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Su Ba’s Community Farm Project - Adding Permaculture

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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posted 2 years ago

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Today was primarily a harvesting day for me, but I got a few other things accomplished….

… In the greenhouse I cleaned out one of the growing troughs where the plants had become too mature to keep going. So it was out with the old plants. Yank, yank, yank. Next I checked to soil pH and saw that it was a tad too acidic, so I dusted on some powdered lime. Then I added some sifted compost and sifted garden soil, about an inch layer. Mixed it all up with a small hand shovel. Lightly watered the bed and it will be ready for planting tomorrow. This is the 4th time I’ve renovated this trough, so the soil depth is gradually increasing because I add soil and compost between each planting. The depth started at 3 inches (yes, I planted in only 3 inches of soil!) and now it is 5 inches. Now some of you will think —- start at 3 inches, add 4 inches of compost + soil = 7 inches. Doesn’t work that way. Over time the compost and stuff in the garden soil breakdown, thus you lose that added soil depth. As I said, the soil depth of this trough is measured at 5 inches right now. I’m happy with that. The plants seem happy too.

Here is a photo of the livestock trough I just prepared for replanting. That’s the little shovel I use to turn the soil. I found this was the most convenient way to get the job done.

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10 foot long livestock feed trough used as a growing container.

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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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posted 2 years ago

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I made additional growing containers out of plywood. They sit atop plastic pallets, that sit atop cinder blocks. This helps keep slugs at bay. The plywood box has no bottom and simply sits atop the pallets. I lined the box with old screening in order to keep the soil in. The sides of the box were lined in re-used black plastic to make the wood last longer. The entire grow box is made out of re-used materials, except for the nails. Even the plastic pallets were pulled out of the trash stream. The cinder blocks were leftovers from a housing project. I got them donated to this food project cause.

I loaded about 3 inches of used promix potting medium into the box, then added sifted compost and garden soil. Yes, I salvage the promix from pots and trays where the seedlings failed for some reason or other, mostly because they got eaten by a rat. I also got donated several old unused bales of promix that had sat out in the rain for a couple years. They weighed a ton, being that they were saturated the rain. But I put them to good use anyway.

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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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I will use all sorts of containers for growing in the greenhouse. My main consideration is cost. I need to keep the cost down, and free is best. So I use whatever I can divert from the trash or get donated. I have an assortment of large pots, a couple of barrels that I cut in half, and dead coolers.

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Old cooler with holes drilled in the bottom.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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Two other tasks I got worked on today include preparing pineapple tops for planting, and storing some water for back up use.

Pineapples — I’m hoping to establish a small pineapple area, so I’m preparing the tops I picked up locally. I haven’t gotten an area approved yet by the farm owner, but I’m getting ready.

Water reserve.— the water pump supplying water to the greenhouse has been working erratically recently. Every time I arrive and find no water, I practically die. So I took the first step to make my water availability more secure. While there is a rain catchment pond several hundred feet away, I do not have a powerful enough pump to bring the water to the greenhouse. And the pond is not on higher ground, so I cannot use gravity feed. Thus I cannot use that pond as an emergency back up. So I plan to put containers of water along side the greenhouse where I can use a sump pump to power a hose. I already own a sump pump that can do the job. As for water containers, I have a 330 gallon tank available to me plus about 10 trash cans. This is a start. I brought two of the trash cans to the greenhouse today and filled them with water. Lids on the cans should keep the mosquitos at bay.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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Last post of the evening…..I feel my mind heading for befuddled stupor from a long day.

On Mondays I do about half of my needed harvesting for the week. I’m only one of several harvesters, so my pick list is limited.

Pumpkins - 10
Edible gourds - 4
Moringa leaves - a large roasting tray full
Spearmint - 6 bunches
Chocolate mint - 6 bunches
Basil- a gallon
Cholesterol spinach leaves - a gallon
Limes - 2 five gallon buckets
Lemons - 1 five gallon bucket
Tangerines - 2 five gallon buckets
Starfruit - 1 five gallon bucket
Bananas - 2 bunches
Pipinola (aka-chayote) - 16
Pineapples - 2

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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Since we are growing mixed greens, I would like to have an attractive assortment. Just because I’m growing in larger quantity than a personal garden doesn’t mean that I have to plant large amounts of just one variety. So one green I hit upon to fancy things up is a colorful amaranth. Very attractive.

This variety suffers a bit under the conditions I force it to grow, but I can usually get 4-5 pickings over a 5 week period. It wants far more space for its roots than that found in our restricted growing container. As a result I’ve learned that the leaves only get less than half as large as they would had the plant been growing outdoors. But that’s ok for what I want to achieve. So if you’re looking for nice big leaves, I suggest you grow it outdoors.

Then why don’t I grow it outdoors, you say? One word —- slugs. Because of the prevalence of rat-worm problems, people around here won’t eat raw greens that are not grown in slug-free conditions. Around the greenhouses there are plenty of slugs. Since I have no control over the other half dozen greenhouses here on this farm, I simply cannot guarantee 100% control of slugs outside of our one greenhouse. Thus the need to grow in containers where I can control slugs and check daily for ones that may have slipped past my defenses.

I have 4 outdoor amaranth plants. They do indeed get nibbled on by slugs, although the damage is low because I use slug traps and sluggo. But the plants do well enough to produce seed for me. Seed——that’s my goal. I try to produce as much of our own seed stock as possible. It feels good to be able to add another permaculture function to this food project, and besides, it saves us money and gives me guaranteed fresh seed.

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Seedlings ready to transplant into the growing containers.

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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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posted 2 years ago

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I’d like to show you some of the diversity in our leafy greens mix. This is poly-monoculture on a very small scale, you could say. We are constantly rotating through the various greens, so we don’t have the exact same mix from week to week. To date we include numerous varieties of Chinese cabbage, bok choys, mustards, and several other Asian greens. Color ranges from light green to dark green, bronze to dark purple. Smooth leaves to heavily laced. I’ve added the beet greens and chards of all colors for their colorful stems. Several varieties of kale, cabbage. Some upright lettuces and spinach. Two amaranths, and I just purchased seed for a third. Arugula —- this one I discovered not everyone likes. So I reserve it for only a couple pounds of the mix.

One container bed will give me 4 to 5 pickings before I need to replant. I harvest the greens while they are quite young, thus shortening the production life of the plant considerably. This system so far has been working well for us, producing very high quality greens. Abundant, high quality, weekly greens is our goal.

I harvest the greens one leaf at a time. Yes, it sounds tedious. I tried cutting the entire top of the plant, sparing the growing tip, like it is recommended for commercial production, but it takes too long for the plants to regrow. We simply do not have enough greenhouse square footage to use the commercial method. So I listen to music or audible books while harvesting so that I don’t get bored. There is a certain peacefulness about harvesting the greens. At my age, peace and no stress is welcome.

These greens are totally no-commercial-fertilizer and totally no-spray. No spray of any sort except the natural fertilizer which gets delivered via the watering spray. No pesticides. In the past year I’ve had very little pest problems. An occasional caterpillar after a butterfly had gotten into the greenhouse. Occasional leaf miner. Sometimes leaf mites will attack certain varieties of Asian greens. Plants with problems are simply removed and disposed of. Rats and mice are my main nibblers and they appear to prefer the baby seedlings. I can live with that if they stay within their current bounds.

Here’s a sampling of what’s in the greenhouse right now………

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Purple Lady bok choy. Seed from Baker Creek.

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A frilly red mizuna. We also grow a green version.

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Various kinds of bok choys. The light green one is Tokyo bekana.

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Chinese cabbage in the foreground, regular cabbage beyond. And several other Asian greens and beets beyond that.

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Tatsoi, summer zest bok choy, dinosaur kale, red choy.

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This is the nicest the amaranth looks in the container beds. It goes downhill from this.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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Todays farmers market ……………

Fruits:
Oranges
Tangerines
Tangelos
Pomelos
Limes
Lemons
Ripe papaya
Green papaya
Herbs:
Spearmint
Chocolate mint
Cilantro
Dill
Basil
Parsley
Green onions
Mamaki
Veggies:
Sweet potatoes, whites and purples
Eggplant, 5 varieties
Peanuts
Leafy greens mix
Pumpkins
Edible gourds
Moringa, leaves and pods
Tomatoes, salad and Roma
Tomatillos
Portuguese cabbage

We had a real glut of eggplant. We sold four 5 gallon buckets of the things and gave 3 more buckets to our local Hub. I can predict that there will be an eggplant dish on the menu for Friday!

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

L. Johnson

gardener

Posts: 1871

Location: Japan, zone 9a/b, annual rainfall 2550mm, avg temp 1.5-32 C

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Do you have any problems with wasps or hornets coming for your ripe papayas? If so how do you manage that?

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Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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To date I haven’t seen a problem with wasps. Our number one pest problem with papayas is birds. Number two is rats, but birds far out do the rats. To get around the bird problem we harvest the papayas as they are showing yellow patches but are still mostly greenish. We surely do not let them get entirely ripe. Ripe papayas draw plenty of hungry birds. Those partially ripe fruits can be ready to eat in 3 to 5 days.

The only time I’ve seen wasps around is if the papaya is fully ripe or if a bird has eaten a hole into it. By harvesting on the early side, it appears that the wasps don’t set up their open buffet in our orchard.

Although papayas can have several problems, the main problem we have seen to date was a fungal spot disease. It affects the skin and makes it unsightly. It seemed to be associated with the weather, because when the weather pattern changed, the spot disease went away.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

L. Johnson

gardener

Posts: 1871

Location: Japan, zone 9a/b, annual rainfall 2550mm, avg temp 1.5-32 C

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Interesting. Sounds like my persimmons here... The crows will often get their beaks into ripe persimmons, and then the hornets finish the job, or will come clean up the fallen fruit. I suppose keeping up with the harvests is one of the best ways to manage both birds and stingers. Your posts are a deep well of information and experience to draw on! Thanks!

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Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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I mentioned that we have added meat to this project. Here’s some of what is going on.

Chickens….
In my area of this island, feral chickens are fairly abundant. Not everybody is pleased to have roosters crowing in the middle of the night. So we let it be known that we were willing to trap excess birds, especially the roosters. (Some homeowners want the hens around, but not the roosters.)
I use cat/raccoon havahart traps. Popcorn and dry catfood both work as a good bait. The only problem is that the traps are awfully tempting to steal, so I have to use them in such places that other people won’t see them. For visible locations, I work with the homeowner to get them interested in using a drop trap. These are super inexpensive to make, and I don’t really care if they get stolen. Dang….I haven’t had even one stolen so far. The drawback is that the homeowner needs to manually pull a string to drop the door. So far, most owners will do it just so they get relief from the crowing roosters. The homeowners have been 100% successful with these simple traps. A broken night’s sleep is quite the incentive.
I could make a self-dropping door trap, but that’s more complicated. And something that nice is a target for theft. Since the cheap drop trap is working, I’ll just keep things simple and not change anything for now.
Now be aware that these birds are tough. Normal cooking won’t do. So we pressure cook them or prepare them in an imu.

Sheep/lamb…..
I went around to all the local sheep owners and discussed our need for local meat at very affordable prices. I was willing to buy their old stock, unthifty sheep, those with foot problems, broken legs, and bummer lambs. I’m only willing to buy on the cheap, but several owners were willing to do that rather than lose everything if the animal were to die, which many were heading for. By our buying these undesirable sheep, the flocks around here are looking so much better. (Note: by this time, almost all these sheep are being donated to the project. Only occasionally am I purchasing them for small amounts of money.) I bring these down-on-their-luck sheep to my own farm where, if possible, I will treat them and then get some weight onto them. Right now I have four that arrived here as virtual skeletons but are now well fleshed out and ready for slaughter. Amazing what treatments for parasites and good food can do. I usually don’t have to put much money into these sheep. They just need good pasture and some good husbandry.
This is mutton most of the time. So we grind the meat. The cooks at our Hub have come up with very tasty recipes.

Turkey…..
We have a number of feral turkeys in the area. They can be hard on a vegetable garden, so homeowners will call me to remove them. Most of the turkeys do no harm, so I let them be. I remove the trouble makers. These feral turkeys are real tough and need a pressure cooker to make them edible.

Fish…..
We keep in touch with several local fishermen. They seldom offer us fish, although we have been fortunate to get whole marlin. What I do get are the carcasses of ono and ahi. We can cook up the bones and heads and make a wonderful base for fish stew.

Beef…..
Initially we contacted local ranchers and begged for donations. Since then, the word is out (small town gossip can be a help). We have been offered blemished or otherwise unsellable cattle, troublemakers, aggressive-dangerous, and fence buster cattle. We will come pick them up from the rancher. Just recently we were given several animals that the owner no longer wanted.

Pigs……
Initially I donated my surplus pigs to this cause. But I have since changed my efforts. I now trap feral pigs. Those that turn out to be decent tasting are used a fresh meat for the Hub. Ones that are a bit gamey, they get turned into smoke-meat for use in fried rice dishes. Those pigs that are too gamey for even this are dressed out for pet food, which is supplied free to our local dog rescues.
Any piglets that get trapped I spare and take home for rearing. I enjoy caring for pigs. Currently I have two which will eventuality go to this food project.

The local Hub is up to giving away 200 meals a day, 3 days a week. This is one heck of a lot of food. Most of the food is locally produced or sourced.

It’s wonderful to see how my community is supporting this food project via donations and volunteer hours. I don’t know how long it will last, but for now it is working, it is expanding. One of the OKK volunteers is looking into fundraising via grants. A bit of actual cash would help, for real. But even without it, this project is being successful.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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Yippee!! I just got confirmation that the ranch owner has granted OKK the use of another greenhouse (actually a screenhouse since the roofing is screening too). This second greenhouse is twice as large as the one we are presently using to grow leafy greens. This new greenhouse needs to be emptied, moving what’s in it to empty spaces in other houses. Then we need to start making containers of some sort for growing. Whatever we make, or whatever system of bags we use must be removable so that the greenhouse can be easily put back into its original condition if/when we vacate it in the future. The floor currently is 6" deep coarse gravel atop commercial weed block, thus preventing us from growing right into the ground. And I need to take care to have a system that does not spill dirt onto the floor.

Circulating hydroponics would be ideal except for the facts that we do not have such equipment, nor do we have electricity, nor do we have the knowledge and experience to pull it off successfully. While I love to experiment, I’m not eager to have this project fail just because I’m trying to learn. I’ll do my learning on a smaller scale for now. So it looks like container gardening is the way we will go. A plus for container gardening is that I can exclude the slugs more successfully.

My thoughts on what crops to grow ….
…. Cucumbers. We get lots of requests for these and they are near to impossible to grow outdoors without daily spraying of dipel. I’ve experimented with cukes in our current greenhouse and had some success. But powdery mildew was a significant problem. Thus I will need to research resistant varieties and methods to control powdery mildew.
….Zucchini. Another crop being requested a lot. It has all the same problems as cucumbers.
…. Slicing tomatoes. Due to fruit fly, they are virtually impossible to grow outdoors unless one is willing to bag each individual fruit and monitor them daily. I tried growing them in our current greenhouse and had intermediate success. I need to figure out how to control powdery mildew.
… Sweet peppers. Same problems as with slicing tomatoes.

I’m looking around to see what would grow in the margins, those spaces in the nooks, overhead, along the edges. I’m also going to start looking at the various types of container systems we could use.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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I’ve been exploring the different options for containers. On the cheap, I could make serviceable containers using free wood pallets cutdown to the right height and nailed together, lined with plastic and a screen floor. I’ve done this before on my own farm. They work, but only last for 2-3 years before the wood gets too weak.

Another option would be livestock water troughs and horse feeding bunks. Of course, these cost money. But, but, but……… I learned today that our Hawaii county council representative is giving money to OKK, and the OKK president has ok’d my buying poly containers for the greenhouse. Wow, instant containers that won’t disintegrate in 2 years, easy to work with, won’t rust out (in Hawaii downwind from an active volcano, metal rusts away), and would be easy to remove when the time came. And if removed, easy to set up some place else or sell them to local livestock breeders. Since I’m happy with the poly horse feed bunks that I’m using to grow leafy greens, I am opting to buy livestock poly tanks and bunks. Now I just need to come up with a floor plan and a dealer to purchase them from. There are several Behlen dealers here, so I’ll pit one against the other and see who gives me the best deal. Things to consider when dealing ….. availability of the items, delivery of the items, cost of delivery, cost of the tanks and bunks. And although I’m leaning toward buying Behlen brand equipment, I’ll see what else is available.

Although I’ve been a DIY type homesteader for years, I’m now well into my 70’s and was not looking forward to building 15-20 containers. At this point in my life, I’d rather opt for ready-to-use containers, especially since the funds to buy them has been provided.

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A tank like this, perhaps 150 to 300 gallons

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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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Papaya
On Nov 4 I mentioned the stage of ripening when we harvest papayas. Here’s a photo to show when.

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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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Long Beans

Long beans, also called yard long beans or Chinese beans, are popular in my area. They need to be trellised, and would easily grow 15 feet or more if not managed. We are growing three different varieties, giving us 3 different colors. Why? It’s just fun.

We harvest them when they are 12 to 14 inches long.

Here’s some photos taken at another local garden. This gardener, Brian, was an avid follower of my blog, then moved to my area, set up a garden, and is now producing lots of abundant fruits and veggies that he is donating to the community. He made his own trellises out of local bamboo. 0n my next post I’ll show his tobacco plants.

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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Joylynn Hardesty

master pollinator

Posts: 4985

Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

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I've been considering growing these again. How do folk in your area prepare them?

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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Joylynn, when harvested young, they are used just like regular green beans. Usually people will cut them into one inch pieces, then steam or boil them. They are popular in stir fries and soups.

The trick is to pick them young. They longer they grow, the tougher they get. Thus we aim the harvest them at 12 inches in length. Anything over 14 inches is starting to get tougher.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

pollinator

Posts: 2142

Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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Tobacco

Yes, we grow tobacco in the garden, though not for smoking. We take advantage of it as a pesticide. Tobacco helps, along with other methods, to control the pests that we have : aphids, spider mites, and others although I don’t know exactly what they all are. I just notice that we have a whole lot less aphid and mite problems in the areas that have tobacco plants interplanted. We discovered this by accident and I’m not sure if it’s a real observation or just a perchance occurrence.

We also use the leaves to make a tea that we spray on plants that have pest problems. Tobacco spray is not our main spray, but it’s useful at times. And it really works.

Why grow our own? First, to be self sufficient. Second, so as not to possibly introduce virus to our tomatoes by using commercial tobacco. To date, our own tobacco plants have been healthy and virus free.

I recently read in an ag bulletin that one can increase the nicotine level in the plant by topping it when it goes to bloom, and by removing suckers as they develop. We haven’t done that, but perhaps we should on the plants that are interplanted in the garden rows. It’s something to think about.

I don’t recall which tobacco variety we are growing. The plants get 6 to 7 feet high, when not topped. Right now they are blooming, so we will save a bunch of seed.

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Tobacco leaves are fuzzy/sticky feeling, and large.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Tereza Okava

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Su Ba wrote:Long Beans

Long beans, also called yard long beans or Chinese beans, are popular in my area. They need to be trellised, and would easily grow 15 feet or more if not managed

Joylynn, i grow them too-- they are also known as asparagus beans, when you catch them young enough they have a nutty taste reminiscent of asparagus. They take a few weeks longer to get moving and flowering than normal string beans, but i really enjoy growing them, i hope you try them next year!

Joylynn Hardesty

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Thanks Su Ba and Tereza

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Su Ba

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Cute Piglet

Today I caught a small piglet. A little boar and cute as heck. As I’ve said before, I’m trapping feral pigs to supply our local Hub with meat. But this little guy is far too young.

I was totally surprised when I checked the trap this morning. I would have thought this piglet too small to trigger the trap door. Perhaps it’s mother or sibling bumped the trip wire.

I caught the little guy and put him into a cat trap in order to transport him back to my farm. There I will deworm him, treat him for lice, and castrate him. If he proves to be tractable, I will find him a pet home. If not, then he will be raised along with my other farm pigs.

ps- today, 11/15/22, I found him a good home. Lucky little pig.

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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

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Day in the life of a farmer

Today was harvesting day….all day. And just to let those of you who haven’t tried it yet, it was hot, sweaty, dirty, tiring, and now my back and shoulders ache. I stooped to pick up tomatillos, stretched to harvest citrus and starfruit, often reached over my head to cut moringa, bent over to pick herbs, hoisted pumpkins, dug sweet potatoes and carrots. You know, even picking greens at waist level becomes tiring after a couple hours. And picking beans from a trellis gets tiring, too.

After tending to my own farm chores, I headed down to the OKK gardens to pick oranges, tangerines, lemons, limes, starfruit, papayas, leafy greens, herbs, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and tomatillos. Then I drove to Brian’s pick tomatoes and long beans. He had a bunch of bananas ready to cut down, but alas I forgot to bring my knife. On my way back home I swung by Alice’s to pick her nice Tahitian limes. Then back to my farm just before dark to pick mints & more herbs, mamaki, and turmeric. Thank heavens I’m not the only person harvesting. One person simply cannot get it all done in one day. Happily there are several volunteers helping with the harvesting.

I have no idea yet what will be on the table at the farmers market tomorrow. That’s something I find out when I set up. Other volunteers drop off their produce first thing in the morning, so it’s a surprise to me too what shows up. This might sound like chaos, and it is in a way, but it always seems to work out ok. Only occasionally does something get missed, overlooked, forgotten.

One thing that we don’t do is wash the veggies and fruits. We hose off the majority of dirt from the root crops, and rinse away any spiders and bugs. We let buyers know that the harvest is direct from the field and is not processed. Some crops get hosed off, others don’t. Washing and processing the harvest would take several more hours of time. Extra time is something we don’t have. Plus we don’t have the proper equipment and water to process the harvest according to USDA standards. So buyers are made aware that we are a direct field sale operation. Our low prices reflect that.

I’ll try to remember to get some pictures at the farmers market tomorrow.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

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A few market pictures….

Market goodies included limes, lemons, oranges, starfruit, three kinds of pumpkins, edible gourds, 4 kinds of eggplant, long beans, regular green beans, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, comfrey, mamaki, spearmint, moringa, and mixed leafy greens. They rest of the harvest went to the local Hub for the free meals program. We had 8 boxes of eggplants, selling them for $1 per pound. By 11 o’clock I was giving them away to anyone interested. I still ended up with a full box that I took to the Hub.

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Meyers lemons. We pick them green, on the verge of going yellow because the fruit flies tend to get them otherwise.

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4 kinds of eggplant today: green, dark purple, blushed purple, and purple Japanese type.

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Moringa on the stem. I also had a full roasting pan of cleaned leaves. I sold everything.

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Tomatoes and long beans. I had 4 boxes just like this one. Sold them all.

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Green things : moringa leaves, mixed leafy greens, basil, cilantro, parskey

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Our display pumpkin, along with edible gourds.

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Jumbo pumpkins. They look like some sort of watermelon, don’t they?

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More pumpkins. We sell quite a few pumpkins.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Joylynn Hardesty

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I love star fruit! I live way out of its range though, and rarely get to the international market. Next time you have them, could you take a pic of what they look like at peak ripeness?

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
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Su Ba

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Joylynn, I’ll try to get photos for you. We pick them green with a blush of light yellow. They are fragile when ripe. People will buy them partially ripe and allow them to go yellow at home. When at peak ripeness they are actually already getting brown on their ridges. Most people use them before peak ripeness. I’m heading to the farm later today and I’ll try to remember to go into the orchard.

Starfruit is considered a trash tree here. They are not all that pretty to look at, and they drop a lot of fruit that usually goes rotting. So they stink. As a result, trees near homes have been gradually disappearing. I find it sad that folks are removing food trees, but mango, breadfruit, guava, starfruit, grapefruit, pomelo, and jackfruit, and avocado often get chopped down.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

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Starfruit

Starfruit is certainly a tropical fruit and is common enough in my area of Hawaii. There are a half a dozen trees that I have permission to harvest from. One of those trees produces exceptionally large fruits. Another has small fruits but they are much nicer tasting. Perhaps they are different varieties, I never looked into it.

The farm that OKK uses has two trees. Right now they are fruiting. I pick the fruits but normally don’t sell them ourselves. They either get used at our local Hub for the free meals, or they are given to the fruit vendor at our farmers market. Fruits that are not usable get fed to my pigs. The pigs love them.

I pick them on the greenish side though starting to ripen — top fruit in the photo. They are sold in the half ripe stage —— middle fruit in the photo. They are tastiest when bright golden yellow like the bottom fruit.

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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

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Using Weedblock

Weeds! When the size of the garden jumped from 1/2 acre to 2 1/2 acres, we quickly learned that we simply couldn’t keep up with the weed control. We didn’t have enough volunteers to hoe and pull weeds. So we needed to try a different approach. We opted to try weedblock. It was an experiment that worked out ok.

The weedblock we use is commercial grade. It allows rain and our liquid fertilizer to flow through. It’s heavy duty enough to withstand repetitive removal and laying down again…..because that’s exactly the method we are trying.

First step — spread compost and till it in.
Second step — roll out the weedblock and pin it down with staples designed for the task.
Third step — mark the row, lay the irrigation tape atop the weedblock.
Fourth step — cut holes where plants will be. Spacing depends upon the crop.
Fifth step— plant the crop.
Sixth step — harvest crop and remove old plants.
Seventh step — carefully roll up the irrigate tape and weedblock so that it can be reused.
Eighth step — till in compost and start the cycle over again. For crops that don’t require spacing, such as lettuce or peas, we plant right into the row without re-laying down the weedblock. We save that weedblock piece for future use, for when we put in a crop such as eggplant.

So you see, our weedblock is not a permanent installation. It gets removed between crops and reinstalled when needed. So far this system seems to be working. We don’t have the entire garden covered in weedblock. I guess we’ve done almost an acre so far. Our goal is to get the whole thing covered.

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Sowing gourd seeds into the holes in the weedblock.

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A new crop in a row where the weedblock was not re-installed for now.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Joylynn Hardesty

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Thanks so much for the detailed star fruit information!

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

Su Ba

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Weedblock — a little more discussion

When I posted about using weedblock, I only talked about the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. So my post came over as "oh my, just another commercial farm application". But in reality, it’s not just that. We are actually incorporating some permaculture ideas, but perhaps with a twist. Keep in mind that I like to experiment and will use what works for me. I’m not one to mindlessly follow a recipe.

So………..
1- all crop residue is collected and chopped up by running it over with a lawnmower. This is set aside and covered in a clear tarp to bake in the sun for a couple of days in hope to kill pests and weed seeds.
2- the weedblock and irrigation tape is carefully lifted and set off to the side so that it can be easily reapplied once the soil has been worked……or rolled up for future use if not needed immediately.
3- the soil gets a quickie soil test for pH and N-P-K. Homemade calcium source (heated, then crushed, local sourced bone & coral) gets applied as needed. Then a pickup truck full of homemade compost (or county compost if we have it) gets applied to the soil surface.
4- the garden bed gets rototilled to incorporate the compost and calcium into the top 4" - 6".
5- now one of two things can be the next step.
a- if a crop is to be planted not using the weedblock, such as peas, greens, beets, peanuts, then we lay down the irrigation tape and sow the seeds..
b- if individual plants are to be spaced (such as eggplant, pumpkin) we do one more step. We spread that chopped up crop residue plus grass clippings atop the soil, just as you would do applying mulch. The layer ends up being 1/2" to 1" thick. We then spread out the weedblock atop this mulch, lay down the irrigation tape, and plant into the already made holes in the weedblock.

Why apply a mulch before applying the weedblock? This seems to help with weed suppression. Plus it’s good for the soil microbes. And as an added benefit, by lifting the weedblock in places, we can look for slugs. We are working to keep the garden slug-free. If a slug or snail is found, we know to treat that area with sluggo.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

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I’ve been busy at the farm, plus doing pig hunting, so that once again I find myself falling to sleep in my lounge chair at night. But tonight I’m awake, and actually having difficulty falling asleep. You see…..the volcano I live on has decided to erupt. I awoke pre-dawn today with my cellphone dinging it’s head off with lots of text messages. Everyone was warning others that Mauna Loa had woke up and there was lava at the summit. What an exciting way to wake up. No lazy lolling in bed today!

But after the initial excitement, things have been calm all day. I’ve been following the eruption on Facebook, which has proven to have the best, most recent, and pictorial updates.

Fairly confident that I wouldn’t be bugging out today, I put in a full day at the farm. Harvesting. Watering. Preparing another raised bed. Preparing a trellis area for sowing beans. Hoeing. It felt great to be working outdoors, though the occasional whiff of sulfur in the air reminded me that Mauna Loa was awake.

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Lava flowing down the northeast rift area.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

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Mauna Loa is still putting on quite the show, but luckily, there has been no threat to humans at this point. Of course that could change at any time. I cannot see any of the show from my farm, not even a red glow. Last night it rained at my place, so the cloud cover was too low for the red lava light to be reflected off of them. No sulfur smell in the air, no ash fall. One wouldn’t be aware that there was an eruption occurring right up the mountain for me.

People in other locations are seeing the eruption. 5 miles away, you can see a red glow in the sky. 20 miles away you can see a stronger red glow and the brightness of the lava fountains. Further away and from different angles, you can actually see the lava flowing down the mountain.

Since there is presently no threat to humans, the eruption is quite thrilling. Tourists and residents alike are flocking to see and photograph it. And though tourists don’t seem to be aware, the situation could change at anytime. This volcano is very dangerous and could erupt along a different rift, thus bringing destruction upon thousands of residents. We simply hope for the best. Most of the people I know are either ready, or are getting prepared for a sudden bug out. We sleep with our cellphones beside our beds in the advent of evacuation alerts.

This is my favorite photo to date, of the eruption. It’s been adjusted for a night shot, and has a long exposure. So it’s actually brighter and redder than you’d interpret with your naked eye. But it’s still a great picture. It was take several thousand feet up upon Mauna Kea looking over to Mauna Loa.

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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Mark Reed

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Glad to hear from you Su Ba and that you are ok. You were the first thing I thought of when I heard the mountain was waking up. As screwy as it might sound, I wish I was there to see it. I read just a minute ago that the lava was only a few miles from the saddle road, but had stopped its advance, for now. Aren't you in the approximate vicinity of South Point.

Kilauea was acting up a just a little bit when we were there several years ago, liquid rocks running out the ground is something I'll for sure never forget.

Nothing ruins a neighborhood like paved roads and water lines.

Su Ba

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Hi Mark. Yes, I’m very near the intersection of South Point Road and Mamalahoa Highway (route 11). Though I’m not near the current eruption, I do live adjacent to one of the rifts, thus my farm is in the rift zone. I am very aware that the volcano could erupt along this rift and thus endanger my farm, but I willingly took the risk when I purchased the land. One always hopes that it won’t happen in one’s lifetime. So far, it hasn’t.

Although eruptions can be devastating, to me they are also amazingly thrilling. The volcano is one of the reasons we settled here. We find it draws us, and also fascinates us. In the past I’ve hiked many miles over rough lava just to be able to watch the lava oozing firsthand. To hear the lava moving, to smell its life. Incredible stuff. It was worth the all day hike in the blazing sun. I’ll never forget it.

We are drawn to this eruption too. We will be getting out first glimpse tonight, as long as it’s still erupting. One never knows when it stops and restarts again.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

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Long Beans

I helped another local gardener and was able, as my reward, to bring home some mature long beans pods ready for harvesting the beans. The pods are leathery, not brittle dry. Around here the air is usually too humid for bean pods to dry down completely.

I’m in the process of restarting parts of my farm gardens. One of my first tasks was to clean up and repair some trellises. My plan is to grow long beans on them. Here’s some photos of my harvest of seeds for planting. I hope to get them planted in the next few days.

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Some individual pods and the beans I’m harvesting.

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The pods are leathery so I can pull the two sides apart, like unzippering them, and the beans drop out.

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I ended up with plenary of beans ready to sow.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

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I got word today from the new farm manager at the Chinese farm that the use of the big greenhouse has been turned over to OKK, that means "me". Yahoo!! This has been an on again, off again affair that has been stressing out me and Wayne. So at least in the eyes of the farm manager, the situation is settled. The farm manager wasn’t happy and did not agree with the farm owner about granting us use of this greenhouse. I was told that I would have to do all the work of removing the failed coffee seedlings, remove the seed tables, clean the place out, plus clean up all the weeds and abandoned trash from around the outside of the greenhouses. Guess the manager was trying to discourage me or just make it difficult, but I didn’t care. I gladly rose to the challenge. So after the farmers market today, and in the rain and tired from the market day, I began. I removed enough to make it obvious that I had staked my claim. I scooped two trashcanfuls of promix from two seed starting tables. That’s 2 emptied out of 5 tables. I also removed a dozen dead ornamental plants that were in 2 gallon pots and carted them to the ravine where the farm bio-trash gets thrown. I salvaged the pots. I salvaged over 3 dozen plants that were still alive but need a lot of tender loving care to rehabilitate. Those I moved to another location for daily attention instead of dumping them in the ravine. I also got three trash cans of debris bagged up, which I’ll take to the trash transfer station tomorrow. I felt that I needed to make my mark in order to stop this on again, off again game.

Tomorrow I will devote half a day to the greenhouse. I figure it will take me 3 to 4 days to get everything done, and that’s before I start building our green house project. There is a lot of crap around and in the greenhouse that needs to be removed. After everything is out, I’ll rent a steamer and clean up the interior of the house. Then I’ll spray a treatment or two of agricultural vinegar to help sanitize that place, letting the vinegar soak into the ground. Then I will water in an application of lime. Then the real work begins. I’m looking forward to it!

Post note— I’m incorporating permaculture techniques in this food project where feasible. In this situation I am recycling old potting soil, recycling existing pots, doing sanitation and weed removal via steam, agricultural vinegar, and lime.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Su Ba

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New Greenhouse Project

I wasted no time establishing my presence in the newly acquired greenhouse. I spent much of the morning removing reject vegetables from the main garden. These will be used to feed my pigs, which are destined for Christmas dinners at the local Hub. I then devoted the afternoon to complying with the new manager’s instructions. Got 6 trash bags of debris picked up and hauled to the trash transfer station. Almost all that trash was leftover by the previous farm crew/manager. I would have loved to have gotten rid of it before this time but the stuff didn’t belong to me. Glad to have gotten permission to trash it this time. Removed another dozen dead plants, dumping the soil onto the spot that I hope to plant onions, and saving their pots for recycling. Removed, folded, and stored several screen tarps that were stashed outside the greenhouse. Cleaned out under the two workbenches in the breezeway between the two greenhouses. Emptied more of the seed bed tables —- only one more to go! Moved all that used potting soil into trash cans for future recycling. That soil isn’t a lost cause. The coffee seedlings failed due to overwatering, lack of correct soil pH and fertilizer, lack of care.

Tomorrow afternoon I plan to finish emptying the last seed starting table, then start removing the failed coffee seedlings.

I talked with Wayne about our new intended growing beds. He assured me that we could grow directly on the floor. This gives me different options about what to set up. It will be far cheaper to build on-ground growing beds. And I was worried about the availability of livestock tanks. We would need quite a few. So I am heavily leaning toward ground based beds. I will still make them removable, but this project is becoming easier and cheaper.

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The inside of the new greenhouse, full of failures.

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A closer view of the failed coffee seedlings.

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A seed starting bed. Not much growing other than weeds.

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Emptied out seed bed. I still need to haul these tables out and stack them beside the farm’s warehouse.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

L. Johnson

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I'm curious about coffee in Hawaii. I know kona coffee is a pretty famous export, but it's not native right?

Can you grow coffee in bare soil that is weather exposed in Hawaii or do you need a variable controlled greenhouse in most places?

Here in southern Japan it's not supposed to be possible to grow coffee outside, but I'm wondering on this point whether I couldn't make it work with some microclimate management. Probably not economically viable... but interesting to me as a hobby project. I don't love the tea plants I have enough to substitute for my morning coffee.

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Su Ba

pollinator

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Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)

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posted 2 years ago

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Coffee

Coffee grows on many of the Hawaiian islands as a commercial crop. It is all grown outdoors. When I lived in New Jersey, I saw a few coffee trees thriving inside a heated greenhouse. But since coffee is killed by frost, it could not survive outdoors in New Jersey.

Hawaiian coffee is referred by name to the region it is grown in. Thus there is Kona coffee, Ka’u coffee, Kauai coffee, etc. The coffee varieties grown on the individual farms varies. Many popular varieties include Guatemalan, caturra, bourbon, etc. There is no such variety called Kona, but there is a sub-variety of Guatemalan referred to as Kona Typica. I don’t know if it qualifies as a scientific variety or if it is just a regional thing. And to answer your question as to whether it is native or not…it is not native. It was imported.

Coffee prefers well drained soil. It does not do well if it’s roots are water logged. It commonly grows well on lava rock type soils…..that is, broken up lava on the upper 6-10 inches and natural lava deeper down. It grows well in volcanic ash soils too. I’ve seen wild trees growing down in the gulches where the soil is just rotted, built up vegetation debris. Drainage is the thing, I think.

The commercial farms grow it in full sun. There are some small operations that grow it in partial shade. I’ve seen wild trees in full shade but they don’t produce a lot.

Coffee does best with afternoon rain and overcast skies. But it does ok when those conditions are not met. The coffee farms on Maui are in blazing sun with little rain. Thus the farm use irrigation to simulate afternoon rain.

It takes 3 years before a coffee seedlings makes its first flowers. Production is spotty until the tree is at least 5 years old. Trees produce far better if they are dramatically pruned from time to time. The first time I assisted on a pruning job I was aghast. It looks brutal, but the tree comes back beautiful and productive.

I’m told that coffee is an elite drink in Japan……at least Hawaiian coffee is. I guess it’s a status symbol thing.

If you succeed in growing your own, it’s easy enough to process it at home to make your own morning coffee. I did it for years until hubby needed to switch to decaf for heart reasons.

I don’t know about Japan. Frost would be the big issue, since it kills coffee.

It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Tereza Okava

gardener

Posts: 4001

Location: South of Capricorn

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posted 2 years ago

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Our climate is pretty much the same as yours, L Johnson (9b), and many folks here have coffee in their yards. We don't get hard frosts, maybe max -2 and almost always only for a few hours at night. And any frost means you need to cover the tree (there is a farmer's text message system I sign up for to make sure I cover what needs it!), but if you plant it in a lee or near a wall that retains heat it's generally fine.
buuuuuut, i think most of the coffee growing in people's yards is robusta, not arabica (which is what Dr Google tells me is what Hawaii is known for). Robusta can take a lot more abuse, but the flavor is not as refined. Here when you buy a coffee plant it's just called "coffee", and I'd have to have a botanist look at it to tell me what variety it is, but I suspect if you could find yourself a robusta you'd be able to keep it alive just fine. I've found after helping people pick, dry, grind, etc this backyard coffee that I enjoy it a lot, no matter what kind of mutt it is!

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