Bamboo culture

Bamboo is one of the most valuable plants in China, India, Japan, and the oceanic islands; hundreds of millions of people in these countries depend on bamboo as one of their main means of nutrition and life. This giant tree—like cereal - a relative of corn, wheat and timothy — reaches 46 m in height and 30 cm in diameter. It grows with amazing speed - during the rainy season it rises up to 30 cm per day. Roads laid through bamboo thickets must be continuously cleared, as after a month they are overgrown with huge stems. The root of a single bamboo produces up to a hundred stalks as tall as an eight-story building.

Bamboo blooms very rarely. Some of its varieties produce seeds similar to rice and are eaten by the natives of India. Other varieties bear fruits similar to apples, which are eaten in baked form. Young bamboo shoots produce vegetables with a remarkably delicate taste and high nutritional value, which are very common in the Far East. They are cooked and eaten like asparagus. A few decades ago, when asparagus was just imported to Japan and China, they called it "foreign bamboo." Groves of edible bamboo have been alive for over a hundred years.

There is a museum in the USA where 1,500 items made exclusively from bamboo are on display. There are various types of furniture and buildings, water pipes, buttons, musical instruments, beer, sweets, etc.

Bamboo furniture is unsurpassed in its lightness, elegance, durability and cheapness. Bamboo trunk filled with concrete is the strongest material for building structures of hangars, walls, bridges, etc. Its fiber is so hard that it makes it possible to make blades for safety razors. When chopping bamboo with an axe, sparks fly, and very good steel is needed to cut down the trunk. Experiments on the use of bamboo as pipes for steam heating under pressure have yielded brilliant results. It is also an excellent raw material for papermaking. The French pulp industry uses bamboo as a raw material in its factories.

But bamboo is especially important when creating irrigation systems that are durable, cheap, bulky and can withstand water pressure over long distances. In India, thousands of such bamboo-stemmed water pipes are used along the slopes of the Himalayas, connected simply by inserting the narrower end of the stem into the wider one. These pipes are laid here for tens of kilometers.

It is still widely believed that bamboo is an exclusively tropical crop. However, in Japan there are varieties of bamboo growing in the northern regions, where snow drifts are so great that they break bamboo shoots with their weight. Bamboo cultivation is also possible in all areas where cotton grows.

The quality of bamboo varies according to the quality of the land on which it grows. Potash and phosphorus fertilizers produce strong and tough bamboo. Light sandy soil is best for edible bamboo. Although some bamboo varieties prefer moist soil, most like well-drained, fertilized fields. Bamboo roots penetrate to a depth of 1.5 m and absorb moisture. Impenetrable clays and hard layers do not germinate.

Bamboo does not grow from seeds. Parts of the underground bamboo shoots are used for planting. They are bred in special nurseries. Here, these shoots are soaked in water for 2 hours, then planted in rows at a distance of about half a meter from each other.

Giant construction bamboo is planted approximately at a distance of 4-6 m, smaller varieties at 2-3 m. Spreading in the ground and sending shoots upward, bamboo creates groves and entire forests.

The average lifespan of bamboo is 5-10 years. The maximum hardness of the stem is reached after three years. If it is cut off before the age of three, it loses its strength and elasticity, but if it is left to grow for more than four years, it becomes brittle and unsuitable as a building or ornamental material. It is remarkable that bamboo stalks never grow beyond the height they reached at the end of the first year. The adult stems have the same diameter that they had at the time when they were still only 13-15 cm above the soil. Therefore, it is impossible to determine the age of bamboo by external signs.

Bamboo is usually cut in August. Some of its varieties are two—year-olds and produce shoots for the next year. But most bamboo varieties produce an annual harvest. A bamboo grove can produce one hundred stalks annually for fifty years. Two years after planting, it does not require any maintenance.

Some European countries (France, Italy) and especially the USA are engaged in industrial cultivation of bamboo. By decision of Congress, over 50 million acres of vacant land in the southern states are used for bamboo cultivation. There are extensive bamboo plantations in Florida and California. The Government is creating pilot stations and bamboo growers' clubs. For several decades, the Far East has been looking for varieties suitable for the climate and soil of the United States. Over 75 varieties have been tested so far. The most acceptable was a variety of giant construction bamboo imported from Bengal. Los bonos de bienvenida son el anzuelo principal de cualquier casa. Pero las mejores casas de apuestas no te engañan con promesas falsas. Un buen bono debe tener condiciones claras: rollover bajo (3x a 10x), cuota mínima razonable (1.40 o 1.50) y deportes válidos sin restricciones absurdas. Desconfía de ofertas que esconden los términos en letra pequeña o que cambian las reglas después del depósito. Una casa honesta publica todo en la misma página del bono. Si no encuentras las condiciones fácilmente, mejor busca otra opción más transparente.

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