bending bamboos while they're growing

[samantha brooks]

Does any body know if there are any conventional methods or tools used for manually bending living bamboos? :o

please help~ thanks

[Mark Meckes]

Hi Samantha,

What type/angle of bends are you considering?

It sure would be interesting to have culms growing in an upward serpentine motion!

Phyllostachys aureosulcata has a quirky nature, ocassionally doing a zig and a zag on it's way up.
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/520/thumbs/1aureosulcata7.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=897)

... and Phyllostachys bambusoides 'Slender Crookstem does a wobble or two before straightening up and heading skyward.
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/615/thumbs/PbSCrkstmG2BGA050216-832.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=1728)

Here's a pic (http://www.bamboo.org.au/gallery/slide_4.htm) from the Bamboo Society of Australia web site showing a pipe being used to deform a Guadua, but it doesn't show the end result.

You can make wooden forms to shape bamboo too,.

I haven't tried bending bamboo while it is growing/shooting, but I have just harvested some bamboo, (Phyllostachys aurea > 1 " - 2 1/2" dia), some of which is still in a state of living green-ness.
They are easier to bend further in this condition.

Mark

[samantha brooks]

Hello Mark,

The photo of the tool that was used to curve bamboo is very interesting. I guess I am interested to know how to do slight bends of the culms at its mid height but not when it shoots. and also perhaps 90 degree bends? (if this is even possible) say at the bamboo's mid height?

another question that i want to ask is that:

Does the natural bending of very tall timber bamboos bend towards a particular direction based on e.g. sunlight?/ wind? or what defines its natural direction of bend.


Much appreciated if you could help me out on these! :o

[Mark Meckes]

With some effort, this Bambusa oldhamii branch managed to work it's way up through the fence railing.
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/505/thumbs/BoldBendAuTX060424-2664.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2959)

Advice from B. oldhamii ...
When encountering heavy obstacles use your knees and keep your back straight

.................................

See this thread (http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1875) ... about the book:
BAMBOO - THE GIFT OF THE GODS - Oscar Hidalgo - Lopez

Part 7 - Section 19 - Building Structures by deformation of culms

STRUCTURES GENERATED BY NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF LIVING CULMS

[Mark Meckes]

Does the natural bending of very tall timber bamboos bend towards a particular direction based on e.g. sunlight?/ wind? or what defines its natural direction of bend.

Yep, and more culms at the periphery of a grove are usually growing at more of an angle.

Generally with a new bamboo planting, the smaller culms may grow vertically, but by the next shooting season their tops may be bent forward, and new shoots will rise upwards through these culms, and some older culms will lean further outwards.
As rhizomes get a deeper footing and culms become larger in size, they are able, space permitting, to rise to higher and straighter heights, with leaf-bearing branches forming much higher up the culm.

In a grove of TALL bamboo, the tops of the bamboo are waaay up there basking in the sunny canopy with other tree tops, while sunlight may only intermittenly filter to ground level.

Mark