technique, immersion of bamboo in salt-based solutions, heating or smoking bamboo, and many more.
Some techniques are more traditional and have been used for centuries. Others are more modern and require more advanced equipment or technology to undertake. Choosing a treatment technique will depend on your context and available resources.
Why Treat Your Bamboo
Whichever technique you choose, it is important to ensure you carry out the method thoroughly to ensure your bamboo is well-treated. Treatment is a key step in this process as it ensures that your bamboo does not get attacked by insects such as the powder-post beetle or other wood-boring insects.
If the bamboo is untreated or not treated well, an attack by these creatures can result in the structural failure of your buildings within a few months or years after being built. Bamboo attacked by insects can be seen in the image on the left. (*)
