Posts: 18
Threads: 4
Joined: Mar 2011
Aloha,
As posted in the introductions, we'll be there in a few days to do some exploring in our Orchidland lot. I'm hoping to plant a few fruit trees while we're there. (If anyone has some keikis they'd like to share it'd be appreciated!)
1. I'm pretty sure there was a thread a while back about vacant lot planting but I couldn't find it, so: What are a few basics we could plant that do OK on their own, i.e. can be ignored until we return next time (probably a year)? I'm mostly interested in edibles & medicinals but maybe also interesting natives/ornamentals. I intend to mulch heavy around the plant to try to keep weeds down (suggestions for where to find cardboard?)
2. I read in Fahs' book a good soil mix would be cinder & compost. Where could I get some already bagged, or a bag-it-yourself place? We don't even have a place for a load to be delivered so will need to haul it in the rental car! [8D]
3. I'm guessing some kind of fencing around the plants to protect from pigs is a good idea?
That's it for now.
Posts: 1,779
Threads: 73
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,214
Threads: 354
Joined: Feb 2006
Do you know your neighbors?
That is my suggestion for a first PLANNING trip...
Anything planted or placed on your lot could/will get "borrowed", buggy &/or overgrown if there is no connection to you...
The subdivisions here are full of lots that someone started up (cannot tell you how many have found a partial rock wall, an structure that the jungle reclaimed, a long ago orchard that is soo spent that is must be removed; or the flip side, their lot turned into a junk yard with appliances, dozens of cars, & a slew of vermin....
Most of these improvements were placed by people that had ideas to build... one day.. & have things growing & such .(of course that is not the case with the junk....but both are reasons you should get to know your neighbors, esp on those living on your street... until then, anything you do on your lot could be a waste of your valuable vacation time & open up your lot to junking & "borrowing")
There are many fruit varieties that do very well in your area, and most any will be full of fruit in just a few years (some as little as months to a little over a year after planting, others may take longer...), but the soils here are nutritionally deficient, and without care, you will not have a lovely orchard of fruiting trees, but trees that are nutritionally spent...and buggy
Even noni gets buggy & weird if left totally alone for a long time...but is less likely to be borrowed!
ETA: Man, this is a downer!, in re-reading this, can you tell I have been trying to help a neighbor for the last few weeks trim out & resurrect her citrus trees after a few years of mild neglect (she does fertilize on the A months & has a guy that keeps down the lawn)...they were over grown with bromiliads & other epiphytes.
They had been cleaned only 4 years ago, and have now have 3' of green waste that another neighbor & I have scraped & cut off of the trees, piled around them - and now all of that has to goooo (last time we did not remove the green waste...& all the plants just went to seed & made a big mess all over again....
Posts: 966
Threads: 61
Joined: Jan 2006
i agree with carey, that your neighbors are really important here. i am so glad i planted first thing, by the time the house was built (took about 4 years) we have wonderful edibles everywhere. fruit trees, sweet potatoes, taro etc. but i was on island and never went over a week without my being there, and did fertilize and weed, but not faithfully as i was building. i did fense and gate right away also. we were lucky , never had a problem but had neighbors close by , not on a backroad jungle lot...i say try it with a tangerine tree or two and the impossible to kill bananas. and see what happens. you wont be out that much, and might be pleasantly surprized.
Posts: 2,189
Threads: 295
Joined: Sep 2004
We have plenty of Banana Keiki you can come dig up....
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 331
Threads: 30
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,214
Threads: 354
Joined: Feb 2006
OK...If you set about making this a hard working vacation & are going to plant against MY better judgement...
We have SEEDLINGS of coffee, avocado, Manilla Palm, possibly a bilimbi & maybe one or two papaya (might have a common guava sprout....can never keep them in order!) & a pandan or two ...and can always get you cuttings from Ti, moringa, cassava, and we also have one or two apple banana keiki..... (BTW _ This is all from one of the smallest town lots in Keaau Town....also why I am warning you....you end up with soooo much more than you than you can ever imagine....most sticks do grow well here...even broom handles!!!
We also have some cinder soil, if you want to bag or bucket your own....
Posts: 604
Threads: 50
Joined: Apr 2009
We bought a lot that was over grown, and have been surprised at what we found. What did the best? The lumpy lemon, the ti plants, gardenias, anthuriums. The mac nut was pale from lack of food. The things that did the best were the stuff that could survive in the shade of the uluhe and guava that abounded. We found many things that survived, but most were in pathetic, leggy, non producing state. I'd go for the citrus. Oh, and the turk's cape hibiscus. You'll see it often on the right of ways.
Peace and long life
Peace and long life
Posts: 18
Threads: 4
Joined: Mar 2011
Hey... We'd love to take you up on the keiki offers but haven't had good internet access... might have to wait until next time! Not much food on the lot that we've found so far, except guava of course. Thanks all!
Posts: 43
Threads: 8
Joined: Jul 2010
My advice would be to cut most of the strawberry guavas, ferns and ohias and plant mucuna, sesbania, leucaena, and tropical kudzu wherever you can. This will add thousands of pounds of organic material to your land. Your lot will become overgrown with whatever seeds are there now. Let it be overgrown, but determine yourself which plants are best for improving your land. Aim for tropical legumes. Ferns and miserable grasses around half dead fruit trees won't be much of a help to you once you move there.
|
