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Farmers' Handbook "The Fields", Chapter 9 - Bamboo Cuttings
What is a
Bamboo Cutting ?Bamboo Cutting? Bamboo is an extremely useful plant which has been used for hundreds of years in society. When its shoot isyoung, it can be eaten as a vegetable. When the stem isstrong, it can be used to build houses. That's why there's aNepali saying that goes "when young, a vegetable; whenmature, a house". In the villages, they also say that bamboocan be used for anything, except as a plough share. The tradi-tional way of propagating bamboo is by digging up the rootand transplanting a section to a new place. But this involves alot of difficult work, takes much time, and many other plantscan be damaged as it is transplanted.
So in this chapter, we show an easy and quick way of propagating many more bamboo than was previously possible.
Mrs Myasu Garanja's bamboo,which she planted from a cutting
The Farmers' Handbook, "The Fields"
Chapter 9 - Bamboo Cuttings
Why^ Why
make a
bamboo cutting?
HowHow Materials Needed to make bamboo cuttings
to make a
bamboo cutting?
This Chapter's Author
Planting a bamboo from cuttings gives more benefits Mr Laxman RanaCommunity Service Group,Dahachaur 4, Surkhet, Nepal
from less work. In less time, many more cuttings can beplanted, saving work for farmers.
The traditional way of digging up bamboo with its roots causes damage to other plants, and much soil needs to bemoved. So by using cuttings, this damage is also prevented.^ Benefits ofBamboo cuttings
-^
It's a quik and easy method
-^
With less work, manycuttings can be planted
-^
One bamboo branch canmake many cuttings
-^
The original clump isn'tdamaged by makingcuttings
Which bamboo can be used to make cuttings?
There are many types of bamboo, from hot, tropical, low lying areas to cold, high altitude areas. Most types can beused, except cane bamboo, and bamboo which has only avery small hole, or no hole in the middle.
1-2 year oldbamboo
sharptool
water
rocks saw
oil seedcake
diggingtools
leaf litter
fresh cowdung compost
The Farmers' Handbook, "The Fields"
Chapter 9 - Bamboo Cuttings
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Selecting cuttingsafter the branch is
felled
As soon as the branch isfelled, the tip is immedi-
ately cut off
Select and cut the cuttings as descibed below.The numbers below match with the numbers onthe diagram on page 7.
There should be no damage or disease on the cuttings.Only leave 3 branches on each node of the cutting.The mid branch of these 3 should be about 18 incheslong and have 3-5 nodes (if the distance between nodesis long, there may be 3 nodes, if the distance is short,there may be 5 nodes).The other 2 side branches of the node are cut shorter, tohave 2-3 nodes in total.Other, smaller branches are cut off.
Selecting andtrimming thenodes on the
cuttingcuthere
cuthere
3 branches on thenode of the cuttingcuthere node of the cutting
This is how it looks after thecutting has been trimmed
cuthere
The Farmers' Handbook, "The Fields"
Chapter 9 - Bamboo Cuttings
Use a sharp tool to trim off
either side of the node.
While doing this,be careful not tosplit the bark.
Fill the hollowends of the cuttingwith soil and com-post. If there is arisk of termites,mix oil seed cakewith the soil to fillthe hollows. Useone part of oil seedcake to 5 parts soil
or compost mix. This will protect the cutting againsttermites, ants and other soil-living pests.
If the bark splits like this,the cutting may not grow.Fill the hollowends with light,
fertile soil.
When the hollowsare filled, cap theends with fresh
cow dung.
The Farmers' Handbook, "The Fields"
Chapter 9 - Bamboo Cuttings
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Then mulch the pit with leaf litter
and cover with small rocks.
add a pot of water
tip of the middle branch
rocks
leaf litter
Finally, soak thepit with a pot ofwater. The mulchof leaves androcks will con-serve moisture. Even so, it's best to water thecutting 2-3 times a week in the dry season, ifpossible.
If there were no bambooneither would there be flute
And without nature, there'd be no culture
A newly sprouted cutting
The cuttingwill sprout3-4 weeks afterplanting,
Roots growing
The Farmers' Handbook, "The Fields"
Chapter 9 - Bamboo Cuttings
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How tomaintain
a bamboo cutting
-^ The cutting should be protected from livestock. People alsoshouldn't step where the cutting is planted. -^ Water the cutting 2-3 times a week if possible. -^ The bamboo grown from cuttings can be harvested for useafter it is 3 years old.
Uses of bamboo^ •^
Important household items like baskets, winnowing trays,etc. are made from bamboo
-^ Craft industries using bamboo provide many people withemployment -^ Local bamboo can replace timber and plastics bought infrom the outside, which helps to make the communitymore self reliant -^ This also saves money -^ It's using a local resource -^ Bamboo helps in erosion control andsoil conservation -^ Once planted, bamboo lasts many years -^ From the cradle to the grave, bamboo isan essential part of daily life
bamboo utensils a plane made from bamboo
MaintenanceMaintenance
æ
Mrs
Mayasu Garanja
Farmers'Farmers'ExperienceExperience
From Nepal, Surkhet dis-trict, Dahachaur - 3, and amember of "Evergreen"women's group, MrsMayasu Garanja hasplanted many bamboocuttings. Now let's readabout her experiences.
Mrs Mayasu Garanja
I leaned how to make bamboo cuttings from theHomestead Programme (JPP).At first it was difficult withoutknowing, but after training I found it easy to grow bamboofrom cuttings. First you need a branch which is 1-2 years old.This is cut into sections, each with a node in the middle andhollow on either side. You fill the hollow ends with fertilesoil, and cap the ends with cow dung. Plant this cutting in apit, mulch well and add water. I've found the best time to dothis is mid-January to mid-March. It's so useful to plant bam-boo like this. You can make so many things from bamboo -baskets, trays, etc., all useful in the house. If you have bam-boo in your fields it saves having to buy lots of things fromoutside. Now, with this method we can plant lots of cuttingsand so grow lots of bamboo, because it's such an easymethod.
