Month: April 2024

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Innovation: The Heart of Sustainability

My dad is always tinkering around the farm making new gadgets or problem solving some issue. That is the farmer in him.

He has been farming since his childhood with his hands always in the dirt so it should be of no surprise that at 82 years young, he is still out there.

Our farm is still producing thousands of pounds of papayas each week thanks to science and innovation. Things are never the same as we farm folks have learned the need to be adaptable.

The same applies to how we grow your food. Thanks to the research at the University of Manoa and Hawaii Agricultural Research Center, we can now grow food with a lesser footprint through new methods including using cuttings.

My dad’s younger brother Larry is the chief of cuttings on the farm.
The source of the cuttings come from mature plants in the field.
The small side shoots are cut from these trees.
The cuttings are all collected and brought to the greenhouse.
The potting mix and pots are all prepared.
Plant prep with the rooting hormone.
Cuttings and prepared.
Cuttings are dipped in rooting hormone.
Next they are planted in the prepared pots.
The cuttings are prepared and set up to root.
Once they are rooted, the bags can be removed.
They are planted in the field.

Within a few months, we get papayas!

Papayas were usually planted by seeds with 3 in a pot to ensure we get the hermaphrodite type but that took a year to get anything. With this new method, we get papayas in half the time!

Photo credit: Larry Kamiya