Post #807426 by TIKIGIKI on Mon, Jan 16, 2023 3:20 PM

Yes well I was "confused" too! It was mentioned that trapped air between the nodules was causing the problem and then a suggestion of puncturing the divisions internally was made. That could only be with completely intact poles so I too assumed that was what we were discussing, hence my suggestion. (In truth I do not hold much faith in air expansion being the cause of splitting.) If your poles are already in halves and now splitting it suggests to me that the bamboo was picked too green. There's not much you can do to prevent this as it will always split as the excess sap dries out. I have quite a lot of bamboo, both small diameters and large and have not found any splitting problems at all. Do you have central heating? That will definitely cause splitting as the heat dries the young bamboo even further. (Central heating is not good for any fancy veneer work either!)