Bamboo to be grown as a crop needs routine care. For faster growth and larger yields, keep adding organic matter. No bare soil! Add manures, leaves, tree chips, hay… Irrigate in spring, summer, fall. Do not water in cold weather. You don’t want to rot the rhizomes.
If you wish to spread the bamboo to a new area, pile a truckload of tree chips or other organic matter say 15 feet from your existing bamboo. Next year, lots of bigger shoots will emerge in that pile. In other words the rhizomes seek out the pile. I believe that their mycorrhizal fungi find the pile and guide them to it. I have seen piles invaded by rhizomes in five different places: Redmond & Kent in Washington State, and, Hawkinsville, Bonaire, and Odum in Georgia.
First year: Mulch lightly with compost around the rootball of the plants. Mulch amply outside the rootball. Mulch between the plants in the rows to keep the soil damp, moderate temperatures and to control weeds. I rolled round bales of hay between my bamboos to completely cover the ground. Hay bales worked well. They stayed in place. They were too old for the farmer to sell for livestock to eat so the price was reduced and he delivered them. Water the individual plants.
Second year: Irrigate the entire mulched area as well as the individual plants to encourage rhizomes to spread. Add more mulch where needed. Kill weeds. Use as little herbicide as possible. You do not want to kill beneficial microbes including fungi in the soil. I use a two gallon backpack sprayer and walk the alleyways looking for seedling trees and vines. The weeds are few because of the thick mulch and because I spray the weeds when tiny (seed leaves and perhaps three others). I can weed my three acres with two gallons of herbicide in my back pack sprayer. I buy the concentrate from the farmers’ supply store and it lasts three years! (I will attempt to control weeds with a flame thrower in 2023, but with my ample mulch, it may be too difficult to control fire.)
Third year: Irrigate. Kill weeds. Renew mulch. Thin out small canes from first year. (If you have livestock, throw thinning’s into pasture so the herbivores can eat fresh green leaves.) Tree chips are both mulch and fertilizer for bamboo.
Wade Bennett of Rock Ridge Orchards alternated his yearly fertilizer regime. One year, the local horse stable donates horse bedding with its manure. He spread this lavishly all over his 5 acres of bamboo. The next year in August, the local dairy comes with a 4,000 gallon truck and spray guns their manure lagoon onto his bamboo – on leaves, branches, canes, mulch. It took many truckloads to do the entire 5 acres. (And it smelled for a couple of weeks.) Bamboo can absorb nutrients through their leaves. Wade sprayed manure in August when Western Washington has no rainfall. His bamboo thrived with this routine.
I pile thinned poles near my groves. I rent a chipper several times a year to turn them into mulch which I spread on the bamboo.
Fourth year: irrigate. Kill weeds. Renew mulch. Thin leaning canes, small canes, dead canes, crowded canes. I walk in my alleys among my rows of bamboo with my backpack sprayer to kill weeds. I also use the alleys to see which canes need removal. It is easy to pile the poles in the alley and then pull them out.
Fifth year: Irrigate. Kill weeds. Renew mulch. Thin canes. Feed leaves to livestock. Chip the branched tops to make mulch. Make charcoal from the branchless part of the pole. Sell the charcoal or mix it into the mulch under the bamboo. I mixed my charcoal with llama poop from a neighbor and spread it in my groves.
Sixth year: Maintain alleys. Maintenance is the same as Fifth year.
Seventh year: A few varieties will have some shoots to harvest. I harvested a few shoots each from praecox, moso, dulcis, houzeau, vivax, Shanghai #3, parvifolia. I did not harvest from Meyeri, Tanaka, bambusoides, henon because they were too small.
Cook and eat the shoots. Sell most of them. I have mail order customers that love bamboo shoots. I harvest on Monday and mail the shoots in a USPS priority mail Flat Rate large box Monday afternoon. The shoots arrive on Wednesday or Thursday. I repeat the harvest on Wednesday and the boxes arrive Friday or Saturday. Each box weighs 10 plus pounds and sells for $62 which includes postage.
Eighth year: 2022 did produce more shoots than 2021 and 2020. Some varieties are still too small and none is at full productivity.
Leave plenty shoots to grow and support the grove. Leave the biggest and best located. Harvest the extras. By harvesting shoots with care and discernment, you are managing the spacing of canes in the grove. Always maintain shade on the ground. (Don’t thin/harvest too much!)
Irrigate. Kill weeds. Renew mulch and manure. Thin canes. Mark the year on new canes. Poles are mature when 4 years old and can be harvested for sale.
The management process continues each year.
You can sell poles that are three or four years old. Canes less than four years old have cells that are full of water. These young canes will crack if harvested as poles. They will be fine chipped for mulch or air dried and made into charcoal.