How It All Began

How did a small company located in Mount Vernon, Washington grow from producing a couple thousand bamboo starts each year for nursery wholesalers, into a company with the capacity to produce the millions of timber bamboo starts needed to drive a new domestic bamboo fiber industry?

It began as a question of inventory.

Simply put, bamboo is very difficult to propagate. Depending on the species, bamboo flowers only once every 60 to 120 years, making planting by seed impractical. While not all bamboo dies after a flowering event, many species do. Moreover, as the global demand for bamboo products has increased, indigenous bamboo forests in many parts of the world have become endangered due to over-harvesting. In fact, roughly half of the world’s 1,400 identified bamboo species are now threatened with extinction.

To increase supply in an economical way, Booshoot founder Jackie Heinricher began working to determine how to create healthy bamboo starts through the scientific process known as tissue culture.

In 2004, after years of intensive research and development, the company cracked the code necessary to allow for the replication of bamboo on a mass scale. Booshoot’s horticulture business took off. But as the company grew, it became increasingly apparent that its pioneering science had applications far beyond the home garden.

In February 2013, Pendrell Corporation acquired a majority stake in Booshoot, and created a new subsidiary, Provitro Biosciences,to fund the acceleration, of research and development, commercialization and licensing of plants and technology produced by the company. 

Today, Heinricher and her team of scientists are elevating an old science to a new frontier with their proprietary Provitro™ technology. This breakthrough science is helping jump start new markets for forward thinking companies to lead in the creation of renewable industries.  

In the United States, particularly regions throughout the southeast, ideal land exists for growing bamboo on a large, agricultural scale. With communities in need and demand for alternative fiber sources on the rise, Booshoot and its partners are planting the future, and harnessing the power of private enterprise for maximum public benefit.