Gabe15

Since bunchy top virus (BBTV) is present in Cameroon, and it would be extremely easy to send an infected plant without knowing it, I would say this is your biggest threat. Other disease transmissions should of course be considered and taken care of, but BBTV is not so easy to take care of. The big problem is that plants can be infected without any symptoms, and then develop symptoms later on. For you to absolutely prevent bunchy top, a verified clean plant (which is which tissue culture and virus indexing comes in) needs to be sent which is also free of the aphids which transmit the virus to other plants. It is possible you could be sent a virus-free plant, but by importing a plant of unknown virus status you risk infecting all of your plants and anyone elses in the area. Worst case scenario all of your plants would become infected and you will have to destroy them all and start over.

Once, I brought some plants back from Florida to Colorado (not Hawaii) which I made sure to be free of banana aphids (the same which transmit BBTV, Pentalonia nigronirvosa). When I brought them back to my greenhouse, everything was fine for awhile, but before too long those aphids were all over my other plants. Luckily, there is no BBTV in Florida, so they were not carrying the virus, but if they were, as which might happen in your case, I would have lost almost my entire collection. It only takes 1 aphid feeding for 2 minutes to infect a plant, so by the time you notice an aphid outbreak, it is too late.

Short Story: it is possible to import clean plants with simple methods, you import at your own risk, but there are real, serious disease threats (mainly BBTV) which can lead to serious problems.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.