QUINDEMBO

BAMBOO
A Micro Farming
Case Study
by GroCycle

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BAMBOO IS AMAZING: w w w.g r o cyc l e . c o m
B a m b o o i s t h e fa s t e s t
growing plant on the planet!

Bamboo can survive more

than 120 years in the wild FA C T S A B O U T B A M B O O :
Bamboo is a type of flowering plant that
belongs to the family Poaceae (grasses)

World Market is worth some $10 billion.

Uses range from food to textiles to

construction- with about 1,500 uses in
between!

Quindembo Bamboo began importing non-invasive bamboos to

Hawaii in 1989.

They spent the next 18 years importing non-invasive bamboo plants

from various locales throughout the world. Bamboo from either
out of state or out of the country needed to be kept in a state
run quarantine facility for one year. Virtually all of the clumping
bamboos currently available to the nursery trade in Hawaii were
imported by Quindembo.
 Growing bamboo
Use a plant and not seeds! Temperate bamboo typically seeds on
75-year cycles and the viability of the seeds are very short.

It is very important to realize that the bamboo division you begin

with is only going to grow underground.

Each spring culms emerge at the diameter it will stay at. Then it
grows to the height it is going to be in a couple of months. The
growth of the entire life cycle of the cane will be completed in just
a couple of months!

S pa c i n g B a m b o o
For smaller species, 4 x 4 meters spacing
will be sufficient. This requires 625 plants
per hectare.

For medium-diameter, thick-walled species,

5 x 5 meters spacing is optimal. This requires
400 clumps per hectare, or 160 clumps per
acre.

For larger species, such as Dendrocalamus

hamiltonii, the spacing can be 7 x 7 meters,
or 205 plants per hectare.

For Dendrocalamus giganteus this can even

go up to 10 x 10 meters, or 100 plants per
hectare.
THE OUTPUT
There’s more to this nursery besides growing in containers for
selling. A number of years ago, they donated 300 plants and a
crash course to ORE, a group in Haiti that provides planting
material for farmers who learn farming techniques other than slash
and burn. Those original 300 plants have turned into over 15,000
bamboo plants, distributed for reforestation, so that people can
cut bamboo to cook with and let the trees grow.

“
When we started the nursery, we thought we would be selling plants
to people who wanted to build with the canes, or eat the shoots.
What happened, instead, was that because of the building boom
we have morphed into providing material for the landscape trade,
ornamental specimens and fast beautiful privacy hedges.

PETER BERG
Quindembo Bamboo Nursery

”
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ARE YO U K E E N
TO H EA R M OR E A BOU T
SMAL L S C A L E FA R M I N G.
WH AT WO R KS A N D W H A T
D O ES N ’ T ?
G re at- we’ll k eep s en d in g yo u in f o rm at io n
w e hope you’ll f ind u s ef u l an d in t eres t in g !

see how easy it is to start a bamboo plant