Cob: Which straw?

[Sojourner]

Eduardo wrote:
> 
> What about using leaf or other part of bamboo as straw.

I'm not the big cob kahuna on this list, but it seems to me we discussed
at one time using bamboo stems (shredded) and the thought was that it
would be sharp and too short fibered to help hold the cob together.

I think dried leaves might not work either because they also would be
small crumbly bits, and I think the point of the straw in the mixture is
to provide a sort of lengthwise cohesion (I'm not explaining this well,
somebody want to do a better job?)

The long pieces of straw would act to sort of help lock the cob
together, if you follow my meaning.

> I didn`t understand what do mean grass straw? I don`t know, too, what is hay
> and woody grass?

Hay is clover or grasses (or even grains cut BEFORE the seed is ripe)
intended as feed for horses and cattle.  You cut hay before the seeds
are ripe so that the nutrition is concentrated in the leaves.

If you wait to cut grass until after it goes to seed, what you will have
is "grass straw".  After the seed heads mature grasses typically get
stiff and hard instead of green and pliable, they start to dry out.  In
a grass or clover the stems don't have the same strength as the stems
from the straw from small grains like wheat; grass is typically bred as
green feed or for hay; small grains are bred to have stiff stems that
will stand up to rains and wind until the seeds are ripe because its the
seeds we want to harvest.

Does that help?  When I say grass straw is "woody" I mean the stems have
gotten dried out and tough.

-- 
Holly ;-D
Contrary Peasant
sojournr at missouri.org

http://www.egroups.com/group/HomesteadGals
http://www.egroups.com/group/JustDucky

If you see the Bhudda by the side of the road . . .
give the poor slob a lift, his car probably broke down.

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