Edible Hibiscus (Abelmoschus manihot)

January 24, 2017 / tropicalselfsufficiency / 11 Comments

Description

Edible Hibiscus, Abelmoschus manihot, bele or abika, is a nutritious, high in protein, perennial shrub grown for its large leaves. The plant grows up to 12 feet tall, has leaves as large or larger than a plate, and a beautiful hibiscus flower. This plant is extremely hardy, vigorous and abundant. What a perfect food source! Edible Hibiscus has become one of my staple vegetables because it almost always has leaves I can harvest.

Propagation

Edible Hibiscus is grown primarily from cuttings. Simply cut off a branch or some of the trunk and take those cuttings and stick them in the ground. They will take off after a short period and begin growing rapidly! I usually use cuttings a foot or so (30 cm) in length.

Cut off branch or trunk.

Trim off larger leaves.

Stick into the ground.

Care

Make sure to give the plant plenty of water. It grows in part shade as well as full sun. Just sit back and watch it grow!

In my experience the plant gets top heavy and falls over in large rains/winds, so I constantly cut it back so its not too heavy and have it supported by a trellis.

Eating

You may eat the leaves raw or cooked, boiled or roasted. The larger leaves seem to be a bit more slimy than the smaller ones. But are both delicious. I usually eat smaller leaves raw and cook larger ones. Leaves are also excellent for thickening sauces or soups.

Where to obtain planting materials

Ask anyone growing edible hibiscus for cuttings.

My Garden

I have trouble growing annuals during winter, due to day length, so I have to rely on my perennials for my food source. I’ve been growing Edible Hibiscus for over a year now, but I was only using it occasionally until recently. So noting the abundance of leaves on the hibiscus, I decided to eat it more regularly and I’m really enjoying it! Now that the plant is established, I have to prune the plant heavily every few weeks, giving me tons of cuttings to spread all over the yard. Aiding in over-abundance of a valuable food source, gearing me toward food self-sufficiency, the ultimate goal. Here’s some of my plantings around the yard:

Main garden: Edible Hibiscus, Guava, Araza, Coconut, Roselle, Cranberry Hibiscus, Cabbage, Turmeric, Strawberry, Hot Peppers, Air Potato, Tomato, Chia, Sweet Potato, Basil and many others.

Food Forest: Understory: Edible Hibiscus, Tea, Sweet Potato, Ti, Desmodium, Okinawa Spinach, Cardamom, Crotolaria, Moringa, Sissoo Spinach, Taro, Chaya, Poha and a mushroom log. Overstory: Avocado, Orange, Star-Apple, Hawaiian Cotton, Papaya, Brazilian Cherry, Breadfruit, Kōpiko and ‘ōhi’a Lehua. Young Trees: Acerola, Finger Lime, Allspice, Vi, Ice Cream Bean, Gliricidia, Mangosteen and Banana.

Behind Nursery Table: Edible Hibiscus, Cranberry Hibiscus, Chaya, Gourd, Pigeon Pea, Sour Bush, Sweet Potato, Voluntary Artocarpus, and Desmodium, behind these are a row of Bananas, Lemongrass and a Gliricidia.

Happy Gardening!

Chayote (Sechium edule)

December 21, 2016April 15, 2019 / tropicalselfsufficiency / 3 Comments

Description

Chayote, Sechium edule, also called Pipinola and Choko is an outstanding perennial vegetable and squash relative. Chayote bears pear shaped fruits that are eaten raw or cooked. But the tuber, seeds, and young stem and leaves are all edible too! Chayote grows as a vigorous vine, needs plenty of space and can become really expansive.

Propagation

Chayote may be grown from whole fruits planted horizontal with a third of the fruit exposed at the top. Or grown from older stem cuttings at least 8 inches long.

Stick fruit on ground

Place 1/3 of fruit above soil line

Mulch well

Care

Chayote loves full sun and grows so fast that weeds cannot even compete! Mulch heavily where you plant your fruit and make sure there is plenty of compost or other foods for the vine as it is a heavy feeder. Now just enjoy watching the speed of its growth! I grow mine on trellis to maintain its growth so it doesn’t go wild around the yard.

Eating

Fruits are eaten like zucchini or potatoes, harvest fruits when they are immature at 4-6 inches long to avoid woodiness in the skin, or harvest when mature and use like a potato. The seed is edible and delicious and the skin may be eaten on younger fruits and removed for older fruits.

Young tender leaves and shoots are eaten up to 10 inches long and are cooked; however, remove tendrils, as they are fibrous.

The tuber of the plant is used exactly like a potato.

Where to obtain planting materials

You could ask someone you know who is growing it for a fruit or cutting. You could buy one from the farmers market and plant that. Or you could find a wild vine and pick off a sprouted fruit.

This fruit sprouted on the vine!

My Garden

I’ve had Chayote growing in my garden for over half a year and it escaped into some undeveloped part of the yard and climbed up a tree and was going everywhere. I decided to cut it back and tame it so I haven’t gotten any fruit yet, although it has flowered, I just cut it back before I could harvest anything. But where it is planted, I now know its not enough space and could potentially get out of hand again, so I decided to make a new area where I could let it have a large space to climb.

Not enough room to grow

So I made this new trellis, went out to this massive vine in my neighborhood grabbed a sprouting fruit, took it home and planted it, within two weeks it had grown over 4 feet! Around my new trellis I’m going to have sweet potato ground cover, and on the other edge is a row of privacy palms, ti, some lemongrass, bamboo, a native palm, pigeon pea, roselle, and cassava.

Happy Gardening!

Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)

October 24, 2016 / tropicalselfsufficiency / Leave a comment

Description

Winged bean, Psophocarpus tetragonolobus, also known as goa bean or four-angled bean is another delicious perennial vegetable to grow! Being in the Fabaceae family, winged beans fix nitrogen extremely well, but they are also an excellent food source in the pod, also the bean, young leaves, shoots, flowers, flower buds and tuberous roots are all edible! Winged beans grow as small vine (up to 12 feet), easily trellis-able or grown on a tree. If you do not live in the tropics there is a day-length neutral variety suited for annual growing in many parts of the world.

Propagation

Winged beans are grown from seed, but scarification and soaking overnight are recommended to speed up the process of germination. Transplant plants into a full sun location.

Care

When the plant is young, make sure to weed it and help support it on a trellis as they are initially slow growing. Next sit back and enjoy the relentless harvest! If you are growing the plant for tubers, do not trellis, and remove flowers by hand once they develop.

Eating

Harvest bean pods when they are 5-8 inches long. If you wait longer you can harvest the beans and use them like lima or soy beans, meaning you could make bean milk, tofu and tempeh, or roast the beans like peanuts. Dried seeds may also be used for flour or as a coffee substitute

The young leaves and flowers are cooked as greens, or may be eaten raw in small portions. And the tuberous roots can be eaten fresh or cooked like potatoes and contain 20-25% protein.

Where to obtain planting materials

You could ask a friend growing winged beans for some seeds. Or order them online, as the beans at the market are too immature to produce viable seeds.

My Garden

Winged beans are one of my favorite vegetables, they are so versatile, can be eaten raw or lightly sautéed and grow so well here. So I was extremely excited once I got some seeds and made a little bed to plant them. In this bed I created three tipi trellis one for winged beans, one for Malabar spinach and one for air potato, the latter two are slightly/highly invasive so I wanted to keep them somewhere away from the forest where they could potentially run wild forever. And below these trellis I planted New Zealand spinach, sisso spinach, cranberry hibiscus and dahlia. I do have a guava tree that is slowly falling over near this bed so it had shaded out my beans pretty hard until I cut it back, so that’s why the bean vine is not filled with leaves as it should be. Even though it was shaded out it still produces tons of pods for harvest. Mmmm I love winged beans.

Happy Gardening!

Moringa (Moringa oleifera)

October 3, 2016 / tropicalselfsufficiency / 3 Comments

Description

Moringa, Moringa oleifera, also commonly called drumstick tree, horseradish tree or malunggay, is the most nutritious plant on the planet! The leaves are the most nutritious part, containing high levels of protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, B and C (there is more but I will let you discover that)! How lucky are we living in the tropics being able to grow this plant? Well, tropical environments are not the only way it thrives; it is also highly drought tolerant and can be grown in very dry regions where not many other vegetables grow. The tree is fast growing up to 35 feet, but usually maintained as a hedge for easy harvests. The leaves, roots, flowers, pods, bark and seeds are all edible, making only the wood itself not edible. The seeds are used to make cooking oil and also used as a water purifier!! The plant is extremely medicinal due to its nutritional properties. How incredible!

Propagation

Moringa is commonly grown from seed or large woody stem cuttings.

To grow from seed, remove hard seed coat and plant the smaller white seed. Direct sowing is recommended, but I almost always plant into trays. They propagate quickly and grow fast, I like to transplant them in the ground when they are a few inches tall (4-6 inches), because they have a taproot and I do not want to harm that.

To grow from cuttings, select hardwood 18-36 inches long and 2-5 inches thick, leave in a dry shaded place to cure for a few days and plant 1/3 of the cutting into the ground. Make sure the soil is well drained.

Remove harder outer shell by hand and plant white seed

Care

Weeding is necessary when the plants are young, so they don’t get choked out. Once the plant is taller, you may start trimming the top, to make harvest easier, and produce new leaves for harvest, or let it turn into a full tree.

Eating

Leaves and tender stems are used like spinach, raw or cooked, or thrown in soups and stews. The leaves also change their nutrition content when they are dried, and become more potent in some areas.

The immature seedpod can be eaten raw or cooked like green beans.

Seeds can be roasted, sautéed, or eaten raw. Mature seeds are usually fried.

To make cooking oil from seeds, dry, then roast, mash then boil. Then strain out the solids and let the liquid sit over night, in the morning, the oil will have floated to the surface and can be skimmed off. This oil is called Ben Oil.

Seeds as water treatment: peel and crush/mash seeds to coagulate suspended particles in water, helping to remove disease organisms present. Leave mashed seeds in water for 1 hour. 1.5 grams of Moringa mash filters 32 ounces of water.

Roots may be eaten only after the bark has been removed. Once removed, grate it, add vinegar, and you have a horseradish substitute.

Where to obtain planting materials

If you know someone growing the plant you could ask them for a stem cutting, or for seeds. Typically seedpods at the farmers market will not be mature enough to grow seed. So your other option is to buy seeds from a dealer. They are pretty inexpensive, I believe I got 100+ for around $5, and they have a high germination rate, maybe buy them with a friend to split the cost and the seeds?

My Garden

Moringa was one of the first plants I planted at this property. I was really excited to grow it once I learned about its incredible properties. I eat it in almost every meal I cook. My first planting I got at a plant sale and I currently top it so it doesn’t grow any taller, and next to it I planted some plants I grew from seed, hoping to have a hedge of Moringa one day. It seems the plants like to take their time establishing their roots and are a little weak on their trunks for a while, so I tie them up to some bamboo or stick to keep them straight. But at some point they will focus on above ground growth and take off, filling in the hedge space.

Next to the moringa hedge I have: kale, hot peppers, pineapples, choko, morning glory, lilly, comfrey, random clovers and my tree nursery and above that is wild forest/non-cultivated areas.

Happy Gardening!

Papaya (Carica papaya)

September 18, 2016March 12, 2019 / tropicalselfsufficiency / Leave a comment

Description

Papaya, Carica papaya, is another staple plant you should grow in your tropical home garden. Although the ripe fruit is very popular, especially here in Hawaii, papayas are mostly grown around the world for their immature fruits, that once cooked are used as a vegetable. Papayas are incredibly productive and fast to mature; they start producing after 6-12 months! And may live up to 15 years, but more often around 5 years, but production does taper off after 3-4 years creating less food. Papayas are large herbs, gaining heights from 5-30 feet and a six-foot spread, and resembles a small tree. They have a small canopy and can be planted close together or intercropped with many plants, how perfect for a home garden! The fruits are eaten, as well as the flowers, leaves and stems of the leaves. There are many different varieties of papaya, so try different ones to determine your favorite. Dried leaves may be used at tobacco substitute, and can also be beaten in water to form a soap substitute. The leaves are also used as a meat tenderizer when wrapped around meat over night. There are also many uses for medicine, but I will not go into detail for that.

Propagation

Propagation may be done vegetatively from cuttings, but more commonly from seed. Propagation from seed is very easy; once you eat a delicious variety, simply stick some of those seeds into the ground where you want the plant to grow, or into potting trays. I have tried planting cleaned seeds and seeds directly from the fruit and both germinate quite easily, so I see no need to clean and dry the seed.

I do have a problem with direct sowing seeds (planting seed directly where I want plants to grow), so I plant my seeds into small trays first, then transplant out when they are a few inches tall. Papayas have a sensitive rooting system and a deep tap root, so make sure you transplant while the plants are young and haven’t developed their tap root yet.

Plant seeds in trays or directly into the ground

Transplant when small to reduce harming the taproot

Care

Weed around your young plants until they are tall enough to fend for themselves. Or better yet, grow a ground cover around them so you minimize weeding efforts. Papayas fruit year round, so adding compost, or nitrogen fixing plants periodically is recommended.

Eating

Eat ripe fruits raw when they are a yellow/orange color and slightly soft. The ripe fruit can be processed and used in numerous desserts or recipes; just do some research to find out how you want to use it! The fruits are high in pectin making for a perfect jam.

When eating unripe papaya, remove skin and seeds first, and then cook similar to a summer squash, like zucchini. They may also be boiled, sautéed, baked, or pickled. The papaya will soak up the flavors that it is cooked with. For papaya salad, you must remove skin and seeds, boil until tender, then chill, and add lime and chili. The seeds may also be eaten like black pepper if desired.

The leaves must always be cooked. Young leaves are cooked and eaten like spinach, while older leaves must be boiled with two changes of water. The flowers are also cooked and eaten, generally with the leaves. The soft part of a young stem may be eaten raw, while the rest of the stem must be cooked. After cooking, the older stems are typically used peeled and grated, the bitter juice squeezed out, and the mash mixed with sugar and salt.

Where to obtain planting materials

There are quite a few inexpensive or free ways to obtain seeds. You may find a delicious variety off the street, from a friend or somewhere else. You could buy a delicious variety from the farmers market or somewhere else. You could also buy seeds from a store, but why do that if you could sample the fruit before you plant it.

I prefer non-gmo varieties as they have better taste and since I am not planting a huge monocrop, I have no fear of disease. Make sure you plant a variety you enjoy eating, as the fruit from your planting will be the same as the one you ate, it would be terrible to grow a variety you don’t even want to eat!

My Garden

The very first plant I planted when I moved into this house was papaya. It was still a keiki when I moved and I was worried about waiting too long and harming the taproot. So I just planted it randomly in an area hoping that it was a good spot. Now it’s a main point of my garden, it marks the beginning of the down sloping path toward the eventual food forest. It’s nestled in next to an ice cream bean tree and Brazilian cherry tree, with comfrey, sweet potato, taro, poha berry, tobacco, ferns and hibiscus all around. The papaya is about a year old now and starting to be covered with fruit, I haven’t been able to harvest one yet, but it should be pretty soon.

Once I started sampling different varieties I finally decided to start planting more seeds. I found a couple of varieties I really enjoy and only want to eat those now. The varieties are Sunset and Waimanalo. I have started a new area where I planted pineapples and in-between those are papaya and want to get some ground cover of perennial peanut established. Once the papayas get bigger I will plant something else in the mix.

The other place I planted papaya is in a mixed planting area where I am waiting for trees to establish themselves. The trees are: rainbow eucalyptus, soursop, milo, kou, mango, hala, Brazilian cherry, tree tomato, hapu’u, hibiscus, dracaena, strawberry guava, and rollinia. The other plants are: lemongrass, ti, heliconia, Chinese ground orchid, bamboo orchid, gotu kola and long beans. I created mini mounds where I planted beans and squash, the beans did well, but the squash did not, so I ended up planting papaya in the mounds as well. I’m thinking that the other fruit trees will take a few years to start producing, so while I’m waiting I will have papaya harvests for a few years, and cut them down as the other trees need the space. In this area I’m battling weeds, because it’s so open and I am trying to establish some plants as a ground cover, but nothing has been too successful yet. I may just throw in some sweet potato since it grows so well, but who knows. I’ll figure out the right plant some day.

Happy Gardening!

Banana (Musa Spp.)

September 5, 2016 / tropicalselfsufficiency / 1 Comment

Description

Banana, Musa spp., plantain, mai’a, and known by other names, is another extraordinary tropical or subtropical plant. There are two main ‘types’ of bananas; there are the cooking bananas and the dessert bananas. Bananas come in many shapes, sizes and varieties, being over 300 known domesticated varieties! They are large herbaceous plants from 6-35 feet tall. The life cycle from small plant to mature fruit takes from 9-18 months depending on variety. Bananas grow in clumps producing new herbaceous stocks from common underground corm and roots. Once a stock has flowered it will cease to put out new leaves and use up the last bits of its energy producing the fruits. Once the plant fruits, and is ready for harvest, you cut down the entire stock and the next generation from that corm will have already sprouted, continuing the life of the plant. Not only are the fruits edible but also the flower bud and the center of the stem is too. The leaves are used in various cooking methods as wrappers for steaming or baking other dishes, and the leaves are also used as biodegradable plates. The plants can also be used for mulch, thatching, livestock feed, clothing, containers, twine, medicine, dye, turned into alcohol, vinegar and wine. Wow! What a plant.

Propagation

Domesticated bananas do not produce seeds, so the only way of propagation is from suckers, also called pups. To propagate you take a sharp shovel or machete and cut or separate between ‘mother’ stock and smaller plants. Once removed you could let it dry for a few days, to reduce rot, or plant it right away. If transplanting, remove the leaves so the plant can focus on rooting. If you do not plan on planting bananas in another location, you could let the bananas do all the work and reproduce in one continuous place for years, thinning out, as you feel necessary.

Find pup to transplant

Use sharp shovel to remove pup from mother corm

Removed pups

Another example

Find pup to transplant

Use sharp shovel to remove pup from mother corm

Pull out once removed

Removed Pup

Root ball ready for transplanting

Find place to transplant. Dig hole.

Place plant in nutritious soil. Mulch

Care

Plants can fruit all year long, so with careful planning you could have harvestable bananas throughout the year. With proper maintenance an original bunch of a single banana plant could last up to 50 years! Bananas are heavy feeders, meaning they take up lots of nutrients. Before planting adding rotted manure or compost to planting area is necessary. I like to grow clovers (perennial peanut would be better) around them so they also have a continuous source of nitrogen for their life. Adding mulch and nutrients as you can. Removing dead leaves helps prevent disease, and the leaves are a great source of mulch, or ‘carbon’ in your composting system.

Bananas thrive in full sun, but will grow in partial shade, and prefer some wind protection, as high winds tend to shred the leaves, making photosynthesis more difficult. Bananas need a ton of water!

Harvest your banana rack when the lines of the fruit have gone from rigid lines to smoothed roundness. Another key to look for when to harvest, is when a single fruit has started to yellow, or turn the color of ripe fruits per variety, as the rest of the rack will follow quickly. Look at the highest fruits as they mature first. Banana sap will dye and create unremovable stains on clothing, so when cutting down a rack and stock be sure to wear appropriate clothing. When I harvest a rack I cut the stem of the rack a foot above the tops of the fruit so there is somewhere to tie a rope to while the rest of the fruits mature. Rumor has it, that if you hang your rack upside down, the mature fruit from the top of the rack will fall first and will not harm the other maturing fruits. From flower production to harvest-able fruit is about 3 months, unless it is during the dry season, then it will take longer.

Harvest is simple. However, you may need multiple people if it is a tall plant. Cut the stock of the fruiting plant a few feet from the ground. Cut slowly so you can watch the stock bend with the weight of the rack, yes they are heavy! Once the rack has lowered enough gently, they are fragile, hold the rack while someone else cuts the stock of the rack away from the rest of the plant. Freeing the rack you may hang it up immediately or cut the rest of the plant down. Once you cut the rest of the plant down, you may chop it up for faster decomposition, or simply place it somewhere you want to let it decompose. Its full of great nutrients, add it to a bed, under the soil, in a compost pile, or anywhere else.

I like to hang my racks from the house in the shade to drip onto the ground for a few days. Once the dripping has stopped, I move the rack into a screened area, or put some kind of netting over it, so fruit flies and birds don’t get the harvest.

Make sure your rack is ripe

Cut the stock of the fruiting plant a few feet from the ground slowly so it bends with the weight of the rack

Once the stock has bent far enough. You cut the stock of the rack a foot from the top of the fruit

Hang somewhere safe

Cut down plant

Tip: You could literally google about bananas forever. They are used in numerous ways in permaculture design too, due to their necessity for nutrients, use in banana circles, composting pits, polyculture designs and guilds. A perfect permaculture plant. The information is endless, follow whatever methods you desire, as there are many ways to grow and harvest bananas. Just grow them! You only have one day of work for the entire plants life-cycle and that’s during the harvest!

Eating

This is where things get interesting. Did you know that bananas are grown around the world mostly for its cooked starchy fruits and not for raw dessert varieties? Fruits are very versatile; you can cook them like potatoes in many ways, in soups, curries, mashed, fried, used raw in milkshakes, smoothies, breads or cakes. You may cook them when green, yellow, or brown depending on the texture you’re looking for and the recipe followed. Dessert varieties may also be cooked but tend to lose their texture with cooking, making them mushy. And cooking bananas may be eaten raw, but having a high starch content making them less desirable. Unripe fruit may be dried and ground into meal and used for a beverage like coffee.

Flowers for eating are cut as soon as the final bud has opened creating the final hand of the rack. Then the outer leaf sheathes of the bud should be pulled off with the blossoms until the pinkish white heart is revealed. Then cut the bud lengthwise into four and prepare for specific dish. Apparently the heart is reminiscent of artichokes. I have no experience with cooking the flower buds yet, but next flower that grows I will try it out. So research some recipes and try it out for yourself, apparently different varieties flowers taste different, some tasting better than others and particularly cooking bananas flowers are better textured and flavored.

Where to obtain planting materials

Obtaining banana plants can be costly. Here in Hawaii the prices seem to range from $5 to $90+ depending on rarity. What a range! Good varieties to start off growing that grow hardy and quickly are the common apple and dwarf Brazilian varieties. Some varieties produce more keikis or suckers than others, so growing these varieties could get you established with a crop while your other varieties are establishing themselves. Your plants will grow for many years, so obtaining the initial plants is the only cost investment. If you can find a friend or abandoned banana plants you can propagate for free.

My Garden

When I moved into this property there were two clumps of bananas already growing and I planted more varieties and I am waiting for them to fully establish themselves. So for this section I will focus on my friends garden, which has much more established banana plants. He allowed me to help him out with harvesting and propagation and using his garden for a blog entry. His bananas are going off right now, tons of fruits growing, flowers opening, harvestable racks, and natural regeneration or propagation.

He has planted numerous banana varieties around his garden plot as the border, mixing: taro, sweet potato, sugar cane, bitter melon, liliko’i (passion fruit), cassava, mulberry, pigeon pea, patchouli, comfrey, turmeric, tomato, avocado, papaya, sunflower, ginger, coleus, squash, ti and burdock (yes that’s just his border around his garden!!!). There is a small fence around this border to prevent animals from entering, and uses vetiver, Chrysopogon zizanioides, around the fence to prevent grasses from entering the garden. Then within this border of plants he has his normal crops growing in their beds, peppers, tomatoes, fennel, strawberries, carrots, lettuce, kale, roselle, and rosemary. Allowing a large production of foods from a small space. Outside of this section he has an established orchard giving him tons of fruits throughout the year, and also a shade house for seedlings and tender sun-sensitive plants. His garden is less than a year and a half old and you can see its lushness and abundance. He started small, in a maintainable space, learning tropical gardening and seeing what works at his location and has been quite successful! His garden is the perfect example of what every home gardener should have, an amazing abundance of fruits and vegetables of starches and nutrient rich plants stacked in a small space.

Since he has different crops growing from me and at different stages of growth, we are able to share our abundance and reduce wastes. Making connections and bartering is necessary in a self-sufficient lifestyle.

Happy gardening!

Taro (Colocasia esculenta)

August 28, 2016 / tropicalselfsufficiency / 1 Comment

Description

Taro, Colocasia esculenta, kalo, dasheen or known by many other names, is another perfect staple perennial plant. If you live in Hawaii you know this plant. It’s growing, there are stickers and t-shirts and tattoos with taro everywhere! This is the staple crop which poi is made from, even if you do not enjoy poi, you can enjoy the starchy corm of the taro plant. You may cook the corm just like potatoes in many different ways. Not only are the corms edible but the leaves and leafstalks are too! This is a wonderful vegetable, and to me it is the essential tropical looking plant. Those big wonderful heart-shaped leaves just scream tropical. There are non-edible varieties, hundreds of edible varieties, varieties that grow in water, varieties that grow in soil, shade loving varieties, and sun loving varieties. Grow different varieties to find your favorite or to fit your needs!

Propagation

Taro may be grown from seed, seeds being hard to find, but is mostly grown from setts or cormels. You may also propagate from corms, but why do that if you can just eat them!

Setts, being the most typical propagation method, are the top of the corm, or root, and a section of the stem. You leave a small section of the top of the corm, less than ½ inch (1 cm), and take the leaves off the stem. You simply let it heal, for a day or two, and then plant right into the ground where you want it to grow. For best results plant your sett within a week. It is literally that simple, the larger sett you plant the larger your harvestable corm will be.

A cormel is a small immature corm attached to the mother plant, you could call this a sucker too. To propagate, you take this cormel and follow the same instructions for setts. If the corm is small enough you can plant that directly in a new spot to watch it grow into a fully mature plant. To remove cormels from the mother plant just pull the corms apart.

Pull from the ground (then rinse in bucket of water)

Grab cormel and pull from main corm

Removed cormel

Separate Sett and corm

Cormels and Sett ready for planting

Stick cormels into ground

Stick sett into ground

Care

If growing in soil, weeding is necessary at all stages of plant growth. If grown in water, less weeding is necessary due regulated water movement. A way to reduce weeding is to grow ground cover around your taro, I like to use sweet potato because of its vigorous and edible natures. However, a clover or perennial peanut would be suitable because of taros high demand for nutrients. Make sure wherever you plant your taro; there are high levels of nutrients in the soil. Sheet composting, rotted manure, layers of leaves, or compost should be added before planting. Plants mature in 6-15 months depending on variety.

Eating

Always cook all parts of this plant before eating as they contain toxic calcium oxalate, cook at least 20 minutes. You may cook the corms or cormels like potatoes, the leaves are used for wrapping or stuffing, and the leafstalks are used like celery, when cooked.

Where to obtain planting materials

Unless you know someone growing taro, obtaining planting materials can be slightly costly. If you know someone growing taro, just ask them for some cormels, as I’m sure they are more likely to give up them up over their own setts. Some varieties produce tons of cormels, so growing those varieties first could get you started on a patch quite quickly. I’ve noticed here on the big island that small individual plants sell for about $5 per plant, but are easy to find. If you have trouble finding someone willing to give you some cormels you could buy a few plants and wait for them to mature/reproduce and you could have a nice patch of taro growing in a few seasons. Once you have the plants they can be propagated indefinitely!

My Garden

At first, I started growing taro for its simple beauty, as I was not sure if I enjoyed the flavor of the corms. But as I ate some corms I realized I should grow much more taro and begin to experiment with its versatility. Luckily for me I was taking a class and our instructor was clearing out their taro plots to plant some other stuff, so I was able to obtain a large bag full of propagation materials. I planted every single plant and now I have lots taro growing!

My first plot is growing quite successfully even though I was preoccupied with other things and let the weeds take over its bed. I planted a lot of clover in the bed and over time the grasses and other plants crept in and killed out the clover, lesson learned, have borders around beds so the grass can’t creep in as easily! Now I’m able to harvest from those plants and just in time to write a blog entry about it!

My other plot is still growing and I am stunned at its permaculture beauty. I randomly planted all my obtained taro under some fruit (papaya, blood orange, star apple, Brazilian cherry, ice cream bean) and flower (hibiscus) trees because I know taro likes shade and I wasn’t sure how else to occupy the space so the weeds didn’t just take over again. I then threw sweet potato cuttings all around the taro and sprinkled clover and bean seeds around for some nitrogen fixation. I also planted some sissoo spinach, alternanthera sissoo, but that hasn’t taken off yet so I won’t talk about that. Now some native ferns have popped up, I’ve harvested tons of beans, left many so it will reseed itself, and the sweet potatoes have taken over. Now I weed that plot about once a month and let it do its thing. Since that plot is on the edge of the unmanaged wilderness I just cut back the plants to maintain my path with some quick chop and drop and all is well.

The new bed I just planted the taro in, accidently happened while I was weeding out an area from the not so shy, shy grass, Mimosa pudica. I was clearing out the shy grass because of its thorns and my desire to remove all of it from the property, and I discovered some beautiful dark earthworm filled soil. Since this area is outside of our lanai I’ve wanted to add some extra beauty to the area. As I discovered this beautiful soil I thought to myself, what plants would thrive in this soil and are ultra tropical looking, I’m determined to make outside the lanai ultra tropical ha-ha, and taro came to mind right away. Since this area will be shaded out one day by the fruit trees (cacao, snake fruit and lemon) and some nitrogen fixing trees for chop and drop and shade. And I’m writing this blog so taro was the next logical plant to write about. This is another experiment using only materials from the property + cardboard for creating beds. I’m trying to eliminate products brought in, especially the free mulch from the transfer center, even though it is a great resource, but I just do not know what could be in there; pesticides, insecticides, invasive seeds, seeds from unwanted plants, fire ants, who knows! We will see how it goes.

Happy gardening!

Cassava (Manihot esculenta)

August 17, 2016 / tropicalselfsufficiency / 3 Comments

Description

Cassava, Manihot esculenta, manioc, yuca, or tapioca, is another wonderful perennial plant. It is grown for starchy roots and its edible, high in protein, leaves. It as a big woody shrub gaining heights of 15 feet, if you let it! Cassava can be used as an edible hedge or grown in developing food forests, or simply anywhere in the garden. Cassava thrives in any tropical environment, does well in very poor soils, very dry conditions, making it an ideal must grow staple plant. Cassava grows best in full sun, or partial shade.

Propagation

Cassava is propagated by woody cuttings. You simply go out to another plant and cut off a branch that looks woody! Take off all the leaves from that cutting, they will die anyway, so you may as well harvest them for dinner. You do not want to eat the stems so cut them off too. Now proceed to make as many cuttings from the single branch as possible, the cuttings should be at least 1 foot in length, 30 centimeters. Be careful to cut the branches at an angle so water is not able to gather and rot out the cutting (see photos). Make sure you know which side is up and which side is down during this process. Next just take your cutting and stick them downside right in the ground! If your cuttings are larger stick them in at a slight slant.

Now wait! Within two months you should have a healthy plant. You may begin harvesting leaves when the plant looks healthy enough to, about 50-70 days. And roots 9-12 months after planting, younger roots could be eaten earlier and older woody ones, for starch extraction, later. If you’re careful you may harvest roots without harming the plant and allowing it to continue to produce for years.

Woody

Non-Woody

cut from plant

cut off leaves

cut off leaf stems

cut to planting length (1 foot)

cut tops at an angle to reduce rot

stick into ground

Care

Simple weeding when necessary. This plant is very pest resistant. Watch it grow!

Eating

Always cook roots and leaves, as they are poisonous, but fear not cooking disables the poison! Use roots like potatoes and use the leaves like spinach, cook at least 15 minutes.

Where to obtain planting materials

Ask anyone growing cassava for cuttings, I’m sure they could spare a few branches. You could look on Craigslist. I think I bought three midsize branches for less than $3 off Craigslist and planted 3 plants, if I were smarter I would have used smaller cuttings and had more plants! Continue making cuttings from your plants for never ending propagation materials. A one time investment creates a lifetime of starchy roots and leaves! Amazing!

My Garden

I don’t have very much experience with cassava yet; I’ve only been growing it for a few months and haven’t had my first root harvest yet. However, I have harvested leaves and they are beautiful plants that are fun to watch grow.

I made a new bed a few months ago to grow different root vegetables, temporarily, while my bamboo matures. I’m growing sweet potato from cuttings and from farmers market tubers, ginger from farmers market and cassava cuttings from Craigslist, in-between an ornamental bamboo, Bambusa ventricosa, and an edible bamboo, Nastus elatus. This bed has been very successful and took off with minimal efforts. I rarely weed this bed, and just observe its growth. The only thing I sometimes have to pull out is honohono grass, and push the sweet potato creepy stems into the bed. This polyculture is perfect! All the plants work in harmony to shade out the weeds, each grow in different ways, and do not bother each other. The cassava grows up as a shrub, the ginger grows straight up in a single stock and the sweet potatoes sprawl over the ground. If I didn’t already plant my turmeric all over the rest of the yard I would have stuck them in there too!

Watching the cassava grow inspired me to use the plants as a hedge! I’ve got some areas I want to make barriers from the street. So while I’m waiting for my longer-term palms to mature, I’m growing faster growing plants that can be a hedge. I planted the cassava in a row, and I’m growing roselle, Hibiscus sabdariffa, in another row. The roselle hasn’t taken off yet, but will hopefully soon, and I know cassava is a fast grower.

Happy gardening!

Sweet Potatoes (Ipomoea batatas)

August 14, 2016 / tropicalselfsufficiency / 1 Comment

Description

Sweet Potato, ipomoea batatas, or ‘uala in Hawaiian. Call it what you desire, is an incredible vegetable. The tubers are delicious and nutritious, but also the leaves are high in protein and the top 3-4 inches of the shoot tips and leaves are edible too! Not only are most parts of this plant edible but its an excellent sprawling ground cover, and thrives in our climate. Wow, what a plant! And there are tons of varieties!

Propagation

You can plant sweet potatoes from the tubers themselves, or for much quicker production plant cuttings. From cuttings you can have potatoes in 4 months. If you can grow all your own potatoes then you are well on your way for a year worth of starches, the bulk of our diets! Sweet potatoes thrive in full sun or full shade. They seem to take off quicker in the shade, where there is also less weed competition, but grow well either way.

Planting tubers; wait for them to sprout in your kitchen or somewhere else free of pests. Then go stick them in the ground and wait. The tubers are most likely to sprout in spring and summer, but may anytime. Plant with the sprouts skyward, and bury just below the surface. You may plant in soil or mulch.

Planting cuttings is equally as easy. Go grab some leaves and follow the stem and pull it out of the ground, be careful not to remove stems with large roots as those likely have potatoes attached. If possible get cuttings with smaller roots, as they will root much quicker, but stems without roots will also thrive. Now that you have your cutting place them around where you want sweet potatoes to grow. Cover lightly with mulch or soil and wait.

Find stems with roots

Cut from plant

Cuttings

Place on ground

Cover roots with mulch

Tip: Planting in the evening before the rains start will shock the plants the least. However, the plants are extremely hardy, I’ve left them out in the sun all day and planted them and they still grew. But they do need water, and as much as possible! If you do not get rains almost every night like I do, water them in well once you plant them.

Care

Make sure you stay on top of weeding during the first few weeks after transplanting. They will grow and cover all the space they can. However, if they do not get a good head start they may be covered up by another plant and may be choked out. After they are established a light weeding every once in a while may be necessary, especially if honohono grass creeps in!

When the plant gets out of control, and it will, hill it like normal potatoes. That is, push the plant back on top of itself; this will start the plant to put its effort into growing tubers rather than just sprawling everywhere. A good time to do this is once it has covered the area you want it to grow in, maybe it outgrew its bed and is pushing into the path, what a great time to hill it. Just simply take all the stems and flip it from the path back into the bed. I’ve heard mixed reviews of putting more mulch or soil on top of the plants once you’ve hilled them, so why not try multiple methods and see what works best for yourself. If you are going to cover with mulch or soil, they say to cover all but a few inches of the tops of the stems and leaves. Try for yourself and let me know what works best!

I do not always try to grow sweet potatoes for tubers, but for the simple fact that they grow super fast, cover the ground, suppress weeds and are a quick edible leafy green. I have heard that too much nitrogen makes the plant focus on leafy growth and sprawling. Perfect for a ground cover! I have planted some sweet potatoes under an ice cream bean tree, inga edulis, a nitrogen fixing fruit tree, and it has produced an impenetrable ground cover where only native ferns and planted taro has sprouted under, perfect!

Eating

Cook tubers just like any other potato; boiled, mashed, baked, hash browns, roasted, fried or get creative! You may use the leaves raw or cooked, I like them in sandwiches or tacos, or cooked like spinach. If you’re going to use the shoot tips you must cook them for at least 20-30 minutes and must not be eaten raw.

It is very hard to store tubers in our humid climate. The solution: harvest potatoes as needed! If you leave them in the ground they will not rot away and you don’t have to worry about storage. And if you forget about them, they just continue to grow. So just harvest a few when you want to eat them.

Where to obtain planting materials

Ask anyone you know growing sweet potatoes, I’m sure they will give you as many cuttings as you need. Or buy tubers from the farmers market, try to buy from a vendor that actually grows the potatoes themselves as they will be suited to your environment and hopefully grown without pesticides.

I have sweet potatoes growing in many different parts of the yard, but I have never bought starts, and only planted tubers I couldn’t eat quickly enough and they sprouted. So you can find them free easily. Maybe they are already growing in your yard and you don’t even know it! That happened to me when I moved in.

My Garden

I am growing at least four kinds and I only know what two of them look like, one is Okinawan, white/cream outside and purple on the inside, and the other is fully purple. The other two I only know from the leaves.

Before and after photos of my planting today. Pushing back the weeds to clear out space for ground cover. If you don’t stay on top of your weeds they will take over like happened here. I rediscovered some sweet potato, coconut, native hibiscus and ti that I planted months ago and neglected.

I always let the ferns and other native plants grow when I’m clearing areas. I may prune or cut back some ferns, especially uluhe, Dicranopteris linearis, when they are too big and intrusive. But the natives are beautiful and have their place in the garden, hey, they were there before I was anyway!