jeffreyp

I saw the video of the lady finger/basjoo, do you have any lady finger banana plants to compare that have not been grafted?


In regard to citrus, there are many other varieties that I didn't mention that are very cold hardy. Some of these varieties with a cold hardiness rating can be found on a german site located here:

Zitruspflanzen-Grtnerei Voss



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Jack Daw

Or here (go into each section to read about those citruses in English):
Citrusy

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Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



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Mauro Gibo

I'm sorry but I don't have. Out of 9 pups which I brought from Okinawa, 8 died in the first 2 years. Only the one I grafted survived. If I had I could compare. I will bring pups from Okinawa again if the Quarantine doesn't catch me.
Bye and thanks for the information on the citrus. I will find a way to get them and plant in my orchard.

Richard

Mauro, I think you know that the Citrus grown in Brazil (and everywhere else) is native to China?

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Mauro Gibo

and Vietnam, Yes. I also know that the lemon was taken to Rome through the silk road during the Roman Empire since "All Roads leaded to Rome"!
The Brazilian wild lemon I was telling you about grew wild in Vietnam, too. I bought them in the market in Hanoi. I think the Portuguese and the Italians took the citrus to Brazil during Colombus days.
I do a lot of reading but I don't talk much about it, because people will think that I'm trying to be the bright guy.
I really like history.
Thank you for you comment.
Please be in touch.
Mauro

Richard

Oh, but I think the history of the fruit is the next best thing to eating it!

So yes, the far east did not have any fruits (guavas, chilies, etc.) of the western hemisphere until a Spanish Galleon landed in Manilla in 1526. The captain made a small fortune! A few ships made the reverse trek in the next few years, but in 1531 The Spanish and the Dutch arrived in the Caribbean and what is now Venezuela with small fleets of ships carrying many agricultural goods to trade. And so it began!

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Mauro Gibo

Richard, I didn't know you liked history too. I love history. For example, if you come to Japan the first Japanese food they want you to eat is "tempura", but most Japanese don't know it was the Portuguese missionaries who introduced it to Japan around 1533 in Tanegashima. Kagoshima Prefecture. Tempura came from the word "tempero", which is Portuguese. "Kabocha", in Japanese is pumpkin, it was introduced in Japan from Cambodia. "Jagaimo" is potatoes, it was introduced from Jakarta. "Pan", bread, came from the word pao, which is also Portuguese. It's interesting to know about the history of our culture isn't it?
The only part of history which makes me sad is that the great Christopher Columbus, died in a convent in Valladolid, Spain, pennyless and forgotten by everyone.
When you have time please write to me about history. And I will tell you about what I've learned here in Asia.
Bye for now and thank you.

jeffreyp

Some say Christopher Columbus was technically Italian because he was born in Genoa, Italy but spain gets all the credit.
I think it's interesting to see how plants evolve when grown in different parts of the world. The Japanese Ichiban eggplant comes to mind, quite a big variation from the black beauty variety we grow here in the states. Do you know what USDA gardening zone you are in ?

Jelitto Perennial Seeds: Japan Hardiness Zones



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Mauro Gibo

I didn't know but I checked it . It's 9a. I believe.

jeffreyp

There are many banana varieties that will grow in zone 9a but even still I hope your grafting does confer some benefit.

Mauro Gibo

Jeffreyp, has anyone harvested edible bananas in zone 9a in US?
I mean not in greenhouses, in the open field.
I was told that the Raja Puri was cold tolerant, but that wasn't true.
About 5 years ago we didn't have the Raja Puri here in Japan. Some guys, banana enthusiasts, imported few seedlings from Canada. I asked my brother to look for the Raja Puri in Brazil for me and as he couldn't find any in Brazil, he bought the Raja Puri in California and brought them to me here in Kameyama. Out of 72 seedlings only 5 survived the first winter and those that survived looked pretty bad. So I took 2 seedlings to Okinawa where the climate is subtropical and I have harvested good bananas these past years.
If you know edible bananas that can produce in the open field in zone 9a, could you tell me their names, please.
Thank you,
Mauro.

Mauro Gibo

Jeffreyp, in Brazil I've seen one banana plant produce 4 bunches at the same time. I saw a picture edited at a Brazilian farmers magazine called Globo Rural where the farmer cut down the plant few inches above the ground and it produced a big bunch without any leaves at all.
That's why I believe there is something enigmatic, mystic, about the banana plants.

Jack Daw

Mauro, Raja Puri can't have seedlings, wasn't it some Hybrid (Helen's...)?

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Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



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Mauro Gibo

As far as I know, no Japanese has ever harvested any edible banana grown in the open field here in mainland Japan, except in greenhouses.

Mauro Gibo

I meant small plants grown in labs through tissue culture. They looked like leeks. My brother hid 72 plants in a small chocolate box so the customs wouldn't find them. Japan forbids the import of banana plants from Us. Only from Canada is okay. But I didn't find anyone in Canada to send them to me. I hope the results will justify the means though. I don't feel bad about smuggling them because they were guaranteed desease free plants.

Richard

Mauro,
As we discussed before, there is a problem with the USDA cold hardiness zones. For some people, "9a" is about 10 nights a year of temperatures dropping from 35 F to 25 F and otherwise daytime temperatures above 40 F. However, for a lot of people "9a" is daytime temperatures in the high 30's and nighttime temperatures in the low 20's. Obviously, fruiting bananas grown in the 1st example are not likely to survive in the 2nd.

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Richard

Actually, they can be shipped from U.S. to Japan provided
1. they are corms with no leaves and insignificant stalk and very clean - no dirt.
2. the nursery has a CITES permit or gets a phytosanitary certificate for the corm.

The key is that it must be a corm - therefore falling into the seed and bulb category of plant material.

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Mauro Gibo

At the time I didn't know about the Bananas. Org and I didn't have any American friend interested in farming or plants. Now it's different. I know people like you could help me, Richard.
I'm counting on you to get information about importing procedures. Thanks.
I really don't enjoy smuggling because I also work for the Japanese Government. I'm a bad boy.
Thank you for the information.
Bye.

Mauro Gibo

Paleolithic Humans and Culture of the Ryukyu Archipelago

It has been said that humans emerged on earth about 40 million years ago. In Japan, at the Iwajuku site in Gunma Prefecture, flaked stone tools dated about 30,000 years ago have been excavated. In all there are about 5,000 sites in Japan from the Paleolithic age.
While tools have been found in abundance from the Paleolithic era, human remains have not been excavated in any great quantity and there is very little concrete knowledge about the Stone Age humans.
The total picture of Paleolithic humans was made substantially clearer with the discovery of the Minatogawa remains found in 1967 in Okinawa. It was a complete fossil find showing the skull, hands, and feet of a modern human and was dated to 17.000 years ago. This discovery allowed researchers to get a clear and concrete idea of the appearance of Paleolithic humans and contributed to a great advance in research on the Stone Age.
There have been finds of human fossils in other parts of Okinawa as well; the Yama****a Dojin human in Naha City, the Shimoji-genjin human on Kume-jima Island, and the Pinza-abu human on Miyakojima Island.

Mauro Gibo

If the primitive man started cultivating the banana plant 10.000 years ago, the Okinawans should have a very long history of banana farming since they have been there since 17.000 years ago.