Free Dirt?

[Lodestone]

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Originally posted by terracore

If you use the county mulch, and have success or failures with it, please post them here. I am new to using the mulch myself and the less wheels reinvented, the better.

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Roger-wilco. FWIW, here's how my farming in Puna has gone so far...
Been experimenting/planting since we moved into our house in Hawaiian Shores two years ago. We have an acre of land, half lawn (over 4” cinder), quarter pahoehoe, quarter a’a and mud jungle.
THE MAINSTAYS: Pineapples, papayas, bananas, and avocados. Of note:
Most of our papayas are of the “Caribbean Red” variety, which I have not seen elsewhere on the island…their fruit is huge – the size of footballs. Have grown several from seed, and they produce fruit in about a year and a half. However, they also die suddenly and randomly, about a third in a given year. The solution: plant lots more. While growing from seeds in pots has been easy using potting soil (Black Gold), planting directly in the cinder-soil works only rarely – lots of sprouts that soon die.
Have planted five avocados from pits; all five are thriving and growing about 3 ft/year. Don’t bother with all the You-tube gibberish about avocado pit planting – that’s for non-jungle dwellers. Just stick’em in potting soil, pointy side down, top third not covered, and wait a few weeks. Our (normally) incessant rains will do the rest.
I have used NO fertilizer on any of the above; they don’t seem to need any (although our pineapples are smallish).
THE MARGINALS: Citrus (navel oranges, tangerines, honey-tangerines, lemon) are all doing OK, albeit with slow growth (about a foot per year) despite fertilizing… but the internet says that’s normal. Tomatoes have been a challenge; only Romas and UH varieties are viable, and raised beds are helpful, but they all turn black and die within a couple of months, despite fertilizing and anti-mold sprays. My “cherry” tomato bushes each produced one or two tiny tomatoes before dying. I get a few puny tomatoes, but it ain’t easy. I hear tale of tomatoes growing like wildfire in Puna, but not in my yard.
THE PROMISING: Breadfruit, longan, lychee, rambutan, sweet potatoes, asian winged beans are all good so far, but it’s too soon be sure.
THE DEAD AND DYING: figs, UH-bell peppers, corn, UH-corn, watermelon, locally-sourced watermelon, UH-watermelon…. these all committed suicide upon planting. Strawberry and blueberry hung in there a few months, but never fruited.

[terracore]

The UH tomatoes do well at our place but they do best when grown in a container. We didn't have any luck with a raised bed. I think the problem was too much water. Our tomato plant is only a few months old and it's already about 10 feet high and bursting with tomatoes. Miracle Grow in a watering can once a week. It took us a few years to learn that stuff we grew in the ground in Oregon does better here in a container.

You don't have to bury the avocado pits. The ones I threw into the jungle magically turned into trees on their own.

We had the hardest time growing rosemary. Nobody told me that in order for it to thrive, it doesn't like to get fertilizer or water.

Commercial pineapple growers only foliar feed them. The guy explained to me that they don't absorb nutrients through their roots well. They also like to be grown close together. They induce flowering with an ethylene product, basically halving the amount of time it takes to get a pineapple.

I don't know if we've tried the UH peppers, we planted the seeds from a pepper from the store and they are doing well. The bags of small peppers (the multi-colored ones) from Cost-U-Less and target grow well here.

Most of our non-tree crops are experiments. Finding out what works and what doesn't before investing time and money to scale them up.