Bamboo use in waste sites

According to this article over at Science Daily, the US Department of Energy is experimenting with using bamboo to create a "closure cap vegetative cover" in waste sites. The benefit is that the bamboo would prevent rainwater from "seeping through the waste, potentially spreading contamination."
Another benefit of the bamboo is that it spreads quickly and can choke out unwanted vegetation such as pine trees.

Dr. Nelson said that a closure cap vegetative cover will require more study than this nursery. "Soils are important and moisture balance and nutrient cycles are also important. We also need to understand more fully the early growth and establishment of the bamboo and its performance in closure cap conditions. But it seems promising at this time, pending further research."

Bamboo also has shallow roots, so it can create this cap easily without getting into the deeper layers of soil.

Some Kind of Tech-Savvy

FoB (Friend of Bambusa) @aphexddb suggested that we invest in one of these.

Essentially it would let us know when the soil gets dry and we need to do some watering.  Using fantastic internet(s) technology, powered by teh tubes(!!1!) , a Twitter account would be updated with some kind of message.  Possible messages could include things like "Hey!  Getting a little dry over here!" or maybe "I'm reporting you for bambusa abuse!"  We're limited to 140 characters, so you've gotta be brief

Project Bambusa doesn't have a Twitter account because we honestly can't even keep this stupid blog up-to-date.  But I still think this is a cool idea.  There a few things holding us back from this purchase - the price ($150), complexity of building the kit, and some secret stuff that we can't talk about yet...

*edit - fixed link*

Day 215: Covert Operations

It has been a while, we know many of you are anxious to hear about the Project. We have gone underground, with some Black Ops missions. I am whispering as I type this, that is just how secretive this is.

They are watching us now...

We have begun planting new shoots, all around the region in hopes of creating a larger resource for the wall. You are probably thinking, "isn't that illegal". We don't have time to worry about that. This Project has many high expectations and we can only concern ourselves with completing the project and creating a wall of bamboo.

If you see bamboo randomly growing near a bus stop or under a billboard, sshhh, we have no idea what you are talking about. Back to the project now, we will be in touch.

Day 137: In Which We Resume Posting

So we're back. We understand that our last post made it look like Project Bambusa had been canceled - sorry about that. We had to terminate the first plant because it looked like it had died. But the other bamboo plants continue to grow. This will be a long post - loads of pictures. Gotta get you all up to date with all of the happenings over the last few months.

If you look back at Day 36 - down at the bottom of the post there's a picture of the two stalks that we'd grabbed from Rufus - sitting in a trashbag-lined cardboard box. It's was a shameful situation and it needed to be fixed.



We posted about our new planter back on Day 19. Well we finally got our act together and prepared it for the bamboo. Travis water-proofed the box and it was ready to go.





Since this is all happening at work, we were concerned that there would come a day when the Powers That Be decided to put an end to Project Bambusa. So we got ourselves some wheels for the new planter. Not just some plastic junk - nope, we got us some aluminum wheels.

Day 84: The day we said goodbye

Today we made a difficult decision. After weeks of struggling, it was determined that we had to cut down the first sprout. It was no longer growing and we needed to know why.

We cut the stalk at ground level and have layed it out to dry. We unearthed the root and found no recent growth. We are not sure what caused it, but the root itself is dead.

We may have sabateurs amongst us or we just don't know what the hell it is we are doing, but either way, this mustn't happen again.

The new box and the 4 new sprouts in it are thriving and have shown much more life in recent days. Our hopes for a bamboo wall took a big hit today, but unlike that first stalk will not die!

Bamboo Fiber

Here's the first in our posts about other uses for bamboo. Let's start with bamboo fiber. Used in everything from t-shirts to robes to throws, bamboo fiber is an excellent textile material. Bamboo contains an anti-bacteria and bacteriostasis named "bamboo kun," which means that it can be grown without the aid or pesticides or other chemicals. The bamboo kun is also what makes the fabric naturally anti-bacterial, meaning that a bamboo fiber t-shirt can be worn multiple times without it getting smelly. The only downside being that because of the nature of the fabric, a shirt may stretch out a little if worn multiple times without washing. It will apparently snap back into shape after a wash.

The fabric is soft and has the feel of a synthetic, although it will not dry as quickly as a synthetic. It breathes well and is also biodegradable.

You can buy products made from bamboo fabric at Shirts of Bamboo. They've also got a blog.

We're considering buying at least one shirt from these people - just to try it out.

Some notes and such

Your blog editor has been away on vacation, so we're sorry for the lack of posts. We've decided to include in our blog more information about bamboo, bamboo products and bamboo news. We want to let everybody in on all the information we're learning about this amazing plant. So watch for some new content to show on the sidebar and here in the main body of the blog. All actual Project Bambusa growth updates will still feature our patented "Day XX: In Which..." format. Everything else will look like a normal blog post.

That's it for now - expect some updates on the growth of our bamboo beginning Tuesday or Wednesday!