[MR] Bamboo resources in Atlantia

[TheWolfhou at aol.com]

Pertaining to bamboo, what were you needing it for? The species that grows  
here and is sold at garden centers for planting at home (and over steps  it's 
beds to the frustration of the gardener) is very hollow, and as it  dries, it 
becomes more brittle. Older growth becomes thicker than the new year's  growth. 
To get the older growth though, one must cut through the newer stuff.  Use a 
saw for cutting, as clippers or loppers splinter the bamboo. Loppers are  fine 
for taking off the leaf shoots. You will destroy a good pair of clippers if  
used on all but the lighter branches. Knocking at the door of a house with  
bamboo will probably be met with "sure, take the whole lot of it!!" Bamboo is a  
grass, and spreads rampantly by roots. Even the stuff sold as non invasive,  
really is unless it is contained in a double thick plastic kids pool and 
doesn't  excape (it will though..) This garden species is fine for use as banner 
and  pennant poles. It will do for lashing into gates and such too. If you are 
using  the fresh cut bamboo and poking it into the ground, poke the top end 
into the  ground lest it be audacious enough and root. You don't want that! This 
is not  the species of bamboo that is eaten or for fighting (ratan).
 
YIS,
--Blitha of Wolfhou