Water soaking treatments of bamboo

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terrabamboo
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Water soaking treatments of bamboo

Post by terrabamboo »

I need to hear anyone's experiences, or links to posts or websites that have experimented with this....

The goal: to preserve the original green (or black, yellow/green stripe, etc) color as long as possible. Indoor use only.

I have read that soaking the bamboo in a slow-changing water trough accomplishes this. It effectively leeches out the sugars and such.

Now here is my idea so far... help me build upon it:

-large cow galvanized drinking trough (just as a test)
-float indicator/switch installed at water level
-aerator to move water around -- maybe jets instead?
-several pinholes about 6" up from base

...place bamboo in trough, fill water to top
....as water slowly drains, float kicks sump pump on to push water back into trough

questions:
-how long will this have to go on? a day? a week?
-what kind of drying time afterwards would be sufficient? an hour? a day? a week?
-any additives that may speed this process? some sugar-eating microbes?
-what kind of build-up of raw material (sludge) would be after 10,000+ poles go like this?

links so far:
http://abari.org/soaking
http://abari.org/treatment
http://www.plasmaneem.com/neem-oil-combination.html
Terra Bamboo
300 acre Bamboo Plantation Project
Focusing on Henon, Moso, Robert Young, Rubro, Vivax and Fargesia
Arkansas
Posts: 111
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2009 3:23 am
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Re: Water soaking treatments of bamboo

Post by Arkansas »

Interesting project - i hope you find better advice than mine. I'd take one look at my old tan canes and tell you to paint them or varnish them.

Sellers of harvested canes may help with the info you need http://www.bamboogarden.com/Bamboo%20Canes.htm
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