Isabela at Last

6/8 Field Trip to Isabela!

TARS has a site in Isabela, in the northwest part of the island. It’s about 45 minutes from Mayaguez. On the way there, we passed several malls, a town center, plenty of Walgreens and fast food joints, an air force base, and a water park. It rained lightly all morning. Thank goodness for hats and rubber boots.

At Isabela, there are papayas, bananas, lychees, rambutan, dragonfruit, mama zapote, nisporo, starfruit, longan, and attamoya.

The papayas have all been harvested. They were part of an experiment involving papaya ringspot virus.

There is a live germplasm collection of banana. Today, we collected data for an experiment with sigatoka, a fungal disease. Fungicides are quite expensive and need to be applied regularly. As such, they represent a significant cost to growers. Finding a resistance, or even tolerant, variety could save growers money and also reduce the environmental impact of banana production. There are two types of sigatoka, yellow and black; the latter causes significant damage rather rapidly. To support a growing bunch of bananas, a plant needs at least 8 healthy leaves. Involved in the trial are two banana varieties, a commercial variety and a tolerant variety. We collected the data and then did some general maintenance. Stacy used a machete! We cut the rachis just above the “false hand,” the hand farthest from the end with a small banana. Note to self: banana sap stains.

Some more information on bananas and sigatoka: http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/2005/3-23-2005/banana.html

Lychees we know. I have a love-hate relationship with lychees now. So sweet and delicious. But a pain to weigh and sort and count.  At Isabela we had to cut the air layers (acodo) that were started in February.

Rambutan produces spiny red fruits that remind me of little pompoms. Not my favorite tropical fruit.

Dragonfruit (pithaya) is a member of the cactus family. The plant is trained on a trellising system. The large white flowers open in the evening – bat pollinated? The fruits are red when ripe. The flesh is magenta with black seeds. It tastes like a kiwi without the sourness. Very refreshing. Winning fruit for the day.

We had to harvest 80 lbs of mama zapote. These are large brown fruits with a red-orange flesh (when ripe). We also harvested 50 lbs of nisporo. These are an absolute pain to harvest. It’s difficult to tell when they are ripe so you have to use your fingernail to make a little nick in the skin. It should be yellow inside. The taste is somewhat reminiscent of brown sugar. I am not personally a fan, but, then again, I’ve only tried it once.

There is also carambola, or starfruit. We drove through the field picking fruits off trees. Better than any Burger King.