Bamboo

Who knows a lot about the stuff? I hear Geoff Lawton and Bill Mollison are very fond of it. Best varieties for stakes, food, etc?

Rick Valley who is now at Lost Valley Center in Dexter, Oregon would be where i'd go if I wanted a teacher...  Everything I've learned about bamboo I learned in a couple weeks I pushed a wheelbarrow for him back in the early 90's.

In this part of the country Semiarundinaria fastuosa, Pleioblastus hindsii, and Phyllostachys aurea are good for plant stakes.  Phyllostachys edulis, P. aureosulcata, and P. dulcis are good for shoot production.

Is there any that is good for everything?

Kirk Hutchison wrote:
Is there any that is good for everything?

No. 

Two reasons I can say that authoritatively: firstly, some bamboo is intended to spread and create a forest, but in other cases a bunching variety that is easier to restrain will be called for. Secondly, each variety has its own schedule for producing seed. A given variety goes to seed and dies all at once, worldwide; it's handy to have another variety established when that happens to your favorite, as a way to fill the gap.

Aside from that, I expect there is a harsh tradeoff between lumber quality and palatability. I bet there are other, less-steep tradeoffs regarding tillering vs. culm diameter etc., along which you can probably find a generalist species.

  Ok, thank you for the advice.

        Geof Lawton said that bamboo was a good thing to plant by swales because it does not have deep roots but does I suppose sure up the banks of the swales.

        There is a great video of bamboo shoots being collected in you tube, they also thin out the forest, so as the new shoots are dug up and some bamboos cut down thats two types of thinning out.

          I planted a cherry tree right up against my bamboos and thought that i would have trouble, that the bamboo would take all the water and i would have to water the tree a lot but the opposite was true, it did not seem to need hardley any watering at all the first summer so maybe bamboo is a good nurse tree, grass rather. Doing crazy things teaches you things sometimes- agri rose macaskie.