Taro & Ti Home

More accurately, it’s fixing us who have failed to care properly for kalo. From the perspective of Hawaiian belief, as the younger brother, we’ve shown very little respect for the elder. In recent decades, disease has become a critical issue, and crops are failing. Poi demand goes up while supply goes down. Water issues only exacerbates this problem. But, the agriculture around commercial kalo isn’t focused on the ancient wisdom of the Hawaiians – kalo is treated like a corn crop. Is it kalo’s fault? We are what’s different in this equation – and that bears some examination from the viewpoint of solution seeking.

http://pono.taroandti.com/2008/10/10/fixing-kalo/

I installed a couple of patches one wet Spring with high hopes that maybe things would be different now. Well, they were for a while. The taro grew great. Then, the rain stopped, as it invariably does. And with the stop in rain came a rise in heat. Even with irrigation, the weeds would suck the soil dry and before long I decided to let the weeds shade the taro just to keep the soil and taro from being cooked right in the soil. Eventually the taro disappeared and that was that for last Summer’s experiment. Here is the tale of a surprising resurrection of these taro after a full year of dormancy in very hot, very dry and in the winter very cold soil.

http://taropatch.taroandti.com/2008/09/21/taro-survivors/

Here is a brief essay on my entry into growing bananas. None have fruited yet – tho many are very close to fruiting currently. These make for a very easy jungle in any garden bed, and tasty bananas in a greenhouse or where their stems are protected from freezing.

http://bananas.taroandti.com/2008/03/03/my-first-bananas/ 

My journey into aquaponics has been a lot of tentative baby steps, and revolves around my taro. It is a necessary step for me to get the full potential I can from some of the taro I grow, as well as enhance the production of the rest. This article describes that tentative beginning – and what the future holds for the path I have undertaken.

http://aquaculture.taroandti.com/2008/03/02/entry-to-aquaculture/