Comparative treatability of Moso bamboo and southern pine with CCA preservative using a commercial schedule

The United States Department of Agriculture introduced several bamboo species into the southern United States in the 1920s. One of the species included was Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens), a species native to China. This species grows well in South Carolina. In rural areas, bamboo splits are frequently used for fences and stakes for supporting crop plants. However, the decay resistance of bamboo is very low. In this study, Moso bamboo splits and southern pine lumber were treated in a commercial wood-treating plant using a full-cell process with Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA) preservative to target retentions of 4.0 and 6.4kg/m3. Results indicate that bamboo is much more difficult to treat than southern pine. Using the same treatment procedures for southern pine, bamboo could only achieve approximately 22% of the target CCA retention.