The green canes stand four feet high, and sway lightly in the breeze. The rustle calms. Most assume at best bamboo is just panda fuel — at worst an invasive species. They don’t know bamboo’s recently uncovered secret.
The real powers of bamboo cannot be seen. Bamboo is unique because it absorbs four times the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and produces 35 percent more oxygen than trees of its same size.
"I see bamboo offsetting global warming," said Jackie Heinricher, founder of BooShoot Gardens in Mt. Vernon, Wash. "It is so fast and so effective, in the short term it could really make a difference."
For every hectare planted, or about two football fields, bamboo will sequester 62 tons of CO2. In contrast, young forests of the same size are only able to take in about 15 tons of CO2, Heinricher said.
For decades gardeners have feared bamboo for its reputation as an uncontrollable weed. Few are brave enough to take on the plant, because of this myth. However, Heinricher has worked for the past 10 years to change the negative image of bamboo and turn it into an accepted mainstream product.
In the BooShoot lab, scientist Andy Burr has successfully cloned both running and clumping species of bamboo in the lab, and has created what Heinricher calls a "magic potion" for cloning dozens of species of bamboo.
Next to the small BooShoot Garden lab, a large room illuminated by fluorescent lights is lined floor to ceiling with giant metal shelves. The shelves are home to approximately 40 different species of bamboo. Each of the tiny plants is a clone that will grow to be about three inches tall.
Cloning occurs when a sample of a sterilized plant, a seed, an embryo or a node is placed in a test tube with a mixture of fertilizers, salts, vitamins, sugars and plant hormones. If the plant grows and multiplies, the clones are placed in small plastic containers for six to eight weeks where they will grow strong enough to survive outside a lab. Burr has successfully used the magic potion for eight years, developing a particular mixture for each species.
"There are lots of variables that are specific to each species," Burr said. "Out in the world it’s not so specific. That’s what makes it hard."
It is easy for gardeners to pick the wrong species of bamboo, and doing so often results in unwanted expansion. All bamboo species are divided into two categories and each grows radically different. It is a terribly misunderstood species, Heinricher said.
Bamboo canes are separated into segments called nodes, the origin of bamboo branches. In the wild, running bamboo expands freely creating thick dense forests— the opposite of what most gardeners want.
In contrast, the root system of clumping bamboo is compact and expands only a few inches each year— making it a more practical choice for gardeners. Running bamboo creates the largest and hardest timbers and is the best for manufacturing products.
This year, BooShoot Gardens hopes to produce one million bamboo plants to send to nurseries and garden centers around the country.
"I didn’t start with these exact goals in mind," Heinricher said. "It wasn’t until we broke through the technology that we knew we would be able to go this far."
Although there have been a couple of successful bamboo clones prior to Burr’s system, none have been able to effectively produce a wide variety of cloned species on such a large scale.
"It was hard to believe no one else had successfully figured out how to clone bamboo before me," Burr said.
There are more than 1,200 types of bamboo and many can grow in cooler climates like the Pacific Northwest. Some of these species can also be successfully grown in the hot, humid climates of the Southeast United States. While some species of bamboo provide ground covers approximately two feet tall, others like the Moso species can grow up to one foot per day, eventually reaching the height of a ten-story building.
It may take decades for a forest of trees to be ready for harvest, but because bamboo is a grass its stalks can be cut down and will re-grow canes ready for harvest about every five years.
Heinricher and her team are working on a number of projects for bamboo production beyond their current market, which is focused on nurseries and garden centers. One of these potential markets is agriculture.
Many of the timber species of bamboo can be made into products like kitchen tools, hardwood floors, paper and textiles. Phyllostachys dulcis or "sweetshoot bamboo" is also part of diets in countries like Japan, China, Indonesia and Taiwan.
Bamboo grown in the United States for products like textiles and kitchen tools may have the potential to help reduce the pressure on natural bamboo forests in Asia. Not only are ancient forests being harvested for products, many animals native to these forests are losing their natural habitat.
"The pressure on bamboo is greater than what it can sustain and support," Heinricher said.
One of the major emerging markets for bamboo is textiles. Cotton can require up to one pound of pesticides for every three pounds of product. In contrast, bamboo needs very little, if any pesticide treatment.
Many fashion designers are beginning to incorporate bamboo material into their designs for a soft silk-like material. Outdoor clothing companies are also designing thermal clothing with bamboo fibers.
"Wool will keep you warm when it is wet and does not have an odor but it can feel clammy. Polypropylene will keep you dry but it can have a bad odor," said Will Hamby, employee at Back Country Essentials in Bellingham. "Clothing made with bamboo fibers keeps people dry, warm and has no odor."
David Knight, owner of Teragren, a bamboo flooring company on Bainbridge Island, has been using the Moso species of bamboo since 1994. Knight chose to use bamboo because it is harder than most woods used for flooring, can withstand changes in humidity better than most woods and has the ability to sustain itself even after a number of harvests.
"The goal is to create products that are mainstream and exotic and try not to cut down forests, by taking canes only when they are at the right age," Knight said. "The system we use does not clear cut a forest. We ensure that we make the smallest environmental impact possible."
While bamboo has yet to be a major interest for climate-change activists, farmers and the everyday gardener, BooShoot Gardens hopes bamboo interest will find a place in all three communities. As the demand for bamboo products grows in the United States and around the world, its availability and cost will depend on the ability to domestically produce bamboo as an agricultural product.
"BooShoot founded itself on not only creating a product, but educating. We have really set the bar high for education," Heinricher said.
To educate the public about the capabilities of bamboo and to promote bamboo forest preservation, Heinricher has created a campaign slogan: "Plant a Boo, Save a Planet, Let’s Raise Some Cane."
"My deep perspective is that I’ve driven this cause for all the good reasons," Heinricher said. "We think it will play an important role in global warming education."
Heinricher’s cloning discovery makes a future flush with cane possible: biodegradable products with zero petrochemical plastics. Houses built from bamboo timbers, entire closets stocked with bamboo fiber clothes, and bamboo dining room tables laden with bamboo feasts served on bamboo dishes. A future of raised cane.