The Māori Taro Planter

16/07/2025

16/06/2025

Using AI to make a new logo.

21/03/2025

Chitting potatoes in soil and boxes.

01/01/2025

Planted some more tamariki (shoots) at the pā today. The corn and peas were already there.

The silverbeet went to seed a while back.

We added bok choy, taro and potatoes.

Here's to hoping no one sees the hemo as leaves and thinks the shoots are dead 😆

31/12/2024

Last post for the new year shows some experiments with ferns as mulch.

Ferns grow like crazy on the whenua so I want to see how effective a mulch it can be.

Believe it or not, there are taros and pumpkin vines growing in the planters.

The bathtub has three tiapula (kiapula - what is the Māori word I wonder?) cut off from the tops of three beautiful pink taro Fiji.

The paddling pool has two butternut pumpkin shoots and another tiapula from Fiji.

I've eaten the taros that these tiapula were taken from and they are yummy.

I hope they can mature before the frost comes.

The two black pots only have one tiapula each. One again from Fiji and the other from a Tongan man whose plantation is in Te Poi of all places!

And yes, those are old hot chips on top of the ferns in the bathtub.

30/12/2024

As of 7:30pm Monday 30 December 2024 there are 28 shoots down at the swamp in this picture.

There is massive potential for taro and raupō to grow down at this repo.

Raupō cleans water in the winter, dies away in the summer and grows back in the autumn.

Or is it the other way round? 😆

The water cleaning abilities of taro have yet to be realised in the repo of Aotearoa.

Perhaps there is opportunity in this space.

But who knows? I am neither scientist nor botanist.

I'm just a taro planter.

27/12/2024

Rebuilding the taro plantation again after much of the roots were accidentally ripped out when they went to sleep.

The 4 taros in the big pots have some good whakapapa. Three of the huri ('uli, huli) were gifted by my wife's uncle who comes from Magiagi, Samoa and has been growing taro at his house in Manurewa, Tāmaki since before I was born.

The other one comes from my wife's older sister. Her taro patch does great, despite horrible neglect (I'm the only one who tends it and I only go once a year).

That's the difference between Tāmaki and Taupō. Taros grow like weeds up there and they struggle down here.

These news taros should produce nice leaves.

The tamariki (keiki, foha) in the garden boxes are a combination of leftover shoots from winter (that were missed by well meaning people) and some that I planted on whenua whānau.

They are struggling to grow.

But we shall have success, evenutally.

P.S On the bright side, the spuds are growing just fine 😆

22/05/2024

Latest failures in the journey of , or is it an actual failure?

The principal reasons taro struggles to grow in Aotearoa is because of the cold.Fog and frost has come early to Taupō and so my taro plants at the pā have al...

18/03/2024

How a tiny taro can make so many shoots.

18/02/2024

Growing taro and spuds at the pā

Firstly, I thank the Nukuhau Pā trustees for letting me grow kai at the marae.I inherited this planter box in December 2023. It already had some kai in it, t...

08/02/2024

We made another greenhouse/frost tunnel.

The taro is a hardy plant with one major weakness - cold and frost.Our ancestors worked hard to protect their taros from their kyptonite.They'd wrap the root...