2.6. Plant material sampling for Ash content measurements

Destructive sampling was performed using the selective random sampling method on a set of four consecutive G. scortechinii bamboo rhizomes from healthy clumps. The four consecutive rhizomes denoted four different rhizome ages i.e. new sprout, young; premature; and mature rhizome [31, 32] (Figure 4). Thirty-six rhizomes were sampled encompassing of four rhizome ages, three bamboo clumps and three study sites.

Diagram of (a) four consecutive Gigantochloa scortechinii rhizomes, and (b) transverse section of the rhizome as adopted from Mohamed et al. [31].