Malay Dwarf Propagation

I’ve been talking about the propagation for a while now, and I figured that I would tell you how we are doing it.

When propagating bamboo, there are multiple ways to go about it. For different bamboo species, it differs. We have been working with Malay Dwarf for a while and that is the species that I will be explaining for you.

The first step we take is gathering the bamboo for propagation.  To propagate for this variety, we need something to take cuttings from. We take the cuttings from shoots that are at least three years old. In order to tell the age, we have to count the branches on the nodes. There must be at least five branches on at least one of the nodes on the shoot to be at least three years old. Here is a diagram of what I’m talking about.

The filled areas are branches, and the numbers represent what year of the plants life that branch grew.

Once we have found a shoot that is old enough, we cut it out of the clump and bring it over to the nursery for step two.

The next step is to trim all the extra branches off leaving only the strongest branch. that branch would then be cut to the second node, and the shoot would be cut on both sides of the node leaving it looking like this.

Finally your ready to plant. Using a 4 inch pot and custom potting soil bury the cutting with soil and pack the soil making sure to leave the bottom of the branch completely covered. Water very well and admire the new plants you have now created.

New leaves will grow within a couple of weeks if you did well. the finished product looks like this.

And here is some great photo’s from around the farm for your enjoyment.

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All photo’s by Nolin Vultrus.

Atter Cleaning

Today we cleaned the Atter bamboo. The team used sawzall’s to cut shoots that were too small or to crowded. This afternoon’s work is going to be propagating Malay Dwarf keikis. We have been making these starts for a while now, and are about halfway to our (don’t quote me on this. I’m probably wrong) 1,000 keiki goal.  For more information on bamboo propagation, I found this website. Bamboo Propagation

Quote of the week:

When I was walking down the hill, I felt like Godzilla. Walking all slow going “rawr rawr rawr”

Bending Bamboo

After more work on the driveway this morning, we went up to our workshop to learn about bending bamboo. The most basic bamboo bending technique is quite simple: add heat to a bamboo pole and bend as needed. We used a propane torch, and experimented with different bamboo species and varying degrees of dryness. In our rather unscientific analysis, we found that partially dried guadua (a few weeks after cutting, but still green) seemed to yield the best results. It’s important to gradually heat the pole rather than burn it too quickly, as the pole can split if there is too much pressure or heat applied at once.

All photos © 2010 Dan Bloch

How to Sharpen a Chainsaw

Today we worked in the nursery splitting up gracilis and textilis bamboo for propagation. We made our own potting soil mixutres, one specifically designed for younger plants, which contains finely ground coconut husks, and another for more mature plants that had more wood chips and cinder.

We also recently learned how to properly sharpen a chainsaw. Chainsaws can be tricky to sharpen, but the best way is to first sharpen the cutting tooth with a round file, either following the same angle line indicated on the top of the cutting tooth, or at a 90 degree angle, to avoid hitting the tooth with your hands.

Here’s an image of a sharp cutting tooth:

and here’s a dull cutting tooth:

Note that the sharp cutting tooth has a straight edge, while the dull tooth is rounded.

Next, it’s important to file down the rake or depth gauge. If the depth gauge is too high then the chip size, which is based on the difference in height between the depth gauge and the cutting tooth, will be too small and the chainsaw won’t cut efficiently.

Always remember to wear protective gear when working with a chainsaw. We use protective eyewear, kevlar chaps, heavy gloves, and ear protection.

All photos © 2010 Dan Bloch

Gracilis Replanting

We’re running an experiment with a client of ours who ordered some large gracilis from us recently. We haven’t had any experience breaking up very large planted gracilis and transplanting it, so we’re sending our client one of our larger clumps in pieces for free. Gracilis, along with most other bamboos, is best split up for propagation when its relatively young and hasn’t entirely settled into the earth; it gets more difficult to acclimate the clump to a new environment after it has started growing extensive roots in its original location.

We dug up the gracilis with our backhoe, split up the roots with a chainsaw, wrapped the sections we’re shipping in burlap, and topped the pieces we’re keeping for propagation. We’ll split up the topped pieces later this week and see how it goes, but we made sure to thoroughly soak the roots to minimize shock to the plant. We didn’t top the sections for shipment becuase the client requested full-sized plants; gracilis is flexible enough so that a 35-foot culm can fit inside a 20-foot shipping container without any damage.

All photos © 2010 Dan Bloch

Air Layering

This morning we spent more time in the nursery trimming gracilis for sale and learning more about air layering. Air layering is a technique best used when the plant you’re trying to propagate doesn’t graft well or produce viable seeds. While you can air layer any plant, it works better for some than others. Lychees are often propagated using air layering, as is our favorite, Amherstia nobilis. Our demo model was a Rainbow Shower tree, also known as Cassia fistula x javanica.

The method for air layering a tree is a bit different from bamboo. First, we girdle the bark, cutting away around a half-inch of the bark surrounding a suitably sized branch.  Then, keeping with the organic status of our farm, we sometimes add kelp powder, which has most of the same nutrients and hormones as a rooting hormone mix, but still fits under organic standards. We then wrap the area with wet sphagnum moss and surround the mass with tin foil (we find it’s the only material that doesn’t degrade quickly under the sun). With a decent amount of rainfall, the branch will start sprouting its own roots in a few months.

All photos © 2010 Dan Bloch

Bamboo Joinery and our Outhouse

We spent all morning and most of the afternoon renovating the apprentices’ outhouse. While the old view was great, it didn’t leave much privacy, so we added a sink, some low walls, and some supports to add shear strength.

The main joinery technique we used was the fish mouth joint, where one drills or carves out a U-shaped end of a bamboo pole to fit at a right angle against a perpendicular pole. Guaduabamboo.com has a good video of the technique. We still have a few more hours left to finish up all the work, but we’re very pleased with how well the walls are coming along.

All photos © 2010 Dan Bloch

Cedar Curing Guadua Continued

Today we revisited our curing Guadua. Last week we set up some freshly cut mature Guadua culms to cure in a special cedar oil and silica mix, and after a few days all the culms were completely soaked through. We turned the culms upside down to drain and reclaim the cedar oil mix for future use. Only a small amount is left inside the treated culms, and we can sustainably reuse the curing mix for a very long time.

We then went up to our bamboo groves and marked one- and two- year old culms in three different groves: Gigantachloa attar (a traditional favorite for instruments and construction), Gigantochloa pseudoarundinacea (beautiful variegated construction quality culms and grows edible shoots) , and the favorite construction bamboo, Guadua angustifolia. We labeled any shoots we saw that still had culm sheaths attatched, no leaf growth or branching as one year old; culms that had some light branching we marked as two, each with different colors of paint. Once the culms are three years old, we’ll start harvesting them for sale as both cured and uncured poles.

All photos © 2010 Thackary Grossmansky

Cedar Curing Guadua

This morning one of our team members took yesterday’s compost tea and sprayed it over our orchards, bamboo, and nursery using our tractor, while the rest of us went to harvest some more guadua. We worked with Guada angustifolia “Less Thorny,” which made our lives a bit easier. One of our neighbors is building a pergola, a kind of trellis, and came over to help harvest and cure some of our Guadua.

We used a relatively new curing technique, that consists of cedar oil and a silica variant. First we harvested the culms, trimmed off the branches, and loaded them up on a truck to bring to our shop. Then we measured and cut to specific lengths, removed any remaining branches, and drilled through from top to bottom, breaking through each node but the last. After prepping the poles we stood them up in barrels and siphoned the curing solution into the top opening. Within a few hours the solution will bleed through the poles outer shells, and by tomorrow they should be ready to use.

One of the main advantages of this process is that, while somewhat aromatic, the curing solution is not toxic, and is much faster than other traditional methods of bamboo processing.

All photos © 2010 Dan Bloch

compost tea

This afternoon we had a demonstration on how to make compost tea from our neighbor Brian. He used a mixture of more than 70 different herbs, natural compost collected from local riverbeds, and other goodies. After boiling some of the herbs twice and adding others fresh, along with some minerals and guano, Brian put everything into an aerator for around 6 hours to expedite the composting process. The goal is to recreate the natural aerobic composting and prevent any anaerobic fermentation. Once the process was complete, we filtered the tea through a double strainer and then loaded it up on the tractor for spraying this evening with the dew. Compost tea can be applied to the land up to 6 times a year. With some luck it will also help bring us some rain.

All photos © 2010 Dan Bloch