With a global market valued at nearly $67 billion, bamboo may offer an alternative crop for some Florida growers reeling from a devastated citrus crop, says a University of Florida expert.

“Bamboo is a good alternative crop to diversify beyond citrus,” said Michael Rogers director of the Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC), part of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). “The clumping bamboos grow well in Florida, can be grown on existing grove land and there is demand for the product.”

That’s why some Florida farmers are starting to grow the clumping bamboo, a plant with many uses. People eat bamboo shoots in Asian cuisine. They’re also used for furniture, construction material and textiles, among many things.

There’s also a good economic reason to grow bamboo here.

“Being able to source raw bamboo from the United States will cut down on import costs and encourage the growth of bamboo markets here in the United States,” Rogers said. “There are already operations established for packing and processing of edible bamboo shoots in Florida, and facilities are setting up to be able to process bamboo poles for lumber and other uses. So, there is a market and demand, we just need to be able to supply the raw products to meet this demand.”

CREC scientists are studying bamboo as one of many possible alternatives to citrus.

Researchers assure growers and the public that, although many varieties of running bamboo are invasive, clumping bamboo is considered a low risk for invasion, as determined by the UF/IFAS Assessment of Non-native Pants.

Growers have planted more than 1,000 acres of clumping bamboo in Florida so far. But some of those plantings have failed because of unintentional errors made when trying to grow the crop, Rogers said.

When learning to grow a new crop there are unknowns. Growers might inadvertently plant too many bamboo clumps per acre — which causes crowding and stunting of plants — plant the wrong species or variety or provide improper nutrient, irrigation and weed-control practices.

“We started studying bamboo so we could provide recommendations to growers if they choose to plant bamboo,” said Rogers, who spoke at the Citrus & Specialty Crop Expo Aug. 21.

Bamboo offers plenty of advantages for citrus growers:

• It’s easy to transition from one crop to the other. Growers can easily return to citrus if bamboo doesn’t work for them, or when new citrus options become available.
• Row-spacing is similar to commercial citrus groves.
• Once bamboo is established – four or five years after planting — there is a crop to harvest every year.
• There are few pests thus far, but scientists will monitor this.

The main concerns are weed management and proper fertilization and irrigation. Bamboo is also labor-intensive.

“Our biggest concern is how to get the product from the field to the end user if labor continues to be an issue,” Rogers said. “UF/IFAS is working on mechanical harvesters for bamboo to make that practice more economical.” Davie Kadyampakeni, an associate professor of soil, water, and ecosystem sciences at CREC, leads the center’s research into bamboo.

“We are learning new things about planting densities, fertilization rates and irrigation rates for different ages of bamboo,” he said. “We are also learning new things about potential production per acre and will finalize this information in a few years. We will make this information available after publishing the work and develop new guidelines for bamboo production in Florida.”