Vegetative propagation techniques for bamboo species: A Review

Bamboo has been used in many ways for food, building materials, artifacts and raw materials for production of pulp and paper products. As the destruction of natural bamboo resources increased the gap between the demand and supply of bamboo, there was a need to find suitable methods for large scale propagation of bamboo. Many researchers have worked towards achieving this goal, and the same are reviewed here. Vegetative propagation/ macro propagation is simple, easy, cost-effective, and involves the use of locally available materials. It is highly useful for sustained production of field plantable bamboo saplings in large numbers rapidly, perpetually and plentifully for any desired number of years depending upon the targets and the facilities available. It has also paved the way to many new avenues in the field of bamboo research. It is highly flexible as the mass propagation of bamboos can be undertaken from offsets, layering, culm cuttings or branch cuttings, and also extended to micropropagation through tissue culture techniques.

• Vegetative means can be employed for producing clonal planting material of bamboos, to meet demands for its multifarious uses, in the absence of seeds.