Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

I was in the Middle East and saw charcoal shipped from Africa which got me thinking. Rather than those Africans loosing trees, I wondered whether people in ME could have charcoal from the bamboo tree and grown locally with the salted water that was around me at the time.

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

On 30 Oct, 21:06, Zamunda wrote:
I was in the Middle East and saw charcoal shipped from Africa which got
me thinking. Rather than those Africans loosing trees, I wondered
whether people in ME could have charcoal from the bamboo tree and grown
locally with the salted water that was around me at the time.

--
Zamunda

No. But mangrove can. But it's all about economics. And muslims
don't give a toss about the environment because allah looks after all
that stuff.

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

On 31/10/2010 08:14, harry wrote:
On 30 Oct, 21:06, wrote:
I was in the Middle East and saw charcoal shipped from Africa which got
me thinking. Rather than those Africans loosing trees, I wondered
whether people in ME could have charcoal from the bamboo tree and grown
locally with the salted water that was around me at the time.

--
Zamunda

No. But mangrove can. But it's all about economics. And muslims
don't give a toss about the environment because allah looks after all
that stuff.

There are some fairly salt-tolerant eucalypts around. too. But as for
mangroves, it would encourage coastal erosion if these were harvested
for charcoal. They are pretty fussy as to where they will grow, too,
which is why they are only in certain tropical and warm temperate areas.

--

Jeff

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

On 31 Oct, 09:49, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 31/10/2010 08:14, harry wrote:

On 30 Oct, 21:06, *wrote:
I was in the Middle East and saw charcoal shipped from Africa which got
me thinking. Rather than those Africans loosing trees, I wondered
whether people in ME could have charcoal from the bamboo tree and grown
locally with the salted water that was around me at the time.

--
Zamunda

No. *But mangrove can. *But it's all about economics. * And muslims
don't give a toss about the environment because allah looks after all
that stuff.

There are some fairly salt-tolerant eucalypts around. too. *But as for
mangroves, it would encourage coastal erosion if these were harvested
for charcoal. *They are pretty fussy as to where they will grow, too,
which is why they are only in certain tropical and warm temperate areas.

--

Jeff

Nah . I have seen mangrove swamps/forests in many places in the
tropics.. They are vulnerable to erosion, pollution and being
chopped down for firewood.

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

Zamunda wrote:
I was in the Middle East and saw charcoal shipped from Africa which got
me thinking. Rather than those Africans loosing trees, I wondered
whether people in ME could have charcoal from the bamboo tree and grown
locally with the salted water that was around me at the time.

Motile trees now?

Zounds!

--
Rusty

Now if mangroves were grown in places where they do not currently grow at all, why should the subsequent economic harvesting cause coastal erosion? Surely quite the reverse would be the case. And surely if they were economically managed, rather than cut down for free by anyone who can get at them, the owners would look after them carefully regardless of their cultural background.

Mangroves do grow along the Red Sea coast, and Persian gulf coast, so they are native to the region. But they grow only in tiny areas: there are less than 5 sq km of mangrove in Egypt, and are now all protected. There are surely extensive areas that have been lost from.

So there would seem to be scope for expanding their range. Whether it could be an economic project harvesting some of the output, that seems a more difficult question.

In fact people have already tried, and discovered it is not easy. See the wikipedia article Mangrove - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia near the bottom.

I am not aware of any salt-tolerant bamboo. They also are mostly very thirsty plants, so probably not the best choice for Middle East.

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

On 01/11/2010 10:03, echinosum wrote:
'Jeff Layman[_2_ Wrote:
;904115'] But as for
mangroves, it would encourage coastal erosion if these were harvested
for charcoal. They are pretty fussy as to where they will grow, too,
which is why they are only in certain tropical and warm temperate areas.
Now if mangroves were grown in places where they do not currently grow
at all, why should the subsequent economic harvesting cause coastal
erosion? Surely quite the reverse would be the case. And surely if
they were economically managed, rather than cut down for free by anyone
who can get at them, the owners would look after them carefully
regardless of their cultural background.

It was an extrapolation. Once people find out that something can be
exploited, they start exploiting it from areas where it hasn't been
artificially planted. Just think of places like Bangladesh; if
mangroves were able to be exploited for charcoal, I am sure it would
have been done there, and goodness knows what would happen to that
low-lying land if the mangroves went.

--

Jeff

They know it already. A large fraction of the world's mangroves have already been removed.

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

echinosum wrote:

I am not aware of any salt-tolerant bamboo. They also are mostly very
thirsty plants, so probably not the best choice for Middle East.

Corsica pine is relatively salt-tolerant.

--
Rusty

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

Jeff Layman wrote:

It was an extrapolation. Once people find out that something can be
exploited, they start exploiting it from areas where it hasn't been
artificially planted. Just think of places like Bangladesh; if
mangroves were able to be exploited for charcoal, I am sure it would
have been done there, and goodness knows what would happen to that
low-lying land if the mangroves went.

OTOH, if they could be persuaded to grow on the coast (much of which is
pretty low-lying) they could be managed so that it would prevent erosion
and indeed, encourage silting, giving partial protection from storms and
tsunami, and provide a useful crop.

--
Rusty

I did not thought about coastal erosion, but it is a good consideration. For this problem, wouldn't channelling the seawater inland be more effective?

With the UK being blessed with sea, I would have thought we may take the lead and experiment with such ideas.

It rains enough we don't need to. The idea of deliberately putting salt water on land would be thought utter madness, since it kills most plants, and it takes ages to make the land good again.

People usually experiment with cultivation of halophytes (salt tolerant plants)in the kind of places you would expect - where deserts are adjacent to the sea.

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

Zamunda wrote:

I did not thought about coastal erosion, but it is a good consideration.
For this problem, wouldn't channelling the seawater inland be more
effective?

With the UK being blessed with sea, I would have thought we may take the
lead and experiment with such ideas.

I rather think mangroves might object to our climate, and I can't think
of any indigenous species of tree which doesn't mind its feet in salt
(or even brackish) water.

--
Rusty

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

echinosum wrote:
Zamunda;904370 Wrote:
With the UK being blessed with sea, I would have thought we may take the
lead and experiment with such ideas.
It rains enough we don't need to. The idea of deliberately putting salt
water on land would be thought utter madness, since it kills most
plants, and it takes ages to make the land good again.

People usually experiment with cultivation of halophytes (salt tolerant
plants)in the kind of places you would expect - where deserts are
adjacent to the sea.

Ah, Southend then, and possibly, Hull...

--
Rusty

Can bamboo be grown with seawater?
 

Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...

I rather think mangroves might object to our climate,

There goes my plan to run crocodile safaris in the mangrove swamps of
East Anglia and Firth of Clyde.

Damn! All those woolly crocodile jumpers I was knitting for you! What
shall I do with them now?

--
Rusty