- Type
- Leafy Greens
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Season
- Spring
- Sowing
- Plant a sapling
Bamboo Shoot
Phyllostachys edulis
Fiber and potassium — a ten-day spring shoot off the rhizome
A bamboo shoot is the young sprout of a bamboo plant. It is only edible for the few days after it breaks the soil; give it ten days and it toughens into cane. At around 20 kcal per 100 g with real resistance under the teeth, it is a vegetable you eat for texture more than flavour. In cities, fresh shoots come direct from growers for a short run between April and June, and the rest of the year you meet them pre-boiled and vacuum-packed, or tinned. Fresh shoots must always be boiled first — the Donguibogam likewise instructed that they be steamed and boiled before eating.
Year-Round Calendar
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Where It Grows
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Origin
The native home of Moso bamboo, and the source of most of the world's bamboo shoots. Production centers on the hill country south of the Yangtze in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi. Harvest March, April
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Major producer
Kyushu and western Kansai are the producing areas. The shoots are eaten fresh during their brief spring season. Harvest April, May
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- Major producer The central mountain areas produce shoots of Moso bamboo and several other bamboo species, each in its own part of the season.
- Major producer A major exporter of canned and jarred bamboo shoots, made from tropical bamboo species.
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Major producer
The shoots come from the southern bamboo groves for a brief season each spring. Damyang in South Jeolla, and Geoje and Tongyeong in South Gyeongsang, are the best-known areas. Harvest April, May, June
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Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is native to China south of the Yangtze; in Korea and Japan, introduced plantings grew into today's groves. Production is concentrated in the warm-temperate belt of East Asia, where winters are not severely cold and rain is plentiful, while tropical Southeast Asia produces the shoots of different bamboo species as processed goods. Because fresh shoots turn tough within a day of being dug and are hard to ship over long distances, the regions that supply fresh shoots and those that supply canned shoots are distinct.
- Optimum
- 15~25℃
- Range
- 10~35℃
- Hardiness
- Half-hardy
Bamboo groves do best in warm, rainy places with an annual mean temperature of 12–20℃ and more than 1,000mm of rain a year. The shoots push up within a few days after the ground thaws and the spring rains fall. If temperatures hold below −15℃, the culms freeze and split, and a late frost while the shoots are rising ruins that year's crop.
Harvested 4–5 years after planting. From planting a young bamboo, it takes four to five years for the underground rhizomes to establish and for shoots thick enough to eat to come up. No shoots can be harvested in the spring of the planting year. Once the grove is established, shoots rise from the same stand every year.
In Korea Southern Korea
Bamboo groves stand in the south of the country. Damyang and Suncheon in South Jeolla, Geoje, Tongyeong, and Gimhae in South Gyeongsang, and Ulsan are the well-known areas. The harvest month splits by species: Moso bamboo comes up in April, while wangdae (Japanese timber bamboo) and somdae (henon bamboo) follow in May–June.
How to grow
- Light
- For open ground only — this is not a container crop. A bamboo grove wants a south- or southeast-facing slope with five to six hours of sun.
- Soil and depth
- For open ground only. Free-draining sandy loam suits it. The rhizomes run sideways 30–50 cm below the surface, so the soil layer has to be deep.
- Spacing
- For open ground only. Set young plants 3–5 m apart. Within five years the rhizomes will have spread nearly 10 m in every direction and formed a grove.
- Watering
- For the first two years, water deeply once a week through summer dry spells. Once established, rainfall is enough. If the ground dries out between March and May while shoots are rising, the shoots come up thin.
- Feeding
- Spread well-rotted compost across the grove floor in autumn. Short on nitrogen, next spring's shoots come up thinner and fewer. Leave fallen bamboo leaves where they are rather than raking them up; they feed the grove.
- Harvest
- Moso in April, madake and henon bamboo in May and June. Cut at the base on the diagonal with a spade when the tip stands 10–20 cm above ground. Past 30 cm it can toughen within a day. Boil the shoot the same day you dig it.
What makes the difference. Harvesting your own shoots from a pot is not realistic. When buying, choose one with a thick base, a glossy sheath, and a cut face that is white and tightly packed. A cut face gone brown or riddled with holes means it was dug some time ago. Fresh shoots contain the cyanogenic glycoside taxiphyllin and must always be boiled. Split the shoot in half with the sheath on, boil it for at least 30 minutes in rice-rinsing water, and let it cool in that water — the harshness and much of the oxalate leave together.
Why this one is harder. Moso bamboo passes 20 m at full height, and its rhizomes advance several metres in every direction each year. It is beyond a container, and beyond most small plots as well.
Common problems
- Bamboo shoot moth (Kumasia kumaso) You will see The inside of the shoot is eaten out, brown frass seeps from the hole, and the shoot stops growing. What to do Dig out affected shoots and take them away from the grove. Clearing old sheath litter from the grove floor during the April–May flight period lowers numbers the following year.
- Bamboo scale insects You will see White woolly patches or hard shell-like bumps cling to the culm nodes, and the leaves go yellow. What to do Cut badly infested culms down at the base. Thinning a crowded grove so light and air move through is the real fix.
- Bamboo rust You will see Orange, powdery spore masses form near the culm nodes and the surface cracks there. What to do Cut out diseased culms and burn them or take them off site. It favours damp, shaded groves, so thin the stand to bring the density down.
This page describes how a crop is grown and used. It does not claim health effects for any food, nor is it intended to prevent or treat disease. Component and study notes are references only and do not mean the same result occurs in people. Consult a medical professional about health concerns.
Health Benefits
What the Donguibogam recorded. Bamboo shoot appears in the Donguibogam's vegetable section as jukson, recorded as cooling in nature, sweet in taste, and free of toxicity. The same passage quotes the Shiwu Bencao to warn that shoots are hard to digest and should be eaten sparingly, and it says to steam and boil them. This is a record from a seventeenth-century medical text, not a modern medical judgement.
Dietary fiber. Bamboo shoots are a low-calorie vegetable with a little over 2 g of dietary fiber per 100 g. Dietary fiber intake has been reported to help with bowel regularity, though human studies on bamboo shoots specifically are few.
Bamboo shoot sheath extract. Extracts made from the sheaths discarded during processing have shown antioxidant activity in in-vitro studies. These are extract experiments, so the same result cannot be assumed for bamboo shoots eaten as food.
Nutrition
- Dietary fibre (2.2 g per 100 g) — Cellulose-type fibre that does not dissolve in water
- Potassium (About 530 mg per 100 g) — A mineral present at a high level for a vegetable
- Tyrosine (The white crystals between the layers of a boiled shoot) — An amino acid in crystallised form
- Taxiphyllin (The cyanogenic glycoside of raw shoots) — Breaks down with thorough heating
Fiber and low calories Bamboo shoots run about 20 kcal per 100 g with a little over 2 g of fiber. Most of that fiber is cellulose and hemicellulose, neither of which dissolves in water, so the shoot pushes back when you chew it. That is why a small serving feels filling. The same coarse fiber also makes it slow to digest.
Potassium Fresh shoots carry roughly 530 mg of potassium per 100 g, which is high for a vegetable. Potassium is involved in moving sodium out of the body. A good deal of it leaches into the cooking water, though, so tinned shoots hold noticeably less than fresh ones.
Tyrosine People often mistake the white powder wedged between the segments of a boiled shoot for mould. It is crystallised tyrosine, an amino acid, and it is harmless. It contributes to savoury flavour, so there is no reason to rinse it away.
Where the harshness comes from Homogentisic acid and oxalic acid start building up the moment a shoot is dug. Together they produce the sharp, prickly astringency. A single day is enough for it to get noticeably worse, which is why fresh shoots should be boiled the day you buy them. Boiling with rice-rinsing water or rice bran lets the starch bind those compounds.
Pairings
○ Rice-rinsing water or rice bran — Split a fresh shoot in half with the sheath still on and boil it for at least 30 minutes in water used to rinse rice, or with rice bran added. The starch and bran take up the harsh compounds. Just as important, leave the shoot in that water off the heat until it is completely cool — lifting it out hot brings the astringency back.
○ Beef and perilla oil — A bamboo shoot has almost no fat and almost no protein of its own. Dishes like juksun-chae or bamboo-shoot japchae, built on beef and perilla oil, give it something to stand on and let its texture come forward. Add the shoot at the end of the stir-fry so it keeps its snap. Perilla (Deulkkae)
○ Calcium foods such as tofu and anchovy — Bamboo shoots carry a fair amount of oxalate. When calcium-rich foods are eaten alongside, more of that oxalate binds to calcium in the gut and passes straight through rather than being absorbed. Putting tofu in a bamboo-shoot soup, or building it on an anchovy stock, is a sensible pairing for this reason.
△ Raw shoots — always boil them — Raw bamboo shoots hold taxiphyllin, a cyanogenic glycoside, so they are never eaten raw. Peel the shoot, put it in plenty of water whole or halved, and boil it with the lid off until it is soft all the way through. The cooking water is always thrown away; soak the shoot in cold water afterwards, then cook with it. Boiling it with rice-rinsing water or rice bran clears the harshness at the same time. Thicker shoots need longer, and an undercooked one keeps the sharp taste that prickles the tongue. Tinned and vacuum-packed shoots come already boiled and can be used as they are.
Varieties
- Moso bamboo (Sapling) — The thickest and earliest, from early April, and most of what reaches the market.
- Giant timber bamboo (Sapling) — May to June. Slimmer than moso and less harsh.
- Henon bamboo (Sapling) — May. Slender and tender, used in namul and soups.
- Sasa bamboo (Sapling) — The shoots are too thin to be worth eating.
Source: Donguibogam, Vegetable Section (竹笋) · Rural Development Administration (nongsaro.go.kr) · National Institute of Forest Science