Farming on the North Shore - Haiku area (Hilo, Wailuku: how much, houses)

[bardos]

I am planning to begin living on Maui permanently starting late winter and I am interested in people's experiential data concerning the growing of vegetables in the Haiku area. I have lived and farmed in southern Spain for a few decades and am familiar with the seasonal rhythms of planting and harvesting in this climate.

Many moons ago when I visited north Africa, I remember being moderately surprised at seeing someone's garden with a hot pepper plant (cayenna) which had turned into an extremely large bush, since it is a perennial and in my area it will die down as winter approaches.

I have been on Maui several times and noticed that the climate is quite different from what I am used to. Is there any specific time of year to plant what for me are summer crops, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc.? Or can one plant at any time? Do tomato plants die eventually and after how long?

And with all the heat, the things I grew in winter, cabbages, cauliflowers, swiss chard , collard greens etc., are they growable in that climate or would one have to be upcountry for that?

Thanks

[hotzcatz]

Planting in Hawaii is different than in temperate climates. There are also a bunch of micro-climates so things will be different depending on your specific growing area. Other than sun and rain, elevation makes a huge difference to what you can grow. There's more information than you'd possibly need at U of H's CTAHR site. (College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources) Here's their Maui programs page: Maui County They also have a nice seed program where you can buy seed already suited for Hawaii. CTAHR Seed Program in a search engine will bring that up, no doubt.

We have several planting season during the year. Right about now is the cool winter season, so the delicate lettuces and crops which like cooler weather are planted now. Peas and such, although you can plant most things pretty much at any time, but some of them do grow better at specific times of the year. Romaine, Buttercrunch and red lettuces during the summer. I can't remember ever seeing a list of what to plant when, but there might be one around.

I've had collard greens grow for up to six or seven years. Just harvest some leaves and let it keep going. It got to about four feet tall with a fan brush of leaves at the top, but it was still growing when the wind blew it over. Indeterminate tomato plants will grow for several years, determinate varieties will set all their tomatoes at once and then die. Most green, snap and bush beans will be annuals, lima beans just keep going and going. They will cover your garden shed if you're not careful. Pepper plants will last for several years, too, although they are generally more productive during the first year, it seems. The celery here is going on five years old and it's about time to start some new celery. Just harvest the outside stalks and the inside ones will keep going.

We've found raised beds to be brilliant, but we're doing home gardening. It makes it much easier to tend the garden and keeps the amendments and fertilizers in one place. For amendments, we had bio-char (basically charcoal that doesn't have lighter fluid on it). The high rainfall washes out the nutrients and the charcoal traps them and holds them for the plant roots to find. We will add oyster shell to lower the soil's acidity. You can use hydrated lime, too, but that washes out quickly. The feed store will usually sell small bags of oyster shell for chickens and that does fine for the garden. We use rabbit manure for fertilizer, although that's mostly because we have the rabbits.

At the university extension office, you'll be able to get fruit fly attractants to put in your fruit fly trap. Those make a huge difference in your garden production. Take a one liter plastic soda bottle, cut the top off at the top of the cylinder area. Put the fruit fly attractant inside, it's a sticky glob, it will attach to the side of the bottle. Take the cap off the top and invert it so the neck is pointing down into the bottle. Push it in until it stays. Hang that in your garden and the fruit flies will go inside and won't be able to get out. Otherwise the fruit flies lay eggs in the fruits on your plants and then the fruits rot and are full of fruit fly larvae instead of ripening. If you have fruit fly traps, you can grow big tomatoes, otherwise the Roma and cherry tomatoes do well since they have thicker skins.

We also have landscape plants as part of the garden. The trees are all fruit trees, papaya are pretty plants as well as produce fruit. Bananas are very productive as well as tropical looking. They do form a thick mat and plant them somewhere they have room to spread a bit. They're hard to dig up if they're planted where you don't want them later. Taro is a pretty plant and can be used in a decorative garden. If you're in Waimea on the Island of Hawaii (aka Big Island) look at the garden next to Merriman's restaurant. The whole garden is lovely and it's about 90% edibles.

You can grow some stone fruits if you're very careful about which varieties you plant. Check out "winter chilling hours" to see how much cold certain varieties of trees need to set fruit. Florida Prince peach has done well for us at 450' elevation as well as Anna apple. Bay Laurel Nursery and Dave Wilson nursery in California have very informative websites and Bay Laurel will ship to Hawaii. Dave Wilson is a wholesale nursery, but their plants are sold through Bay Laurel.

[bardos]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Some good info there.

[bardos]

I have noticed in my travels that in many parts of the world there is usually one local hardwood, either from trees or bushes that the locals use to make tool handles and fence posts from, maybe even furniture. This wood being fairly resistant to rot. Is there any special wood that Mauians use to this end?

[hotzcatz]

A lot of Ohia is used for poles in houses, but as a tool handle it's too brittle. Beautiful, but brittle. A friend of mine used to use coffee tree trunks for his tool handles, but that might have been because he was growing coffee.

[CasualEntrepreneur]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Planting in Hawaii is different than in temperate climates. There are also a bunch of micro-climates so things will be different depending on your specific growing area.

Hey hotzcatz! This was an amazing post! -- I never knew you were a gardener (have been quietly reading a lot of other threads). Great info, especially about the fruit fly trap.

I'm looking forward to trying some of the tropical / exotic fruits when we move. Any advice on these:

Avacados
Lemons / Limes
Mangos
Lychees
Passion Fruit
Rambutan
Strawberries
Date Palms (decorative)
Starfruit

I've never attempted any of these before and am only a beginner. My idea though was to try and grow the expensive stuff -or- the fruit/veg that you really notice a difference in freshness/quality.

That being said, do you have any farmer market prices lingering in the back of your mind for the above? Would be cool to compare to what I pay here. Any "opposite" pricing on fruit? Fruit that is more expensive on Hawaii than on the mainland?


I have had some amazing success using the "Kratky Method" which is essentially non-circulating hydroponics. You can check it out here:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDYeffYcVkY

[Arktikos]

Originally Posted by CasualEntrepreneur

I'm looking forward to trying some of the tropical / exotic fruits when we move. Any advice on these:

Avacados
Lemons / Limes
Mangos
Lychees
Passion Fruit
Rambutan
Strawberries
Date Palms (decorative)
Starfruit]

They all grow well with minimal effort. Well, I don't know about strawberries. Rambutans need lots of water.
Lychees can be problematic about fruiting, and you need to take care with Passion fruit that it doesn't escape into the wild.

You will find that most temperate fruits are more expensive in Hawaii because they are typically shipped in rather than grown on island.

[hotzcatz]

Gardening just kinda happens around here, Casual Entrepreneur. Kinda something that has always been done, although most if it is fruits and vegetables but the occasional flower shows up, too. Gardening in Hawaii is a LOT different than it's mainland version, that's for sure. Do you garden much?

I met with Mr. Kratky once when investigating growing lettuce in milk jugs. Nice knowledgeable fellow, he was teaching at the U of H Hilo at the time. We found out that you can take a peat pellet, a little plastic plant basket and a milk jug and put them all together. I think we put some fertilizer in the milk jug, I'd have to go see, it's been a few years. I think we used Miracle Grow or one of those commercial fertilizers. Now we only use rabbit manure, but that was years ago before we had rabbits and didn't know about "bunny berries". In any case, by the time the lettuce has used up all the water in the milk jug, it's ready to harvest. Kinda like micro-hydroponics.

There's about a bazillion different varieties of avocado. We had one named "Lehua" which was a nice one and off season so we were able to take the extra avocados to the local fruit/vegetable stand and swap them for other produce. I think for prices it was one nice big avocado was worth a small bag of tomatoes, or a small bag of onions, two heads of lettuce, etc. We had a lot of avocados and our neighbors were tired of them by that time too, so anything we could swap them for was good.



My friends visiting for the Merrie Monarch festival made a display of "yard food" and took a picture of it for us. I think that's the bottle of wine they brought with them so it was a comparison of yard foods since they were from Napa. Pineapples, coconuts, that big green thing in front of the coconuts is a avocado, lemons, grapefruit, yellow passion fruits, etc.



Found that while I was looking for avocado pictures. That's a hydraulic coconut opener. Much easier than hacking with a machete or using a spike driven into the ground. We like coconuts, the dogs like coconuts and so do the chickens and rabbits. So far the cat has been resistant to the idea of eating coconuts. There's a short "Samoan" coconut which is a nice tree to plant that I didn't see on your list.



You can grow peaches in Hawaii if you are real selective about the cultivars. This particular peach was there when we bought the house and folks just call it a "mountain peach". Very aromatic, but extremely tart. Makes good jam. However, for eating peaches, Florida Prince works well. You can see a variety of "low chill" fruit trees from Dave Wilson nurseries (wholesale only) at Bay Laurel's website. Bay Laurel Low Chill Fruit Trees



Finally found the avocado picture. That's an egg in there for size comparison and these are "Lehua" avocados. It's not a common variety, but they are tasty and have a creamy texture. I'd been sorting them by "damaged" ones and "good" ones with us and everyone we know eating the damaged ones and the good ones getting swapped for other produce.

They are going to start allowing Sharwil avocados to be shipped to the mainland two months of the year, at least, I'm pretty sure it's Sharwil. So, if you're gonna plant avos, some of those might be good since you'd be able to sell them to the mainland if nobody here needs them.

For a lot of the tropical fruit trees, you can look at Plant It Hawaii's website. Plant It Hawaii Fruit Varieties

So, from your list:
Avocado, if it's for your own use, any one you like will do. You can start a tree from seed and then graft a known variety onto the rootstock or buy a named variety for guaranteed good fruit. Or just let the one you started from seed fruit and see what you get. Grafted should bear sooner, though. I think it's about seven years from seed to fruit.

Lemons / Limes - lots of folks like the Meyer Lemon and those can be sold to restaurants and bars. We have an old fashioned round lemon at the other house, but not sure what it's name is since it was there before we were. I've got a cutting of it growing here, but it's still very young. Tangerines and oranges grow well around here and might be a nice addition to your list.

Mangos - they grow huge and sound like cannons if they land on your tin roof so plant the tree well away from the house. There's a selection of them at Plant It Hawaii some are better for dry areas so when you have an orchard ready, ask your neighbors which varieties have been doing well for them. Mango wood is valuable, too, so after twenty or thirty years it can be a lumber tree should you desire.

Lychees are another tree, most of the stuff on your list is trees. They either all make fruit or none of them make fruit from what I've seen. Also, folks will steal the fruit since it's desirable and if the tree doesn't look like it has an owner, folks will be all over it.

Passion fruit is one of your non tree selections. It's easy to start from seed and is an extremely vigorous vine. It will climb over your house if it gets a chance. Should you happen to have an arbor you want covered, passion fruit is a good choice. It comes in several different colors, try several from the local farmer's market before deciding which to plant. Only plant what's tasty, is my motto.

Rambuton is like a hairy lychee, they are similar in taste and growing conditions, I think. I've not grown them but eat them when they are in season.

There's a "day neutral" strawberry that you can get to grow in Hawaii. It will set fruit all year round more or less when ever it feels like it, although it feels like it more often in spring time from what I've noticed. Not sure what it's name is, my friend gave me a start from her garden.

Why have a decorative date palm when you can get dates from one? Although, I think they prefer dryish areas, but I've never grown one.

Star fruits are tasty and you could try mountain apple along with them. Both of those are long time favorite back yard Hawaii fruit trees. They're smaller than mango, lychee and rambuton.

Clumping bamboo is another tasty thing not on your list. Other than providing poles, it has really tasty shoots. Fresh bamboo shoots are so much better than the canned ones that it's like they are an entirely different thing. But, make sure you get clumping and not running bamboo and give it a lot of room to grow. Quindembo Bamboo has lots of lovely bamboos.

Once you get a lot of this stuff planted, it just keeps giving year after year. But a lot of it gets big so give it enough room to grow. You could also try several bananas, we have loads of different types. Lately, my favorite has been Chinese Dwarf. Very productive, tasty bananas and they are on a short "tree".

[CasualEntrepreneur]

WOW! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G post! I'm cutting that and pasting it into my notebook.

So my biggest question now relates to Maui. I know these will grow great in Haiku but I'm not sure how'd they fair at a higher elevation like Kula (seems to be 10 degrees cooler up there compared to Haiku) -or- near the drier coast in Wailuku? any thoughts?


My style of gardening is "fire and forget". I'd like to have a greenhouse for herbs and starting fruits and veg from seed (selecting the most healthy plants) then seeing what I can do with them outside. My strong suit is research which was how I came across the Kratky method and boy, not only does it work but it is perfect for my style. Put a few seeds in a wicking material (peat moss is good), put that in a 3" net pot, and half submerge it into a fertilized water solution and walk away - for months. Seeds germinate in the wet material then as the roots lower and hit the nutrient solution - WHAM - it takes the hell off!

I got this crazy idea I want to try out. Ever seen those Aqua Globes which promise to water your plant over a long period?




Well I thought of grabbing a 4-5" PVC pipe from home depot, drilling some holes in the side, then planting the PVC tube with the plant but not to water it.... oh no, to feed it!


I've had really good success using Miracle-Gro Plant food



-- the blue stuff where a teaspoon dissolves in a 1 gallon bucket. My herbs LOVE it and all plants get the food they crave which makes them disease resistant and healthy. So combine the 2 ideas and pour the nutrient solution in the PVC tube so the plant continues to get everything it needs and grows super fast.

I'm thinking it will be great for landscaping trees, fruit trees, etc...

anyone else have some crazy ideas too?

[Jungjohann]

Originally Posted by CasualEntrepreneur

I've had really good success using Miracle-Gro Plant food



-- the blue stuff where a teaspoon dissolves in a 1 gallon bucket. My herbs LOVE it and all plants get the food they crave which makes them disease resistant and healthy. So combine the 2 ideas and pour the nutrient solution in the PVC tube so the plant continues to get everything it needs and grows super fast.

I'm thinking it will be great for landscaping trees, fruit trees, etc...

anyone else have some crazy ideas too?

Dyna-Grow is far superior to Miracle-Gro. It doesn't allow salt buildup in the soil, and contains more of the trace nutes that MG is lacking. I use Dyna-Grow 7-9-5 on my coffee plants, and they're going lolo. Not the case when I was using MG, which lacks some essential nutrients.
And Mel's Rent-A-Gecko is STRICTLY rental. You can't 'own' a gecko, it's not ethical, and their union doesn't allow piece work
Get serious, would ya. (uuurrrrppp, scuze me)

Wouldn't recommend PEX line inside your walls, we had many problems with it out in Kapolei when it first came out in Hawaii. Seems all the homeless rats, deprived of their habitat in what had been sugar fields for decades, got their revenge on the new housing by getting into the attic space and gnawing on the plastic piping.

'Honey, did you leave the water running somewhere?', as the ceiling above the bed begins to drip,,,, drip,,, drip..