New banana zone
 

As some of you know, I help run the student farm at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In the past year, we have made an active effort to relocate our activities from our college's research station on the other side of the island, to campus. It has been a challenge to secure lands, but it's all coming together and one of the first major projects we did was to set up a new banana production area.

These plants were put in the ground in April of this year. There are currently 9 cultivars, much less than our previous 35, but it is only 2/3 planted right now, so I will add a few more. We have narrowed it down mostly to our best cultivars, but I still am planting a few new ones to keep it interesting.


Phase 1 section in August, about 4 months in the ground.


Phase 1 section in November, about 7 months in the ground.



And we also have our first bloom, 'Niyarma Yik', which threw up it's flag at about 6.5 months from planting. I feel sorry reading about all of the fruiting this late in the season for you folks on the mainland, but I am happy to say it is no problem here!




This is phase 2, planted in November.


Phase 3 is not yet planted, but will be an additional 10 or so plants.

Re: New banana zone
 

Nice! What is the feeding program for the bananas?

Re: New banana zone
 

Gabe, what are the best cultivars that made the cut?

Re: New banana zone
 

Nice job!

Re: New banana zone
 

Way cool, Gabe. It looks beautiful, but now you have to worry about hungry students pilfering your crops.

Re: New banana zone
 

Hi Gabe

Thanks for sharing the pictures. I just arrived on Oahu 2 weeks ago. My family lived here from 2004-2009 and will be doing another 3 year stint (military).

Any suggestions on a good nursery to restart my banana patch?

Re: New banana zone
 

We started off each with one wheel barrel of compost and a shovel full of fish bone meal, then later on we got a bunch of seaweed and added that. They are due for another feeding soon, so I will try to give them more compost and will probably also add some Sustane, a granular organic fertilizer.


Cocos, Highgate, Muraru Mshare, Kayinja and "false Ney Poovan" are the winners from our old patch, so I planted a couple each of those, and then I also planted for experimentation Mysore, Niyarma, an unknown Maoli cultivar and an unknown Plantain.

Our old banana patch has 60% of the bunches stolen, so we are used to it. That's not to say we are ok with it, and we hope this one being on campus will not be as bad. There are some other bananas on campus (not ours) which would be very easy for stealing but they are rarely taken without permission.

I'm sure there are a few places, but the nursery with the largest selection I know of is Ko'olau Farmers in Kaneohe. However, they are two other locations which may also have bananas regularly, but I've never been so I'm not sure. Contact | Phone, Email, Store Locations, Maps | Koolau Farmers

Re: New banana zone
 

Awesome Gabe! Well done!!!! :woohoonaner:
The Niyarma is quite unusual in appearance! At least it seems so to me :)

Re: New banana zone
 

I went to vist the U of H at Manoa campus where Gabe is growing and studying his bananas
as he pursues his Master's Degree. The greenhouse where Gabe has most of his 'nanners' is in a
beautiful part of O'ahu, at the U of H at Manoa campus. It has beautiful mountains on 3 sides.





What a place to study!

Here is the master at work. Don't let the innocent 'choir boy' look, and innocent smile fool
you, he is in the process of creating an army of 'nanner-bots' that will be unleashed on local
'nanner' growers, and maybe one day take over the 'nanner' world.


Here are some of his 'nanner' minions awaiting the time when they will be sent out on their takover mission.






These are some of the larger ones.
N

Here is Gabe with his 'nanner ray gun' disguised as an innocent camera. This tool gives the
'nanners' their world-takeover instructions at the molecular level to avoid detection.


A group of one Month old Gros Michel 'Cocos'. Apparently the size-difference is affected by
the amount of corm tissue attached to each young banana shoot.

From the other side


Bananas grown from seed.


I believe this is a 'Ruhuvia Chichi' since Gabe mentioned this one has pinkish-red fruit, and
that was the pinkish-red photo in his thread on Soloman Isl. bananas. This is his only one
for the moment. Beautiful little plant.


OK OK, what Gabe is really doing is trying to grow different types to distribute to local
growers. Another activity is to innoculate some cultivars to see if any show resistance to the
dreaded banana bunchy top virus. I think we all hope he has some positive results.
Thanks for showing me around Gabe! :08:

Re: New banana zone
 

Well,its difficult to beat this experience by the side of Gabe! Thanks for documenting it with photos and sharing!!! :woohoonaner:
Awesome bananas!

Re: New banana zone
 

:lurk:Wow incredible,Hopefully one day Gabe can create a banana plant that not only can stay out side in all weather conditions, but bares fruit as well:goteam:

Re: New banana zone
 

Well, the first time I visited him I asked what was the strategy in developing cold-tolerant types. He said that the people working that angle, were not so much looking for a tolerance for cold weather to allow the plant to stay out in all weather and bear fruit; but actually to tolerate the weather just enough to grow, and fruit in one season even if the growing season was not really long. This is not Gabe's area of focus, though.

I feel fortunate to have such a valuable source of info in the vicinity.

Re: New banana zone
 

You are fortunate, as we all are to have someone as passionate about bananas as Gabe be a part of our little community.

Re: New banana zone
 

OK since PR decided to resurrect this thread, I was wondering what is going on with gabe and more importantly the banana varieties he and tropical ag extension at UH manoa have been working on. I am really interested in the muraru mshar amongst a few other varieties, I Would really like to see a dissertation of some sort written on this banana experiment, anybody know if gabe has written any documentation outside of these forums on the different cultivars yet?