Kevin's Farm-Distillery

Dear all:

I'm currently abroad and my wife checks our bananas every two weeks in Hawaii. It's a pretty rainy place, but the lava soil drains the water without puddling. I planted 40 Apple Dwarfs and 20 Kluoy Kais and almost all of them have died recently. The pictures are below.

Both came from nurseries that claim to be clean, including one that is really well known with a strong reputation. We mulched around most of them recently and she showed up to find this disaster when planning to spread more mulch.

Many just died at the stalks and I have NO idea what it could be. We had fertilized in the first months and the leaves were always green. Some of the Thais went into shock after being replanted, but were on the path to recovery. We were careful not to pile the mulch too close, but with the limited soil in the area, we wanted to provide something. Some without mulch died also. This is an area with with wild bore activity, but not sure if that is related. There seems to be little consistency in what killed them and what spared them from mulch to not.

Any ideas of what has occurred here. It seems so sudden and wiped out a lot of work and investment. We're hoping to add a lot more bananas, although I clearly have a lot to learn.

Kevin's Farm-Distillery

Lancelot

Hopefully the corms are still healthy and they will be sending up pups like the nice healthy one in the one photo.

blue java ice cream

At first glance I had thought that a storm had knocked your plants over but upon closer inspection I saw that none of the leaves appeared to be shredded like you would see in a high wind situation. My guess would be that some pigs had come through and chewed on the stalks which would explain why they're torn up near the bottom. Time to break out the rifle.

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Currently growing, Ae Ae, Patupi, French red, Goldfinger, Namwa, Ice cream, Raja puri, Pisang raja, Lacatan, Double mahoi, Brazilian, Manzano, Mysore, Veinte cohol, Sh-3640, Sweetheart, Mona lisa, FHIA-21, and Kandrian

Kat2

Honestly to me it looks like someone whacked down plants then sprayed an herbicide. In other words, it appears to be human caused. Apparently it's been a few weeks because you have a pup growing that is not affected. I suspect the corms are fine for now.

ETA: Well, since I don't have wild pigs here, I wouldn't have thought of that but it does seem possible.

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luisport

Hi! What a loss... it seams made by some animal...

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Musa Rajapuri, D. Brazilian, D. Orinoco, Pisang Ceylon, Da Jiao (Himalayan Fruit), x Fruit, Himalayan Mountain, Helen's Hybrid, Patupi, Lacatan, Hajaray

Paw Paw Sunflower, Prima 1216, Potomac, KSU Atwood, Jerry's Big Girl, Al Horns, KSU Chapell

https://growingfruit.org/t/my-small-...-orchard/19936

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JP

I'd go with the pig. Catch it and eat it!

sputinc7

Kat... Indeed Florida does have wild pigs, but not to the extent they have in Hawaii... yet. Some kind of animal most certainly did it. Pig, maybe humans... They should grow back.

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If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

Kegas76

Perhaps a ManBearPig?

Tytaylor77

We have such a bad wild hog problem here in Texas. I have had 2 banana trees I planted out away from the house look just like that. They tear up the ground so bad. It's really amazing what they can do. Destroys pasture land and any crops on it. It is for sure hog damage. Good thing it's banana and they will regrow fast.

You need a hog trap!! Super cheap and easy. I like the circle kind. Pm me anytime I can explain the traps they use here.

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sputinc7

And, here... I complain about tree rats. (AKA squirrels)

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If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

Kevin's Farm-Distillery

Thank you everyone for your comments. I'm in East Africa for a few weeks, so my wife is tending things and we're both new to bananas, but have found this board to be a great resource. It seems like it might be those wild hogs. I was just worried that it might be some sudden virus that I wasn't aware of. I hope they'll shoot out some new ones and we can recover adequately. I paid way too much for my starters as I was naive.

In the mean time, we're now looking for someone to take out these hogs. I would do it myself with a trap, but I'm gone much of this year overseas. Fencing is a long term goal, but it's very expensive and a lot of work to put down posts in soil that is so rocky and at most 18" deep.

Juicy Bananas

Where are you located? I may be able to help if you're on the Big Island. Does she happen to know how many or how big? They are sticking around if it is that bad. They sure do a lot of damage... but taste darn good.

sputinc7

The soil being 18 inches deep at best is a good indication it's the Big Island...

__________________

If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

Juicy Bananas

That's why I was curious. It looks like this side in the pictures. Some places are covered in solid rock though. Rob is a great example of what you can do on a lava field.

sputinc7

I know.. He probably has 2-3 inches of soil there, in the low places. But, it rains there almost every day, so who needs soil? I am guessing these people are up the eastern coast somewhere.

__________________

If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

Kevin's Farm-Distillery

Yup- I'm on the Big Island. I've got 20 acres near Mountain View in Puna. I'm just starting and learning to grow bananas, but hope to expand into a few acres, rather than a few plants. The plan is to open a craft-distillery where the bananas will be turned into a vodka and locally flavored appeterifs and the figs will go into both a vodka and a brandy. It'll be the first craft-distillery on the island and one of the few farm operated distilleries, which will guarantee a quality, local, and organic product.

I just got done doing a master-class on brandy this weekend in South Africa, where there is a strong tradition of orchard distilleries kept alive; something we lost with prohibition in the US. I'm hoping to bring that back to Hawaii by training local hobby farmers in the practice, but allowing them to do it on my premises and pay the excise tax.

sputinc7

One of the Kapoho farm lots? We looked seriously at moving to the Mountain View area a couple years ago, before deciding on Florida instead... Plenty of rain, that is for sure. My wife wanted to be in Hawaiian Paradise Park area, because it's warmer but there are a lot of rooster "farmers" there. and I heard, a lot of irresponsible dog owners, too. Keaau area was going to be our compromise on one of those spaghetti lots in Orchidland. If money were no object, we would be in Hawaii... on the north shore of Kauai, though.

__________________

If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

Kevin's Farm-Distillery

Yes, it's the Kopua Farmlots; mine is closer to the front. I get more helicopters than cars going by there. It's very quiet, although that may change when I get the farm-distillery off the ground and invite tours.

robguz24

Just noticed this thread and was going to say pigs too. If you plan to do something commercial, fencing is a must. We have friends with 12 acres and fencing their whole lot was not that expensive, and solved the pig problem.

Since you're not really eating them have you considered Williams or some other more productive cultivars? Kluay Khai is one of the worst in terms of yield. Namwah and the "Goldfinger" sold at Home Depot also put out pretty big racks.

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