New member with several varieties growing and shoot harvesting questions

[Liz Porter]

Greetings, I'm Liz Porter, new to uses of bamboo. Several years ago we purchased a number of varieties for fun, now beginning to have some active growth and would like some advice. We live outside Atlanta in Woodstock GA.

P. rubrimarginata - would like to harvest for shoots (for restaurant use, hopefully), but don't have any guidelines. Our plants are beginning to encroach in the larger garden (food crops for market) so I hope to use those shoots first.

What size, where to cut, how to store...any suggestions? thanks so much, Liz

[CaroleMeckes]

Hi Liz,
Wel"culm" aboard!
Cut down any shoots that you don't want.
The best ones for cooking are those that are less than a foot tall.

Write in after you've cut some down and we'll discuss what to do next.

Carole

[CaroleMeckes]

Here is a link (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showgallery.php?cat=706) to some pictures in the Bamboo Flora Gallery of some bamboo shoots that I prepared and cooked.

I also put some in the freezer in containers.

Enjoy,
Carole

[alex.landefeld]

In all the years of growing two stands of phyllostachys bamboo's, I don't think any of the edible shoots actually made it into the house -- they were all consumed before reaching the house! ;-)

I feel kinda guilty about that, but, there it is....

..alex.

[chuck41]

P. dulcis (sweetshoot) is the best tasting variety I have and makes very large shoots and the earliest shooting variety of large bamboo that I have. It is slow to mature and mine took about five years to start having enough shoots to harvest. P. Rubro is very good tasting and a very late shooter.

P. Vivax shoots right after Dulcis and is quite good as is Snakeskin Bamboo. They benefit from a bit of boiling, but would work in a salad in a pinch if you are not too picky to salad veggies with a bit of aftertaste. They are no worse than some lettuce I occasionally get.

Golden bamboo shoots a bit later and is good as well as Yellow Groove although both are a bit smaller in diameter than the above. Henon is another good large later variety that like the previous two are excellent when boiled, but very bitter otherwise. It grows great here in Arkansas.

I break them off by hand when they are not over 3 foot tall, peel off the sheaths and cut them into pieces. Since I often harvest quite large ones I just throw out any of the lower joints that feel tough when I cut them. A few of these large shoots makes quite a bit of food. So far Bamboo is the only tasty vegetable I have found that I am really good at growing!!

[CaroleMeckes]

I break them off by hand when they are not over 3 foot tall, peel off the sheaths and cut them into pieces. Since I often harvest quite large ones I just throw out any of the lower joints that feel tough when I cut them. A few of these large shoots makes quite a bit of food. So far Bamboo is the only tasty vegetable I have found that I am really good at growing!!

I usually cut them when they are not more than a foot high - so you are saying that 3 feet is still ok ? - but discard the hard lower portion