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As others have said, no tree is totally maintenance-free. But no one mentioned pruning, which is important with citrus. You will want to shape the tree while it is young, if it needs it. Do any pruning at the end of the fruiting cycle. For citrus, prune in stages. Stage 1: remove all dead branches. Stage 2: remove any branches growing in toward the center. You want the center open so the sun can reach all the fruit. Stage 3: if some of your branches are getting so long that a heavy fruit-set will break them, prune them back to the next branching. And another pruning caveat: never prune too close to the trunk - prune to the branch collar and make the cuts vertical.
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well thankfully i think there's at least 1' of soil everywhere and upwards of 3 feet in some areas. not sure of the quality. We havent even gone over the entire lot. for all we know theres a small cabin since it was somebody homestead or something long ago. we found a push mower, car parts, retaining wall, a mango tree, probably other fruit trees and some sort of palm tree, eucalyptus etc. We've only spent about an hour on the property not too many strawberry guava no ohia though :-(, lots of tree ferns and who knows what else there is. a small portion of our lot has been cleared in the past by who knows what. right now we live in utah and can make it out every 3-6 months. not sure what our priorities should be.
My idea was to clear as much of the fern that is overgrowing the lot and up to 6' high in places. remove as much of the guava as possible if not all and get in as many native and fruit trees as we can. we realize cutting back the invasives will be an ongoing long term process. we hope to start building next year. Earthbag Construction.
Until that happens we just want to start working on it when we can get out.
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not surveyed yet. have asked a few places for a quote but never received a response. got lost once while looking at lots deeper in HA and that was not fun. had brought a gps but it wasnt working properly. quote:
Originally posted by unknownjulie
When I looked at lots in HA I noticed there were less invasives than the lower elevations, but also less soil than my lot in Orchidland. I think it'd be tough out there to get anything to grow unless you used a D9 to rip up the lava, then hauled in cindersoil for a growing area, and then cultivated it regularly. The vines are indeed incredible and they are the first thing you see when you attempt clear, to plant trees. I planted podocarpus along my lot lines and I am now having to monitor the vines. Is your lot surveyed? Make sure it is and marked well. It's easy to get turned around out there in the jungle!
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HI again. You may want to keep some strawberry guava. It's a good screen similar to bamboo and will dampen sounds also- which carry in the jungle. It also fruits. At least you have some start at a clearing there on your lot, and soil! Be there when the survey is done. I had them cut along the lot lines, but it was fairly rudimentary. I had to go in there afterwards and do quite a bit more clearing to really have a trail and have it marked as well as I'd like. I think you can use red cinder in earth bags, but I'd be more worried about what kind of plaster you'll put on the bags. The moisture here really is incredible and you'll need a lot of windows as well for ventilation. There is one earthbag house in puna that I heard of, but I dont know where it's located. IT was fully permitted from what I understand.
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Gosh. I really couldn't recommend leaving any strawberry guava intentionally. It spreads rapidly and becomes tenacious, choking out native plants like Ohia lehua. If you really get a hankering for strawberry guava just scrape some up off the side of the roads before the pigs get them.
But seriously, as far as figuring out what kind of fruit trees to plant you may want to figure out what kind of fruit YOU want to eat/ sell/ and or process. Better yet, what do you like a lot but not want to pay a ton of money to have on a regular basis. If you don't like avocado, don't plant any. If you really like tangerines you might want to plant varieties that produce both earlier and later than what is readily available commercially and at farmers markets in order to extend you season. CTAHR has some great info on crop varieties and pests but their site can become difficult to search. Still worth a look though: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/site/
Personally, I think your time would be better spent removing invasive species that will cause you trouble and detract from planting and harvesting energies in the future. Once you are actually living here and able to tend to your plants there will be less risk of losing your investment due to neglect.
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While i agree that plant-and-abandon is not the best grow plan, I think some trees would survive. How devastated would you be if you lost all your plantings and had to start over? If that would be a real problem, I would suggest waiting to plant.
Some trees do seem to do OK without supervision. There are a couple of avocados in the never-settled empty lot across from me that I
suspect grew from pits in garbage dumped there; they've depended entirely on rainfall and whatever nutrients were in the rest of the garbage bag. Citrus and bananas are well-adapted to this climate, though they probably won't bear well unless you fertilize.
You might improve the trees' chances by laying cardboard around the trunks(sheet mulching) to reduce weeds. Leave about a foot of open ground around the trunks, so they get rain.
I don't think you said how long it will be before you are here full time. If you'll at least be visiting, you can renew the sheet mulch.
Oh, and the big fern bushes with woody stems are Uluhe, a native plant. But getting rid of glory bushes and bamboo orchids is a public service.
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thanks again. yeah honestly idk how long until we are there full time it could be a couple years. i think we will probably try and do some removal of invasives in select areas, cut down all the guava and maybe try soil solarization in some places and see if that can keep things back at all or not. i'm not attached to trees dying. if that happens then so be it. maybe we will just try and do a few at a time.
does anyone know if there are any issues with burning? thought it could be a good way to get rid of some of what we remove because there is going to be a ton of it. also contact info for a surveyor that is good would be great.
anyways i appreciate everyones help on here.
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I used Evan with "Island Boundaries". 808-345-1561. He's a young guy who is very knowledgable about trees also. He and a helper came for the day to my lot and cut a thin line and marked, two boundary lines on either side of my lot that were both 375 feet long. He also put one flag in the center of the back boundary, but there is someone's driveway there, so that was fairly easy. My lot is 233ft wide. He charged me 1,000 dollars for this and I received a stamped plat afterwards. I am not the easiest person in the world to deal with, but I liked him. I think I might concentrate on clearing the lot lines and trying to manage those! Rather than planting on the interior of the lot. You might be surprised at just how much work is involved with only keeping lot lines clear, and possibly having a few trees planted on those! The money spent on a survey is definately worth it.
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We've owned our lot in Fern Acres for 5 years, and only go over about once a quarter from Oahu. To date, I have planted and abandoned to their own devices the following:
Coffee, Tangerine, Mandarin, Lime, Lychee, Banana, Cacao, Vanilla, Bluberries, Apple
The biggest hazard to these plants is my husband when he weed wacks on our visits. I have solved that by going first and clearing out a 2-foot safety perimeter around them, and flagging them with survey flagging. I'm not saying their all thriving- some are just hanging on, but there are some surprising successes, most notably the apple tree.
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Just pile your green waste, and it will rot in no time. A 12" eucalyptus trunk we cut was falling apart in 2 years.
Our neighbor was here when the big fire burned a large swath of HA and FA. He said even the ground burned. So I don't want to encourage you to light fires. incidentally, I believe that fire is why the back part of HA is so open, with hardly any guava and only smallish ohias.
quote:
Originally posted by rawvegan
does anyone know if there are any issues with burning? thought it could be a good way to get rid of some of what we remove because there is going to be a ton of it.
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