aiwelaweka

aloha people. Here's my deal I am starting an orchard and would like to grow bananas. I would need a couple thousand plants so in order to have the best starts I was considering tissue culture. I just got off the phone with the expert from UH and she says i'm going to need about 3 months of lab training to be successful. That wouldn't be to bad if we had a lab on Kauai where I live. So what do you think? Can I do this on my own, with the help of the internet, or is she right?

Also, what are the essentials of a lab, or if there is a good thread can someone point me to it? I searched a bit, but couldn't find anything that talks about building a lab. Mahalo for reading.

shiroo

Hi i am not a lab expert but i can assure you if you want to grow the orchard ,you better buy other than investing in the lab.We have many labs doing the Tissue culturing which i believe is a very expensive exe and you also need a trained personnel ...
In kenya,we buy a hardened plant for Kes 100-150 or USD 1.8..and the quality is very good.Virus indexed

kgbenson

You could easily learn to TC on your own. There is nothing inherently difficult about doing it. However, if you are looking for a few thousand plants, I would suggest that the equipment to pull that off is going to be far more expensive than the plants. There is an economy of scale here that is not in your favor unless you plan on continuing to offer TC plants to other growers so as to eventually see a return on the investment.

Small scale TC can be done on what is essentially a shoe string. A bunch of us have done just that. But to have a consistent supply of that many plants requires a bit more than the simple mechanics. It will require a certain automation of all facets of the process, from getting the plants into culture, multiplying them, getting them back out of culture and then growing them to a point that they can be planted out etc. Depending on how you will be managing them in the field you probably want them fruiting in cycles to manage harvest and that too requires a certain amount of timing and so forth in terms of waves of plants moving through the different stages in a timely fashion.

In short, yes you can learn to TC bananas and if you are a hobbyist like me, it is easy peasy. IF you are making this a bit more of a commercial endeavor with the end result being a banana farm, there are more economical ways to achieve that end.

Either way - keep the group informed as to your progress - it should prove fascinating.

Keith

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Dalmatiansoap

For the best start I would do an Agristarts order
Agri-Starts, Inc.
Time and money used for investment for Lab and practice are just to high for starting an orchaid with thousands plants.

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GreenFin

My recommendation would be to start your orchard by purchasing the initial tc's, while simultaneously getting your feet wet with doing your own tc'ing at a hobby level with no stress. You can perpetuate your orchard with its own pups while you get accustomed to tc'ing. If you then decide that tc'ing is something you want to do on a larger scale, you'd have the skills and experience to make that transition.

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CTPalm

Can You order from Agri-Starts if you are not a wholesaler, I own a business but do not have a tax exempt certificate that they say they require.

Paul

kgbenson

If you are starting an plantation, i think you would qualify for wholesale.

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Bob3

I concur with the rest of the folks here; it's probably going to be significantly cheaper & more reliable to shell out a buck or two per clone than it would be to set up that large of a TC operation.
After the initial order, pupping will produce viable fruiters faster than a clone under most conditions.

Anyone in need of making a wholesale purchase where they need that annoying paperwork can feel free to PM me to discuss things.

In most states, getting a resale/tax exempt cert isn't that big of a deal; you can either cover the sales tax after the fact or depending on your location, "farming" may be an exempt endeavor.
You can always surrender your resale cert in 6 months or a year if you're not into filling out the paperwork as required, just be sure to make good for any tax owed for items kept for your own use & you'll stay on the good side of the "Revenuers".

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aiwelaweka

Wow thanks guys. This is some good advice. Looks like i'll buy tc to start and take my time learning the process in the mean time. I think there is a market here on Kauai to sell tc trees so in the future i think i'll want to do that.

Bob3

I regularly buy bulk seed from the U of HI & just fired off a couple emails to see if there might not be a good local TC banana source in or near Kauai, that way you'll wind up with good LOCAL plants.

HEY~ Lookie what I found:
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustaina...le_at_ADSC.pdf

Just heard back from one of the folks:

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