Anav, eventually everything breaks down, but IMO many years would pass before it started rotting..Treated bamboo is available, but the majority sold for plants is untreated. Do you know if your bamboo is treated? Walmart and Home Depot sells various sized green poles. The inside is metal, outside coated plastic..the green poles would last longest, where a standard wooden pole and/or trellis less time..many years..My vining Philos are held with wooden stakes, some over 10 years, none rotted..size makes a difference..many of my wooden stakes have a 2-3" thickness. Untreated metal 'may' rust after time.. but again, it'd take several years. I think water makes a difference, but that's a guess. Hard water 'might' rot wood/metal faster than regular lake water..Think our water is called soft water..LOL..opposite of hard would have to be soft, right? Toni

My bamboo stakes started throwing shoots and I’m observing to see if they actually root because if they do, I’m getting rid of them. I have enough bamboo and don’t wanna get bamboozled into anymore. Granted I live in a legit jungle and I have one of the tropical varieties afore mentioned.

We are several hours driving time from any large city. The local Dollar Store only carries the 2ft lengths of green stained stakes. I want the 6 foot lengths. I guess I will have to resort going into the woods on our property and just cut down some young poplar trees, of which there is an abundance. Soil improvement not a problem. We have sandy and slightly loamy soil which just needs compost. It's just that there's an area behind the greenhouse which I'd like to build up to start planting and buying bags of ground isn't feasible for that project, thus the desire to get a couple truckloads of soil delivered. Many years ago before we bought the house, someone dumped some junk dirt full of rocks in piles which were never leveled out and now is populated with spruce and poplar. Behind that is a gentle slope where many years of rocks, tree limbs and leaves were tossed, like a garden garbage heap. It faces north and would make an ideal fern, woodland and shade plant garden. It slopes down about 10 feet and the very bottom would make a good bog garden, then the ground slopes up again. Might be hard to see in the picture.

By all means, if anyone wants bamboo you can come on over and harvest away. I've already had two groups of people this year--friends and family of some help I've hired for building decks and a path. But there is so much more and it's ready to go! There is also lots of bamboo that is dead and dried already--all you have to do is go into the forest and start harvesting it. Seedmama: I'm impressed with your engineering skills in using the bamboo. Just drop me a line when you want to come over and harvest some more. In fact, would you be interested in starting a bamboo fence factory? Maybe bamboo roofing for a pavillion you've always wanted to build? Maybe a bamboo fishing pole factory? You know where to get it! --Robert P.S. Remember that this bamboo isn't just the small stuff. There's plenty of bamboo that's 2 inches to 3 inches in diameter. Some is more like 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter, but there isn't much of that yet....just a few specimens are that big.