Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: Pat B on November 23, 2008, 05:47:23 pm
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Like every morning, I took my dogs for a walk this morning. Along our driveway we have a few clumps of hill cane(Arundaneria appalachiana) growing and this morning I collected these. I walked into a clump of cane, squatted down and collected these 16 culms from right around me. After a few years of management, I think it's gonna be a good year. ;) 8)
There are a few folks out there that I have promised cane to this year. If you see this, please send me a PM if you are one of them. You other guys don't try to slip one past me! >:( If I get plenty, I will offer up bundles of cane on the Trading Post later.
This is the first I have collected for the 2009 season. I also plan to collect sourwood shoots for those that are interested. I'll post about them after I begin collecting them.
Pat
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Hey Pat.........I am not one of them...but if there is anyone out there that would dig me up some Rhizome and send it to me....I would be happy to pay shipping.......... ;D
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Mike, I'll see what I can do! ;) Pat
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I will do Anything to Beautify the Texas Panhandle....and enhance my ability to harvest Arrow Shafts!!! All we have here is Phragmites....and they are limiteds to about a 100 miles from Me....and not worth messing with for me......... :'(
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Looks like some good shafts there Pat. I've been driving past clumps of Jap arrow boo here in the hurricane destruction zone for the past week and haven't snipped a one, also palm trees laying around everywhere. I'm going home in the morning and am ashamed for not gathering. I did however get a bucket of chert out of the jobsite - just thinking out loud..
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got plenty of cane but would trade ya for some sourwood shoots.
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Chris, I'll let you know when I get a mess of them. Pat
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Pat, I would love to try some of those sourwood shoots if you get out to harvesting some later on. I'm sure I have something you"need".
Thanks Tracy
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Tracy, I'll post when I have them. Please remind me. Pat
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Hey Pat B
Happy Thanksgiving from Camel City!
We have a lot of river cane in this part of NC and I have used some for arrows. The problem is usually that the area around the nodes usually has a big divot in it. I forget exactly what its called, but its where the leaf springs up from the culm.
How does Hill cane compare?
Also I dont know if anyone has done this but have you heard of backing a bow with a section of large diameter cane?
Happy hunting!
Tom
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Tom, the hill cane has very little divot at the node compared to river cane. Switch cane is somewhere in the middle. All three are Arundaneria and all 3 are native to the US.
I think Tim Baker, in one of the first TBBs wrote about using strips of thin boo, laid parrallel to the bow, as a backing. As long as they go from tip to tip there shouldn't be a problem. I think he disassembled a bamboo shade to get the strips. I've have never tried it. Pat
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Tom, you just have to be pickier when cutting river cane. You can get shafts without the big sulcate divots-crawl into the middle of the patch and find the smaller canes that don't have branches near the bottom. Only use the first section of cane right above the ground, the higher up the stem you get, the worse the divots get. There is also a lot of chinese bamboo naturalized in NC (many people call it river cane.) Even the smaller stems of it are pretty dished out, much more so than the native cane.
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Pat. I would love to try some of the sourwood shoots as well, if you get any extra.
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Just remind me when the times comes. ;)
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Pat, I think you could start a side business with that cane there!
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...but David, then it becomes a business! ::)
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Pat, you think that stuff will grow down here in my neck of the woods?
John
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John, if not hill cane, river cane or switch cane will. They are all cousins. What altitude are you? Pat
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865 ft / 263 m or there abouts. My patch or river cane died off and I'm looking for something to replace it. The only shafts I have left are those three buffalo nut shoots you gave me.
John
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John, I bet it would probably grow there. What happened to the river cane? When a patch of cane blooms, it often dies.
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John, I'll be digging some rhizomes for Steve. I'll do a pot for you also so you can try it and see. ;)
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Nice haul Pat . I have been out lookin around here but it is all to small . I guess I will have to wait and check it next season. I got a supply of bigger bamboo growing near my house. It is dern near 20ft tall . Some of it is almost as big around as a beer can. Makes good darts and spears .
TJ
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Pat, can I get in on some rhizomes too? I dont know if it would grow arround here but I would sure like to try. Japanese arrow bamboo seems to love it up here but my plot disapeared when I sold my house and I never got to try it out! >:(
David
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Hillbilly, it bloomed and has been steadily dieing off. There are a few left, but not of suitable quality.
Pat, I'd appreciate that. From what I recall that cane you have looked good. Any advice about how to plant it? I plan on putting on the creek bank.
John
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John, For years I tried to eliminate this cane from my property with no success. Once it gets started it should grow with no problem and a creek side is ideal for it...although the hill cane seems to do OK on high ground too.
Bamboos are strange critters when it comes to blooming. The bloom periods are far apart, sometimes only every 100 to 150 years. But when it blooms, every plant is that specie will bloom and die no matter where it is in the world. I'm not sure the life cycle of our native Arundaneria but I would think it would be typical.
David, I have no problem sending some rhizomes to you as long as the Washington Dept of Ag has no problem with it. These local guys can carry it over state lines and have it planted without much scrutiny and the specie is indigenous to the South East. I'm pretty sure it will survive in your area. I believe our weather extremes are more varied here than there. Pat
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Pat I dont think it will be a problem. I will be putting in some barriers so it cant escape. Pluss, Jap arrow bamboo is everywhere and its not native. Grown as an ornamental but it takes over.
Thanks Pat I sure apreciate it!
David
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Those are nice Pat, but what are sourwood shafts?
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Roy, sourwood is a small tree (Oxydendrum arboreum) that grows in dry woods throughout the East. The suckers and shoots from it make good arrow shafts.
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Ok thanks Hillbilly.
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...but David, then it becomes a business! ::)
Yeah! Tell me about it. Make one bar of soap and give it away and the next thing you know the ladies are buying it from you and your putting in over 90 hours a week and then some! Go figure!!!! ;D