Marking bamboo culms for age of harvest

[Guest]

Do you tag each stalk in your grove ? How do you know how old it is ?

Bob

[kevinrl]

Just dab a distinctive paint colour on the base of each culm, a different colour each year, and keep a note of the birth year for each colour. I am up to about 7 different colours now.
Kevin

[Mark Meckes]

Hi Bob, Kevin,
Another method is to use colored wire, which can be recycled from telephone connection wire, which has lots of different colors, or you can find lots of colored wire at the scrap yard.
One advantage is that, after the shoots have come up, you can cut a specified number of wires, tag your culms at the base, and easily figure out how many new poles you have for that year.
Having said this, I haven't done any marking, but just determine age by the appearance of the culm.
It's easy to tell the appearance of a first and second year culm by its' freshness.
There-after, the culms have a gradual change in color, and waxy buildup.
This also varies according to the amount of sunlight it has recieved.
Each species of bamboo has its' own characteristic change of color as it ages.
Observation of branches and leaf scars, where leaves from preceding years have dropped off, is another indicator, as is dead lower branches, due to lack of light as the culm gets more crowded out as new shoots come up each year.
In fact, for the benefit of new shoots, and to avoid overcrowding, the culm age at harvesting time may vary considerably from 3-7 years.
Bamboo does not know how to evenly space itself. If the earth is fertile and conditions are right, excessive shoots race for a spot in the sky.
If inadequate light exists, lower branches will die (some shoots will die altogether).
This is why human interaction, through grove maintenance procedures can lead to a healthier grove and stronger bamboo.
Selecting the appropiate harvested culm, or segment of a culm for a designated use, is also very important in the craft process.
A culm harvested deep in the center of a grove has different structual properties to one harvested from the sunny border.
A culm grown in deep fertile moist soil will be succulent compared to a stout stiff culm grown on a rocky hillside.
Start grading and sorting at the grove if possible.
If all you have in your workshop is a pile of bamboo, how to tell the differences apart?
It's called intuition, or a Feel for the bamboo, which develops through continued handling of the bamboo.

~ Mark