Growing Guadua ?? indoors and outside

[yellow cat]

hi bamboo fans.
The primary reasons why i favor bamboo growth are for its natural beauty, strength/weight ratio, environmental freindliness. The goal is to use it as reinforcements and stringers in a good performance catamaran wood/epoxy construction. Okoume being my ply of choice for its fairness, weight and resistance, i want to combine it to another natural fibrous material. Bamboo , especially guadua seems to be the best for its architectural advantages. On top, using a natural fiber will likely be less prone to cracking under loads laminated to another fibrous material being okoume. Epoxy is about the only laminating glue available for all intent and purposes. A big plus is the possibility to show the beauty of wood through the epoxy.
I have being growing a spiral bamboo indoor for 3 years. My goal is to grow guadua bamboo perhaps start up in summer, expand indoor for winter and harvest the end of following summer. Outdoor, here in sherbrooke, quebec, canada, bamboo can grow up to 8 feet (2,4m) in a summer. Growth timing and even , if necessary, purposely slowing up the growth process is in my mind. A start up growth at 6 feet (1,8m) for the start up summer, another 6 feet indoor (got the height) , and finish up outdoor another 6 feet or likely more for the harvest summer, total 18 to 20 feet (5,5 to 6 m). I guess the growth speed will increase with size of the culm, so it should grow faster at later stage. Our average temp. is 20 c indoor and 18 c outdoor in summer. water and food is available.
Another factor is the possibility to continue growing bamboo on the cat. Sort of the equivalent of stem cell project for a boat, "grow your own boat repairs and expansions..."
I would appreciate guidance in this project. Where can i find guadua seeds or later stage.
Thanks

[Mark Meckes]

Hi yellow cat,
I have being growing a spiral bamboo indoor for 3 years

This sounds like Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana)
It is not related in any way to bamboo - just a growers marketing ploy due to the bamboo-like segments of the stalk.

The difficulty in growing bamboo culms to reasonable size in a container is because the plant would require a REALLY BIG conatiner to do this.

Firstly, a culm never gets any bigger than it's original size.
A planting may start off with small diameter culms, and if the growing conditions suffice, each following year, new culms that emerge will be incrementally larger in diameter.
It can take up to a decade for new culms to finally produce the largest culms possible in the climate grown.

Secondly, the harvest cycle for removing mature culms can vary from 3 -7 years, with 5+ year old culms being more suited for construction grade bamboo.
This means that the growing medium must be able to sustain at least 5+ annual generations of the largest bamboo culms obtainable, in which around 20% are harvested annually.

As such, a smaller container will produce dwarfed sizes of bamboo that can be obtained.

Here's an example of a Guadua angustifolia being grown in a container in East Texas ...
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/507/thumbs/GangJBNTX070603-8493.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4915)
It is not very tolerant to frost, and has suffered from dieback, which has reduced the size of new culms in the container.

It is an interesting idea to grow bamboo on board the catamaran.
It has been assumed that many boat people throughout history brought along plants of their favorite bamboo with hopes it would survive till they reached their final destination point.
For many cultures, bamboo has been indispensible in it's everyday application and uses. ... a plant that you wouldn't want to leave home without bring along a propagule.

Mark

[yellow cat]

thanks Mark for your reply,
It is somewhat discouraging to grow bamboo, although guadua may not be bamboo .
I found some bamboo at the coop, i think they sell it mostly for ski markers and larger tree or plants tuter ? I have bought some small bamboo sticks for tensile strength comparison with carbon, fiberglass and other wood sticks.
I should be testing before fall. Some design criterias have been very impressive, 52000psi, that would mean a 1/4" diam. bamboo would hold my car suspended. Hard to beleive, and the weight is so little.
I have been checking out videos on how to work with bamboos. It is interesting, i think, if one can develop a bamboo mesh / epoxy that could take the shape of an oyster for a roof on a cat ... a sort of egg shell. So strong, so light, so natural, so unknown relatively.
Later.
YC