Bamboo -Life Cycle- Making of Bamboo Clamp from Seed

Bamboo is also a grass as well as a plant. This comes under family of grass.This is well known fact.It provides sustainable forest. What is sustainable forest ?.

Bamboo  can be harvested every year and still it will grow back into the forest. I will share some of the pics from my forest. I am harvesting bamboo every four years for last 16 years and it grows back into the forest with minimal maintenance.

Life Cycle of bamboo clamp:

Bamboo has got 1400 species. Each specie has its own character. I have experience in growing the following species of bamboo.
Bambusa balcooa
Bambusa nutans

Dendrocalamus- There are couple of species under it like Dendrocalamus asper, Dendrocalamus hamiltonii

Dendrocalamus strictus

Bamboo clamp:-These are following methods I am aware of.

 One from seed
 Second from bamboo node.
Third is from Tissue Culture

We will cover one by one.

Bamboo from seed- Bamboo seed is rarely available. Bamboo bears the seed only once in its life time. It applies to all species as per my research. In India,(My country north region), its difficult to collect the seed. Bamboo seeds are collected  in May only and not any other time of year. if you sow the seed immediately, the success rate is 95%. The more the delay, the less chances of success. General observation is that after 3 years from collecting the seeds, the success rate is less than 10%.

From seed, saplings are prepared in the nursery. It takes 6 months to 1 year to prepare the saplings from the seed. If the saplings are transferred to forest after 1 year, the chances of success is very less. The reason is that initially after 1 year, the glucose in the sapling is high and it attracts the wild life. Also the height is less than 6 feet and it is easy for animals to eat it or graze it. Ideal time to transfer the sapling is between 1 year and 2 year and approximate height is 15 feet.

Bamboo sapling will only grow to 15 feet in nursery if following precautions are taken.
Preparation of nursery bed must include sand 50%, 25% cow dung, rest is soil. Irrigation must be provided twice in a month or more. Distance between saplings must be 3 feet by 3 feet. Care must be taken to remove the weeds from the bed . If bamboo leaves are turning pale, then it means chemical  fertilizer is needed. DAP and Urea must be provided according to health of the plant.


Bamboo from node and tissue culture and transfer of sapling into forest --to be continued

Contact-neknamaforest@gmail.com