Hawaiian Sugar Canes Old Plantation Days – April 2012

In the past issues I have mentioned briefly how the early Hawaiians had sugarcane that they brought with them in the voyaging canoes from the South Pacific.  Captain Cook and the ships’ staff commented upon seeing rows of sugarcane above Kealakekua Bay.  Their initial comment was that the sugarcane was “quite adequate for making a fine beer”!

This month’s article is about the vast number of varieties of Hawaiian sugarcane that existed.  One might think that there was just one of two varieties that made it here from “Kahiki”.  Kahiki was the name of the faraway place that Hawaiians emigrated from.  One might think it translates as in the island of Tahiti, but Kahiki was actually the general realm of the far away islands, Samoa, Tahiti, BoraBora…all are in the realm of “kahiki”.  In these canoes came all sorts of trees, plants, and fruit to populate the new country they discovered called Hawaii.  Sugarcane was one of them.  

When I first started in the Plantations I was in the Agricultural Research Department.  Part of our job was variety testing.  We tested hundreds if not thousands of different varieties each year.  These commercial canes were bred for high sugar yields and the ability to withstand mechanical harvesting methods.  The rind of commercial canes is VERY hard.  Hard in order to withstand harvesting but also insects, rats, and disease.  At the Puna Sugar Mangers house, out back by the garden, there was a small stand of very different sugarcane varieties.  A small wooden sign said “Akokea”.  I suddenly realized that this was an “ancient Hawaiian” cane and it had a name!  I took a piece of the stalk and over the next few years grew my own stand of Akokea.  It had yellow and green stripes.  It was very ornate, very soft and easy to chew.  I soon learned that the rats and mice in the neighborhood liked eating Akokea cane as much as I did.

Over time I learned of many more native Hawaiian types of sugarcane.  Some have unknown names.  A friend of mine in Pahala, Bull Kailiawa, (renowned for his coffee growing skills), had a beautiful reddish purple cane growing at his farm in Cloud’s Rest (Kaumaikeohu).  I asked about it, he said “This sugarcane has been passed down in my family for generations, it’s a Hawaiian cane, but I do not know its name.” I needed to find out what variety and name this cane had.  I called HSPA/ HARC in Honolulu and asked if they had a listing of all the Hawaiian sugarcanes…Wow, was I surprised when I received the photograph that show in this month’s article.  There were some ____ different varieties and all with beautiful descriptive names.  Red canes, green canes, striped canes, yellow canes.  I figure that Bulls family sugarcane is probably named ________.

Getting back to  “Plantation Days”, the earliest plantations started with native Hawaiian canes.  It was found however that these canes were not able to withstand disease, insects, and rats.  Thus began the importation of predators to control the pests.  Can you name all the imported predators?  Mynah Birds, Cane Spiders and Cane Toads were imported to control cane stalk insects.  Mongoose and Barn Owls were imported to control rats and mice.  Then came the importation of new cane varieties that could withstand disease pressures and yield more sugar per acre.  One of the first premier “new” cane varieties was POJ.  That stood for Pride of Jamaica.  The Hawaiian Sugarcane Planters Association then started breeding canes specific for the Hawaiian plantations on the different islands.  Many plantations had cane varieties that were specific to their location, how they were grown, whether they were irrigated or not, high elevation or next to sea-level.  The new era of sugarcanes did not have poetic names they had impersonal numbers.  One of the most widely planted cane varieties in the last era of cane growing was 59-3775; this variety was present on almost every plantation.  This stood for the year it was breed, 1959, and the sequential number of the seedling from the breeding plot, that being the 3,775th seedling germinated.  The canes were constantly crossed and re-crossed trying to further increase the cane yield and TSA…Tons Sugar per Acre.  Along the Hamakua Coast you may see a lot of cane along the highway edge or gulches.  This cane is likely 78-0292 or 68-1158 the last two cane varieties grown at Mauna Kea Sugar.

As we celebrate the Merry Monarch Festival, let’s think back to the ancient Polynesian explorers who brought sugarcane to the islands and all the wonderful colors and names given them.  People like Bull Kailiawa and others have saved those varieties from obscurity or even perhaps extinction.