Posts: 118
Threads: 16
Joined: Nov 2007
This is exactly what I'm doing except I've constructed a protected growth chamber in my carport powered by three 26 watt compact florescents on a timer ran fourteen hours per day. When the seedlings are large enough and ready to put out once the light cycle increases, they are planted directly in the garden and a circular wire cage (which are extremely inexpensive to start with & special ordered from Pahoa Hardware [see Don or Jake], are cut in half, end for end, with linemans pliers ... so I get two for the price of one ... and placed, (actually pushed down into the soil thus anchoring the structure around the plants.) Oh, & don't forget to water well at the beginning, especially if it's dry out so the roots can grow deep and every third watering I add fertilizer to the water and Osmocote occasionaly but very lightly. Also make sure to pick vegtables as early as possible to encourage the plant to produce more for overall production. Basil rosettes or flowers should be pinched off early (and of course used ... the best pesto is made from a mixture of 50% younger leaves and 50% rosettes) and give the garnished rosettes a try in bread. And best of all basil is basically bug free.
~Aloha JayJay
JayJay
JayJay
Posts: 118
Threads: 16
Joined: Nov 2007
Make sure to dig well and if rocky use an o'o'. Amend the soil which has come from the hole before re-introduction and water well to establish deep roots. Always look for the very best species and when you find one take clones from that exceptional plant. I started with three species of Samoan spinach but one was so much better than the rest ... so now all my plants come from that original plant. I always carry a bottle with wet tissue in my vehicle and a knife and when I run into an obvious superior plant I ask for a cutting and of course here in Hawaii people always say yes. Some of my very best species of plants have come to me this way. Right now I have a passion fruit which is hybridized somehow between the large yellow and the small red and I got it because I was curious and asked for a cutting. The plant is three years old now and producing very large orange with green ribs on the surface of the fruit and delicious.
JayJay
JayJay
Most of my plant are cuttings, at least the ornimential. Coconuts are whores they'll interbreed and you'll end up with a mixture if you plant them near each other. Which is good the somoan lower to the ground trees mix good with local varities.
Root tone and stick it in the ground there nuthin that won't grow that I've tried. But then I've got 24 mango trees and there plenty dirt under them, that helps.
Posts: 151
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Joined: Mar 2007
I use 8 containers that are 1/2 55 gal. drums full of GOOD soil. I plant the seeds into the soil and have all the veg's I can use. My plumeria cuttings go into the ground. I have lost a few maybe 5 of 75.
