Growing bamboo cuttings is one of our favorite bamboo propagation methods because it's fast, simple, economical, and it doesn't require a lot of space.
Thick-walled bamboo species such as Guadua Angustifolia have prominent primary branches. These branches can be extracted without damaging the mother clump and are an excellent planting material.http://www.guaduabamboo.com/growing-bamboo-cuttings.html#ixzz1HsUz2rLI
Growing Bamboo from Cuttings
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Select a culm of intermediate maturity and trim the primary branches. Discard the top portion leaving 2-3 nodes and the basal swell. These bamboo cuttings are usually around 30cm long.
- Alternatively (to give faster results) dip the bamboo cuttings in a growth regulator mixture or rooting hormone for 24 hours, and seal the top cut end with wax to prevent desiccation.
- Plant the bamboo cuttings vertically (preferably in a slight angle), either in polybags or raised beds in such a way that the rhizomatous swelling and one node remain below the soil surface and at least one or two nodes above the surface.
- Keep the polybags under partial shade (agro shade nets provide 75% shade) and water the soil daily.
- The first sprouting and rooting may already appear 3-5 weeks after planting. However you should leave the bamboo plants in the polybags for another 6 months to maximum 1 year until fully rooted and rhizomed. The new bamboo plants will then be ready for transplanting in the next rainy season.
Where can I buy bamboo seeds to grow my own bamboo plantation?
This is a popular question but enthusiasts who are just starting to learn about bamboo, are often not aware how rare and difficult it is to obtain bamboo seeds for propagation.
Gregarious Flowering
Most bamboo species flourish in very unpredictable cycles of 30-100 years (?), once a certain bamboo species flowers they all flower at the same time (which can spread over an entire continent, some even say all over the globe). This is called Gregarious flowering; simultaneously flowering off all the bamboos of a single clone spread over a large geographical area. In case of bamboo, seed setting is usually followed by the death of the bamboo clump, which is called Monocarpic; plants that flower and set seeds only once and then die.
Gregarious flowering generally progresses in waves for a period of 2 to 3 years from one end of a forest to the other. This is a trick of nature to prevent that the entire bamboo forest area is dead after the bamboos have flowered.
No Scientific Literature about Bamboo Seeds, but....
There is almost no scientific literature about bamboo seeds available (if you know of a source, feel free to share it in the comments area at the bottom of this page), so what you read here is based on our empirical hands-on experience and observation. Isn't this how science starts anyways...?!
Since the beginning of July 2008 local farmers, in the Northern Atlantic zone of Nicaragua, reported us that Guadua Aculeata seeds were falling of the "trees". In the beginning it was just a little bit, in 2009 it got massive! Not only was it massive, but the quality and quantity of "good" seeds was going up (a large percentage of empty seed shells are produced by the bamboos, probably to mislead birds).
The strength, vitality, grow speed of the Guaduas that were born in 2009 was almost double of the ones in 2008. If we had about 6,000 - 7,000 good seeds from a 1kg bag in 2008, we now had between 15,000 and 20,000 of them in 2009 ... and the quality of the new bamboos were just amazing. That made us think that it was the last and final seed bonanza before the bamboos started to die slowly. Strangely enough, new bamboos still sprout up from the seeding mother bamboos (?) , just as if nothing happened ...
Just before bamboo seeds are ripe, they produce some sort of milk color liquid with a specific odor. This seems to be a call out to all rats and parrots to announce an "all-you-can-eat bamboo buffet"!!! In other words all seeds that were not collected, or these animals didn't eat, grew in big green bamboo carpets under the mother culms. To prove how powerfully these Guadua seeds are, just look at the pictures below from seedlings we collected in the Northern Atlantic forests of Nicaragua. These bamboo seeds showed a very high germination percentage (between 95 and 100 percent).
Collecting and Storing Bamboo Seeds
Preferably, bamboo seeds should be cleaned and sown right after collection. It is reported that cleaned seeds can be stored for 6 months or even more than a year through special storage techniques such as controlled moisture and low temperature. However, the germination capacity of bamboo seeds looses gradually after 2 months if it isn't stored with proper ventilation for seed respiration, controlled temperature, etc.
Where does Guadua grow best?
Guadua is a tropical bamboo species, so they do very well all over Central America. We have seen them grow at the Pacific and at the Atlantic side. Guadua grows from sea level up to 4300m, and can withstand temperatures up to 0°C.
However, the ideal conditions to successfully grow a healthy Guadua plantation are:
- Between 500 and 1,500 meters above sea level (they will grow faster at sea level but grow stronger on higher altitudes).
- Average temperatures between 17° and 26° Centigrade.
- Rainfalls of 1,200 - 2,500 mm/year.
- Relative humidity of 80 - 90%.
- Alluvial soils that are rich in volcanic ash with a moderate fertility and good drainage.
- Slightly acidic soil between 5.5-6.5 Ph.
If you are considering to start a Guadua bamboo plantation, we recommend to measure soil samples with a simple Ph tester. The better the soil quality, the faster and stronger they will grow. In case of alkaline soil, fertilizers can regulate the soil.
Guadua has a sympodial-scattered rhizome system, which means they will not take over your garden but do take up some space, since it is an "open clumper". If you plant various Guadua plants, you should keep 5-7 meters of space between them.
Make sure to keep cows away from the newly planted Guadua's because they love bamboo as much as we do! Also if you are located at the Pacific make sure to sufficiently irrigate the new bamboo seedlings, at least for the first 2 years.
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