robguz24

Finally joined this site. I live near Kalapana in the Puna district of the Big Island on a whopping 7750 sq ft. But somehow I have managed to have acquired the following bananas:
Ice cream-6
Williams-2
Apple-15
Sucrier
Kluay Thai
Raja puri-3
Silk fig
Cuban red-2
Double mahoi-2
A'e A'e-3
Red iholene-2
Mysore
Lady Finger
Dwarf Red
Hua Moa
1000 fingers
Misi Luki

Everything is grown in lava rock-a type called a'a a'a, which is much easier to deal with than the more solid and common pahoehoe. My neighborhood was actually established on a 1955 lava flow. Everything has been spot planted with a little soil from an older part of the island. It has never gotten below 59F in the 4 years I've lived here so pretty much every banana I've planted has thrived. Just here to learn more and enjoy the pictures! All the numbers refer to clumps, not stalks. Some of the single varieties only have 1 stalk, but many of the more mature ones like the Apples have several stalks in a clump including 2 fruiting at once. Aloha,
Rob

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momoese

Welcome Rob, you have an impressive list!

Dalmatiansoap

Aloha Rob!
Welcome from Croatia

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Yug

Aloha from O'ahu

kentiopsis

Aloha from Oahu, Rob. I lived more than 30 years on Opihikao Road, just a few miles from where you must be. Where is your place? My main passion is palms, but I love bananas too; most plants have something interesting about them, and I'm also interested in natural history and environmental issues.

Ken

kentiopsis

Oh, I checked your web page and see that you're in Seaview, so my old place was no more than a couple of miles from where you.

The palm pictured on your site and labeled doesn't look at all like a loulu. The leaflets look too deeply incised to be loulu, and the coloring looks more like that of a Caribbean palm, maybe a Cocothrinax, or Thrinax species. Look them up and see what you think.

Ken

robguz24

Aloha Ken, I was hoping to connect to other banana fans in Hawaii. It seems so many issues are specific to our climate, and especially on the Big Island our lack of soil, massive amounts of rain, and lack of nutrients in the soil.
I'm right in Seaview down the road from Opihikao. What started as an edible screen of Apple bananas (since I'm on the main road in my neighborhood) has turned into an obsession to grow as many interesting kinds as I can. My main interested are in growing natives and edible plants. You can see more if you click the link in my signature, and I just got a little write up in Puna News on page 11. http://www.puna-news.com/1111.pdf

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robguz24

Oh, do you mean the one I labeled as Oahu Loulu? As it has gotten older the fronds are getting more fat and like the Big Island one. I know little about Palms. I purchased if from Home Depot here a few years ago from the section of natives they have, and I think those all come from the same company on Oahu. They used to have all their own signage with plant background and native Hawaiian uses so it should be a real Loulu. I know there are many different types even on the same island. It's certainly very slow growing! It does look a lot like the ones you mentioned, but something different about it though. Hope it is a Loulu and wish I had kept better specific info on it.

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kentiopsis

Rob, good to hear from you. Please contact me with any questions you have about growing plants in that part of Puna. Conditions at my place are considerably different from where you are, despite the fact that the two locations are separated by only a mile or three. My elevation was 650 feet just off Opihikao Road, in that last small subdivision you pass on the way up, before the highway, and I had some soil there. It's where Oscar, the guy who sells plants, lives. If you don't know him, you need to meet him.

Despite the differences in conditions between our places, I know quite a bit about gardening in that area. I didn't grow natives, though, and I didn't garden in the sense of growing herbaceous plants like tomatoes, lettuce, and beans; the ferociousness of the tropical weeds made that too difficult for me. Fruit flies made tomatoes just about impossible, except for cherry tomatoes, which seem to be too tough for the fruit flies. Did you get your Hawaiian chili peppers in yet? As for me, I focused on palms, citrus, orchids, avocados, and rare tropicals.

I had bananas up there, though, although 10 or fewer species because they were more utilitarian for me than a passion. I want to suggest two palms for you as food plants, aside from the coconut. One is Euterpe oleracea, which is the palm from which the acai "berry" comes. Not only does it produce the fruit, but you can harvest heart of palm from them—because harvesting the heart kills the stem, and you'll want to do that before it gets too tall, which will be before the stem is mature enough to produce fruit. But E. oleracea is a multistemmed palm which will keep sending up new stems. Have a few plants going for each purpose, fruit and heart of palm.

The other good food palm that I know about is the peach palm, Bactris gasapaes. Like the Euterpe, it is good for both edible seed and heart of palm. Lots of people on the Big Island know about raising peach palm for food. For heart of palm, you keep harvesting when the palm is short enough to whack off the crown from ground level. You'll need to reserve separate plants to let them grow tall enough to mature and produce edible seed. One of our Bananas.org listmates here in Honolulu told me that he'd eaten the seed in South America, and that they are delicious. Here's a link to an article in Honolulu magazine about two people who raise peach palm One of them, Leslie Hill, I met in the 70s, when she had a plant store. She's active in the Tropical Fruit Growers organization, and knows everything. Peach palm should be available at Garden Exchange or other plant stores in Hilo. Be sure to get the spineless variety. The ordinary variety is a very spiny, nasty plant. All the palm people will have the E. oleracea; Garden Exchange might have it from time to time, too. Just ask around.

I didn't notice a contact email on your web page. Is it there somewhere?

Aloha,
Ken

Yug

Rob, I've been looking for the Iholena Ula Ula (red red Iholena, a little more color than the Red Iholena), and the Hawaiian Mahoe (not the Double Mahoi mutation of the Dwarf Cavendish/chinese banana). Any help would be appreciated. Mahalo.
Any other Hawaiian varieties that you know of in your area?

I have Hua Moa, Ae Ae, Manai Ula, Ele Ele, and will soon acquire Popoulu, and one un-named variety (see my photos - it's near the end). My other non-Hawaiian types are Saba (dippig), Dwarf Brazilian (locally called Dwarf Apple), Dwarf Red, Manzano, Double Mahoi & Williams.

robguz24

Hi Yug,
The only Hawaiian ones I have ever seen for sale here are Popolou, Hua Moa, and Red Iholene. I have a list of some other non-Hawaiian varieties I'm trying to get in addition to Ele Ele. I friend of mine who works at a nursery in Hilo has called his sources and none have any of the ones I want. With some of mine, who knows what they really are, since some have so many names. I've read that Misi Luki is really Mysore, but my Mysore is totally different, with red undersides. Sucrier, I haven't been able to find much on over than it being a type rather than a specific variety, and all my Apple are probably really Brazillians-both dwarf and non. It's amazing how difficult it is to find more than the same few varieties or even Hawaiian varieties here in Hawaii. It seems I could get my hands on more Hawaiian varieties very easily if I lived on the mainland where they can be shipped to from elsewhere on the mainland.

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Yug

More Hawaiian varieties if you lived on the mainland - that is just soooooo wrong. Got any red Iholena pups you would sell? If so, just let me know what it costs, and I'll fwd the $$.

robguz24

I should have a couple in a few months. Are you in Waikoloa. I head over that way every couple months. Although that is one of the ones I was able to find locally. About a year ago Garden Exchange in Hilo ran a special with a bunch of those and Popoulu for under $10 each. It's turned about to be my most beautiful banana, even more so than the A'e A'e which gets easily sunburned.

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palmtree

Welcome! You have an amazing climate for any kind of banana. I love the climate in Hawaii. The weather is always perfect. The heat isnt oppresive like it is in the Carribean. If you are in a spot that gets a lot of trade winds then it can actually be really comfortable (but never chilly) all year round!
Looking forward to seeing some pics!

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Yug

The only Waikoloa on Oahu is Waikoloa Pl. in Kapolei. I'm in central Oahu. Or did you mean Waikoloa just South of Kohala on the Big Island? (they sure love to re-use names here, don't they?)

robguz24

Sorry, Yug. I was going by the map which put you in Waikoloa!

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Yug

Oh, that! I just tossed in some coordinates that I thought was Honolulu, I'm actually not far from Schofield Barracks, but any place is reachable if the traffic isn't too bad.

iz

welcome..u got pictures of your list?

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iz

robguz24

Not yet, can't figure out how to post them here, but there are some pictures on my site. Most of those other than Hawaiian Apple and Williams are pretty small and haven't fruited yet.

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paulorph

I wish I lived there! I went there a few years ago when CVS bought longs to help them convert thier pharmacy. I was on the big island. It was so nice there. One of theses days I will return. A little warmer there for sure lol

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