A plantation owner, consultant and stem seller, Rose says the economics of banana growing compare very favourably with most other land uses.
At 1500 stems a hectare, two bunches of fruit a stem each year, at least 10 hands a bunch and $5 retail a hand in local growers’ markets, the returns are attractive.
When combined with using dairy effluent for watering, their anti-leaching properties for nitrogen and phosphorus and as fall-back supplementary feed for cattle the humble banana goes a long way.
New Zealanders have one of the highest consumption figures for bananas in the world, almost all of them Cavendish varieties imported from mono-cultural regions of Philippines, Ecuador, Mexico and Panama.
Tropical race 4, a strain of Panama disease, is endangering the commercial production of Cavendish everywhere they are grown because of low genetic resistance.
Lady finger and Pacific Island varieties like Misi Luki, Goldfinger and Hua Moa have been present in northern NZ for decades and their fruit are smaller, denser and generally sweeter than imported Cavendish.
They crop all year round and will even withstand a light frost, Rose said.
His own plantation near Whangarei is a mix of volcanic, clay and rocky outcrops divided into rooms by totara trees and favoured with a large natural lake from which Rose and his wife Pauline have reticulated water for irrigation and established ponds.
Her passion is lotus plants and water lilies with an intention to open for garden tours in the future.
When they hear of local bananas New Zealanders of Pacific and Asian origin provide a never-ending stream of inquiries for fruit, flowers, leaves and stems.
Most commercial NZ bananas are sold through local markets and specialty fruit stores and not enough volume is being produced to involve wholesalers and supermarkets.
TFGNZ has 150 members and demand is growing from dairy farmers and smaller orchardists.
The producer organisation also takes in pineapple growers, cherimoyas, sugar cane, coffee beans, mangoes and lucuma, the butterscotch tree.
Banana stems grow and multiply suckers rapidly and it is quite realistic to plan for doubling the area of the plantation every year with self-sourced pups, as well as harvesting bunches of fruit.
They are gross feeders and thrive on handfuls of fertilisers like hydrocomplex, nitrophoska or animal manure.
Nutrient-rich dairy effluent from the second or third ponds is ideal and Rose uses a starter mix of sawdust and whey he gets from Fonterra.
Decomposing vegetation works well and trimmed leaves and stems can be piled up around the plant and left to rot.
Plants produce huge volumes of pseudo stem, all of which is edible for cattle.
Rose recommends 3m by 2m staggered rows with vehicle access every four rows plus trickle or spray irrigation or regular rainfall.
Bananas in NZ have no diseases and Rose jokes the only pests so far have been pukeko, which, for unknown reasons, peck holes in small stems that can lead to plant failure.
Flowers will form 12 to 18 months after planting and take six months to fully size. Bunches are very heavy, perhaps 40-50kg, and must be propped while sizing up.
Bunches are picked green when the first of what may be 100 small bananas shows some yellowing and then left to ripen in an area protected from rats and birds.
After flowering and harvest the central stem must be cut back to encourage its daughters into fruit production.
With some climate warming NZ bananas have the potential in the north to replace a share of the imported fruit.
Rose says consumers are quickly converted to the local supply because of convenience, flavour and texture along with the lack of pesticides and ethylene gassing.
Whangarei dairy farmers Ross and Karen Potter have caught the banana bug and established two plantations in corners of paddocks that wouldn’t grow much pasture.
They have 1500 Misi Luki and Hua Moa in one block and 500 dwarf Cavendish in another.
The target is 3000 to 3500 plants by 2021, expanding by filling in the margins of the existing plantations to produce fruit in winter and sell it locally and in Auckland.
“This is something different and relatively easy to grow,” he said.
The first plantings were in March 2018 and bunches are now forming to be ready this winter.
The Potters are TFGNZ committee members.
