I love bamboo also, but currently only have the one type (Textilis Gracilis). I have five of them in total. Two of them are getting close to maturity (in terms of culm thickness) I expect and would probably have 60+ canes each. Another, which I stupidly put in the middle of my veggie garden just to get it out of a pot until I decided where to plant it, is now getting pretty big and probably has 30+ canes. It will be quite interesting to move that. The fourth I just moved from the veg garden to near my pool (has 3 quite old canes and another 5 which still have no leaves so was realatively easy to move). My fifth is really small still because I planted it in crap soil and also just recently accidentally broke its one and only new can when by stepping on it
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I keep meaning to get to one of the bamboo farms and buy a few different types. Cost is quite prohibitive as mentioned, but the idea is to buy small if you have a couple of year up your sleeve, because they gorw pretty quickly once they get a kick along in the ground.
I've always had a bit of a desire to grow a bit of bamboo to sell at the markets. Demand seems pretty high, particularly for ones like Gracilis Textilis, with housing density increasing and them being a good quicl but not invasive screen. A straw pole - who would buy a Gracilis Textilis (say 3 cane size) from me at the markets from $30 ;-)
Have added a picture of the one in the veggie garden (don't try and look for the veg - cos there basically is none at the moment, but you will see some arrowroot in the background.
Backyard Farming Forum
J
