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Mango Season Not Pau

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Community Contributed

By Glenn I. Teves, County Extension Agent, UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources

Mango is called the King of Fruits for good reason. Nothing could be better than an ice cold mango on a hot afternoon. Native to South and Southeast Asia, mango has been cultivated for over 4,000 years, and was introduced into Hawaii in the early 1800s from Mexico. Molokai has an ideal hot, dry growing climate, and the best area is a belt running from Kalamaula to Kamalo. Unfortunately, the further east you go, the windier it gets, and nothing can be more damaging to a potentially great crop of mango than wind blowing off flowers and fruits. On most islands, mango season runs from June to October with the peak in the earlier half of the season, but for Molokai if you look hard enough, you can probably find mango 9 months of the year especially around the Kaunakakai area.

Mango is not without its problems. Of the tens of thousands of flowers it bears, less than a fraction of 1 percent will actually make it to harvest. With the challenges of four to five months of growing from flower to mature fruit, they face serious diseases and other maladies along the way. Powdery mildew, a whitish fungus, favors dry cool weather and can destroy all the flowers. Anthracnose, a blackish fungus that favors wet weather, can destroy both flowers and even mature fruits. The mango weevil will bore into the fruit and seed through the stem or pedicel of the mango, ruining a good mango. Fruit flies, especially the Oriental Fruit Fly, will inject its eggs into a half-ripe or mature fruit and rot it. Another common problem is jelly seed, where the flesh around the seed gets translucent and will ferment, imparting a bad taste to a good mango. After all is said and done, it’s amazing we can still find edible mangoes on our trees.

Mango varieties recommended for Hawaii face rigorous testing at UH Research Stations throughout the state. Unfortunately, we have no research stations on Molokai. Some of the recommended varieties for Hawaii include Fairchild, Gouviea, Harders, Keitt, Manzanillo, Momi K, Pope, Rapoza, and Molokai’s own Ah Ping. These are considered regular bearers, and will bear a good crop each year. Others, such as Haden, have an alternate bearing habit and will bear heavy one year, with a light crop the next. Still, a great Haden is hard to beat. Some varieties, such as Exel, Mapulehu, and Pirie require ideal mango weather only found in Molokai’s mango belt to grow well. In wetter areas, only a few varieties will perform well, including Fairchild and Rapoza since they appear to have some tolerance to anthracnose. New varieties are brought in from Florida and southeast Asia, and some do very well in Hawaii, but until they’re tested over a long period of time, you really cannot determine if they will match up to what we already grow.

There are also many excellent unnamed varieties on Molokai, and part of this is due to the presence of the old Hawaii Sugar Planters Experimental Station at Mapulehu where there are about 40 acres of mango, including many rare Indian varieties, such as Mulgoba, Sandersha, Alphonso, Bombay Green, and others. Many residents have planted seedlings, and now have a new variety. Common mango is still a local favorite because it’s a heavy bearer, will bear off season, can be eaten ripe or picked green and made into pickled mango, a local treat.

A friend, Henry Pali Jr. mentioned to me that he believes mango was the fruit in the Garden of Eden because it made man go. Enjoy it while it lasts, because when there’s no mango, you’ll be craving for just one more.

Organic Program Chopped

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

The state’s only organic-certifying body, the Hawaii Organic Farmers Association (HOFA), will suspend its program this month, forcing organic farmers in Hawaii to look to the mainland for certification.

Rising costs and a limited client pool prompted the Hilo-based group to end certification, which it began in 1993. HOFA certifies a bounty of products – from coffee to herbs to beer.

“Part of the reason HOFA is not surviving is that we didn’t charge enough,” said Sarah Townsend, HOFA’s certification coordinator. “We’re not big enough to sustain ourselves.”

Some organic farmers on Molokai worry certification from the mainland will come at a higher cost.

“It’s hard enough trying to make a living farming and now we have to go to the mainland?” said Rick Tamanaha of Kaleikoa Farms, an organic papaya farm in Ho`olehua.

Tamanaha’s farm was certified organic by HOFA in October 2007, and he has renewed his certification through the organization every year since. The organic label, he said,  allows his farm to compete with non-organic farms that sell at lower costs.  

Townsend said farmers will see a slight increase in the cost of certification. However, HOFA has also struck a deal with North Dakota-based International Certification Services (ICS) to give HOFA certified-producers discounts on application and certification fees.
 
“They seem like they have the closest philosophy to HOFA,” Townsend said. She is now working with ICS as its Hawaii region customer care specialist to help farmers with the transition.

The two Molokai-based organic inspectors have also notified ICS they want to continue inspecting. James Boswell and Faith Tuipulotu were trained by HOFA in 2008 to do certification inspections, saving Molokai farmers the cost of inspectors’ travel expenses when applying for certification.

Boswell, who works at the University of Hawaii Maui College’s Molokai Farm, said he has not heard back from ICS.

HOFA will end its certifications Sept. 30; farms certified by HOFA will be certified until mid-2011. Townsend said HOFA is now focusing on education and farmer advocacy.