bamboo

I ran across an article recently praising bamboo. I remember that it was talking about how much better it was at mitigating excess carbon than forest and how it was super useful and everything from fabric to furniture can be made from it as well as being a renewable resource. they wrote of a woman who had overcome some of the challenges in cultivating it and that it only made seeds every 50-100 years. I can't figure out where I saw that article and I want to get more info. Anybody have a good site?

If you're in the PNW, I would recommend a book that came out recently called Farming Bamboo. You can order it here: http://www.dogscooter.com/BooksandBrochuresCatalog.htm#bamboo.

It was written by a woman named Daphne Lewis who lives in Kirkland, WA. She is sort of the queen of temperate bamboos here in the NW. It has great info on how to establish and manage stands for both shoot and pole production.

Good luck!

Dave

This is a good source for general info about growing habits of bamboo and such
http://www.lewisbamboo.com/information.html

I tried growing various varieties in the past 3 or so years, and am sticking mostly with phyllostachys species, because they have the vigor to bounce back from topkill in the winter.