UH to Renew Search For Coconut Fungus Cure
Kauai’s ag station plans to pick up the hunt halted 8 years ago by lack of funds
By Anthony Sommer, 1 Jan 2001, Honolulu Star Bulletin
WAILUA, Kauai — The search for a cure to a fatal fungus that has attacked about 20 percent of the state’s coconut palm trees, probably Hawaii’s best-known tourism icon, is about to be renewed by the University of Hawaii’s agriculture experiment station on Kauai after an eight-year hiatus.
Experiments that began in the 1980s yielded a successful way to prevent the disease, but not a cure. The project ended in 1992 when Hurricane Iniki wiped out all of the trees that were being studied. The state Legislature did not provide funding for more research until its 2000 session, when it appropriated $50,000.
The primary drum-beater for renewed funding was Philippe Visintainer, who owns the only business in Hawaii that provides preventive treatments, Hawaii Coconut Protectors, headquartered in Paia, Maui.
Visintainer also is head of the Maui Farm Bureau, and he said that’s the hat he was wearing when he asked the state for money for new research on what he calls “the AIDS of coconut palms.”
“What we really need is $200,000 a year, but that just wasn’t a realistic request,” he said.
The fungus is called Phytophthora katusae, but its common name is “coconut heart rot.” It appears only in Hawaii, although similar fungi are found in other parts of the world.
Because large numbers of young coconut palms grow both in the wild and in plant nurseries, there is little concern the fungus ever will wipe out all of the trees in Hawaii. But it is a major concern for anyone who uses the trees for landscaping — governments, businesses and homeowners. The cost of replacing a diseased tree can be considerable.
