Growing bamboo tree is not too difficult.
In fact the tree is meant to grow naturally, and that is what happen in nature. The one of the plant gets old or felled by strong wind, the tip will touch the ground and new shoot will start to grow.
Bamboo has many uses, one of which it can be used as cooking utensil. In the early days when there was no metal pot and pan, bamboo was used to replace the utensil, and that tradition i carried on until today.
Lemang is the traditional food cooked in bamboo in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. It is cooked in bamboo on an open flame. During festive time. it is almost mandatory for the Malay to have the Lemang.
The bamboo plant
Growing bamboo tree is easier now, with the knowledges and equipments. The plant grow in abundant in the tropic. As the jungle is being chopped down, it is harder to find the bamboo to be used for the lemang.
Many had started to plant the bamboo for own usage. The commercial farming is yet to take place.
The seedlings are shown below:
The bamboo seedling can be easily propagated
There are three ways to propagate the plants:
1. from the plants cuttings
2. from the roots and tubers.
3. from the seeds.
I was using both the cuttings and the roots. The success rate for the cuttings was about 50%. For roots and tubers, the success can be a high 80%. From my personal experience, growing bamboo tree was easy.
We many not realize that there is alot of money to be made in growing bamboo commercially. It is easy to grow and the competition is not too intense.
