A Banana Bonanza : La Conchita Yields Harvest of the Tropics

Along the Ventura Freeway near the Ventura and Santa Barbara county line lies a small tropical paradise that for years has astonished weather analysts and farmers.

Tucked between the ocean and 300-foot-high bluffs is a place called La Conchita, the small seaside community that is also the home of the only commercial banana plantation in the continental United States.

There 10,000 banana trees are fanned by balmy ocean breezes, basking in an island of frost-free weather. When Ventura freezes over, the Seaside Banana Garden is frost-free. When Santa Barbara shivers, bananas at the 12-acre plantation ripen on the stalk.

One of the managers of the tiny banana republic is Doug Richardson, 41, an occasional landscaper who began cultivating bananas six years ago as an experiment in his front yard. He found the banana plants he was growing for ground cover were actually producing tasty fruit. In 1985, he decided to grow them commercially.

Richardson said that up until then, growing bananas “was unheard of in this state.”

A geography major at UC Santa Barbara, Richardson had researched temperatures in other countries where bananas are traditionally grown.

“What I discovered is that we have a unique climate here,” Richardson said.

During the next few months of summer, the plantation will enjoy hothouse temperatures hovering between 85 degrees and 95 degrees. In winter, when frost damages crops 10 miles away in Ventura or Carpinteria, banana trees stay cozy in temperatures that are 8 to 15 degrees higher, Richardson said.

Richardson’s partner, Paul Turner, 43, said he was skeptical at first. But old-timers told him they had never seen a frost in La Conchita. Then he learned that the plantation has higher temperatures than the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. “I figured that if they can do it there, we could do it too,” Turner said.

The farm produces 10 to 20 tons of bananas per acre every year, compared to 25 to 30 tons on other banana plantations. Two years ago, the two were quoted as saying that they hoped to gross about $200,000. But today both Richardson and Turner are more circumspect about what they garner from nearly a quarter of a million pounds of bananas sold every year.

Although they declined to reveal revenues, both said they are barely breaking even after five years of farming. Last year, they planted seven more acres, an expansion that is not expected to begin producing until next year.

Agricultural officials and other farmers acknowledged that the plantation is an environmental oddity.

“I tried to grow bananas on the Oxnard Plain and they froze,” said Rob Brokaw, a grower who also specializes in rare and exotic fruits. Richardson “is growing a crop that is not supposed to exist out of the tropics.”

The main reason the plantation does so well in the winter is that the ocean--with its temperate currents only a few hundred yards away--maintains a moderate temperature, said Bob Brendler, an adviser with University of California Cooperative Extension.

The moderate air coming off the ocean moves up the area’s steep slopes, breaking up any stagnant, freezing-cold air. In summer, ocean breezes bathe the area with cool, humid air, mimicking the climate of the tropics.

But the plantation is not unique, as its operators believe, Brendler said. Dozens of other islands of peculiarly warm weather, known as microclimates, can be found around the county, he said. Farmers interested in growing tropical fruits are discovering they too can cultivate exotic crops.

Richardson and Turner themselves admit that their La Conchita plantation is not the only hot spot in the county. They found another in Carpinteria where they grow bananas, but the crop yield is much smaller.

Word of Ventura County’s banana plantation has reached the Washington-based International Banana Assn., which promotes bananas for a dozen member companies around the globe.

Robert Moore, the top banana of the association, called the farm a “climatic nonconformity.”

Banana plantations are usually located in subtropical climates where the temperatures rarely dip below 55 degrees, Moore said. Banana farming was previously thought impossible in California, and certainly in areas far away from the porous volcanic soil that plants favor, he said. But Seaside Banana Garden has changed his mind.

“It’s a very unusual spot,” he said.

Some of the banana farm’s success goes beyond climatological luck. Seaside Banana Garden requires intensive agricultural methods. For instance, instead of relying on tropical rainfall, the two farmers have planted drought-resistant varieties of banana tubers and lined the groves with black irrigation pipes.

Every stalk of bananas is covered with a bright blue plastic bag to speed the ripening process and prevent damage from the leaves. Each banana tree is hand-cultivated by a crew of six workers. New small trees are placed in pots.

Soon the plantation will take on a new venture, producing an experimental patch of pineapples, now growing in small pots under the hot sun.

Known in the small one-supermarket community of La Conchita as the “banana guys,” Turner and Richardson take more than a passing interest in talking to the dozens of tourists who stop by to buy bananas at a small thatched hut Richardson built near the Ventura Freeway between March and November. Tourists like to hear about the wide variety of bananas grown at the farm, they said.

But at $1 to $4 a pound, the bananas are not cheap. They are available only in exclusive organic food stores and pricey restaurants across the country. But that has not prevented Midwestern yuppies, New York delicatessens and fancy Los Angeles eateries from ordering them through overnight mail.

Although they still have not tallied the number of mail order buyers, the two men said that most of them are not looking for exotic varieties and can afford to pay for it.

Ivan Volent, for one, said he has developed a taste for exotic breeds of bananas and has a standing order of one 40-pound box of bananas delivered to his Santa Fe, N.M. home every month. Each box costs him $35.

Richardson and Turner say one of their plans is to turn the plantation into a roadside attraction where a guide would lead groups on a 20-minute tour through the groves, explaining the origin of banana plants.

Yet, neither Richardson nor Turner want to go so far as turning their plantation into a tropical Knott’s Berry Farm. “It could become an A-1 tourist trap,” Turner said.

“We’re occupied in our farm,” Richardson said. “We’re just down-and-dirty farmers.”