I can do you one better than that, Jeremiah...

Not only do several members of my household use plywood for their khana, two of them actually tried an experiment with LUAN ((or "lauan")) to make the cheapest and LIGHTEST frame possible. And even that worked surprisingly well. Luan plywood is commonly used in dollhouse projects, it's so light and thin. But with the amount of material all bound together, it is enough to support a roof of pine rafters, smoke ring and all the canvas. I've seen two of these yurts survive a re-occurring two-week encampment for no less than 4 years consecutively.

The downside to the luan is that you need to expect some breaking and there is a need to replace a strip or two nearly everytime you setup/teardown but even still, I can verify that the experiment worked and bears the weight of the yurt.

CAN you use plywood? Yes, absolutely. As far as "SHOULD" you use it, that's another question. What I would ask you is what you plan on using the yurt FOR? If it's for occasional camping, say, at a medieval event or faire of some kind, I can tell you that it serves just fine with very little problems save the fact that it's not very attractive per se. ((even this problem could be solved with some paint or stain though)) If you plan on leaving your yurt up as a long-term dwelling, shop or storage area and there is a considerable amount of rain or humidity, then I would recommend either upgrading to MARINE GRADE or other EXTERIOR plywood or, at the very least, treating your material with a water sealant.

You have a myriad of options though. Most things can and will work and all YOU have to do is weigh the cost vs effectiveness of each and keep in mind other considerations such as weight, portability, sturdiness against breaking, etc. It all depends on what you want and what your bank account can bear! Based on the above info and the structural nature of the lathe in a yurt frame, you could quite literally buy a bunch of secondhand sheets of paneling from a redecoration project, cut those into strips, drill some holes and have yourself a khana for next to nothing. Would it be a GOOD khana? No, not really. But would it work? Most certainly.

We did, ripped one by fours down to the right size, just make shure to avoid knots in the wood, thease weaken the frame!