Bamboo propagation techniques by cuttings

Bamboo is easy to grow, requires little investment, and is suitable for the economic conditions and farming practices of most mountainous farming households.

Bamboo has other names including: Thanh Hoa Bamboo, Met, Co luong, May sang mu. Scientific name: Dendrocalamus barbatus Hsueh et DZLi. Family: Poaceae.

1. Selecting plants for seeds

Choose young plants from 8 to 14 months old, with green stems, fully developed branches and leaves, large and healthy dormant buds, and no pests or diseases to choose as seeds.

Seedlings must have a yield of bamboo shoots as well as final product yields exceeding 15% compared to the average yield of the forest with seedlings, growing at an average level or higher.

2. Breeding season

There are 2 main cases:

- Spring crop in February - April.

- Harvest in July - September.

3. Propagating bamboo from cuttings

a. Select cuttings: Take young green branches with a base larger than 1cm from a 12-16 month old mother plant. Saw close to the thigh and trunk, cut off the top of the branch, leaving 35-40cm (3-4 segments).

b. Processing cuttings: Soak the base of the branch in a solution of growth stimulant chemicals. Soak the branch as soon as it is taken to avoid wilting. After 8 - 10 hours, remove the branch, incubate with moist sand (1 kg dry sand + 0.5 liters of water) or sawdust (1 kg sawdust + 1 liter of water), the incubation place must be cool.

Arrange the branches at an angle of 600C on the ground in the shed, bury each layer of branches with a layer of sawdust or sand about 20 cm thick. For the first 15 days, keep the humidity of the sawdust or sand at about 85 - 90%, then the humidity of the sawdust and sand can be reduced a little.

c. Seedling incubation: After 20 - 25 days of incubation, observe which branches have strong roots and dormant buds, then take them out to incubate in the garden or in pots. Continue to incubate the other branches until they have roots.

+ Nursery in the garden: The nursery land must be loose, flat, near a water source, convenient for transportation, the nursery land must be loam or light loam, the soil must be prepared carefully, fertilized, raised in beds if the ground is low and prone to waterlogging, if the ground is high, nursery in ditches.

The distance between the seedlings on the bed is 25 x 40 cm, or 25 x 30 cm. Firmly press the base of the cuttings, then water the furrows with 5 liters of water per square meter, then fill the furrows with soil to level the bed surface. When it is sunny, a trellis must be made (2 - 2.5 m high compared to the bed surface). Regularly water, weed, fertilize with compost and prevent pests, especially leaf-eating insects.

Gradually reduce the amount of water to help the seedlings adapt to the growing conditions: water regularly for the first 10 days, once a day, 5 liters/m2. After 10 days, water every 4-5 days, when the plants are more than a month old, water every 10-20 days, each time 10 liters/m2.

After 6 - 8 months, when the bamboo shoots have grown leaves and are free of pests and diseases, they can be shipped to the garden.

+ Sowing seeds in pots: The pot shell is made of polyethylene or soil, size 10 x 15 cm or 13 x 18 cm, the pot must have a hole at the bottom. The pot's filling consists of 85% light loam + 15% well-mixed manure. When putting the potting mixture into the pot, pay attention to only put it up to 1/3 of the height of the pot, then compact it and put the treated seedlings into the pot, continue to put the soil mixed with manure up to 3/4 of the pot and compact it, then water a little, continue to fill the mixture to the mouth of the pot, do not compact the upper part of the pot.

Place pots 13 cm apart, cover with soil up to 3/4 of the pot height, the nursery must have a trellis to cover 40 - 50% of sunlight. Regularly care for the seedlings such as: watering, weeding, breaking the crust, and fertilizing.

+ Seedling standards for export: Cuttings are 6 - 8 months old. There is at least one new generation with leaves (growing from the dormant buds of the branch nodes), many roots, strong development, many new green leaves.

+ Advantages: Cuttings can be produced in large quantities to ensure large-scale bamboo forestation at reasonable prices; easy to transport, proactive in season, high survival rate, easy to make.

+ Disadvantages: Time consuming to care for during temporary cuttings, longer time to form a forest compared to other varieties./.

According to the National Agricultural Extension Center