Treating Bamboo

I started growing sweet potatoes from kitchen scraps. They seem to be thriving with the vines growing longer each day. Rather than having the vines growing out of the pot, I decided to stick some poles. My landlord recently trimmed the bamboo in the garden so I picked up a couple of bamboo that would make good poles.

I used heat to treat the bamboo. The hope is it would prevent any fungal disease, prolong the life and durability of the pole and prevent the bamboo growing in the pot.

After removing the branches, I rinsed the bamboo, quickly dried them off and placed them in the oven.

After setting to 340 degF, I closed the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. I watched closely and observed the moisture evaporated and the color changed from deep green to mellower green.

I also wanted to ensure that I did not over-dry the poles as they might crack.

Once ten minutes were up, I removed from the oven to cool.

Then I stuck them in the pot. I guided the vine of the sweet potato to the pole.

Hopefully this experiment works!

Published on August 24, 2020

Untreated bamboo (left) and heat- treated bamboo poles (right)

Bamboo being treated in the oven. You can see the color changing from deep green to mellower green