Growing Fruit in Fern Forest (2200ft altitude)

[JonPaulZ]

[] Hello,
Let me start of by saying that I am mainly interested in hearing people's personal experiences with growing fruit on or very near my elevation. I am trying to conduct some research before I try and fail miserably to create a fruit orchard to sustain myself and my family. I understand that much better land is located else where but I do not have that option because this is what I have and I don't want to sell it. I currently own three acres off of Omega in the fern forest community.
I have read that coconuts, mango, lychee do not produce so well in my elevation or do not produce at all. Anyone else with success or failure stories? Locals have told me that Banana's, pineapple, Papaya, Lilikoi and most citrus all do fine at this elevation. That's a pretty good start! I would love to hear any input as well. Thank you! Email me @ JonZahler@Yahoo.com

[lquade]

I was at 2300 for many many years. all citrus, and surprising, jackfruit and breadfruit did well. i did try plums but it just wasn't cold enough and some of the other low chill stuff wasn't out yet. now, the low chill anna apples are out and i am getting them a 1000 foot lower in elevation so i would definitely try them where you are. oh, yeah avocados do well, don't forget them!!

[Rene Siracusa]

Your tax dollars support the agricultural extension service at komohana, and they have the info you need.

[terracore]

We had land up the hill from you at 2,800 feet. Understanding that's a big difference from 2,200 feet but we had problems getting the stuff we wanted to grow to produce anything. We currently are at 850 feet and everything that grew at 2,800 feet grow 10x faster at 850. Our 2,800 land included bananas when we bought it (of unknown age, but looked very mature) and it took nearly 3 years for them to make bananas, and they were small and spindly. They made maybe a keiki per year tops. Our citrus grew unbelievably slow. If you go the higher altitude route, make sure that the things that need sun don't get shaded. I don't know of any coconut palms that fruit that high, but others here might. All of our coconut palms at 850 feet make coconuts but there are many varieties that seldom fruit any higher than just above sea level.

[bananahead]

good comments,
I was thinking about this.... (I dont live up there)
one clue I thought of... is there are no orchards of any types of fruit trees that far up the hill (that I know of), yet the land is cheaper overall... but there are many orchards down lower macnut, guava, noni, papaya, etc. etc.. I agree with the comments... Id say prime would be Orchidland area for best grow conditions overall.
Im at 1,200' and coconuts do very bad here, they are very slow on my property and mature trees are very rarely seen (they love salt and sand)... no way they would grow up there IMO.

PS.
one thing you can grow, that we cant down here, is the native blueberries (Ohelo), there are 2 that love to live up there

small bush type with slightly better tasting fruit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_reticulatum

tree type
http://wildlifeofhawaii.com/flowers/1101...-kau-laau/

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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha

[JonPaulZ]

Very interesting... I have been reading the responses and from what I am getting from you guys is that at 2000 ft elevation you essential get the best of both worlds. Bummer about the coconuts, what a lovely bunch they would have been. However I can grow both tropical and sub tropical varieties. I would like to gather a list for everyone who is essentially curious about the same thing. Here is what I have so far and feel free to add whatever you wish.
Banana's, pineapple, papaya, lilikoi, Anna apples, plums, avacados, coffee, cocoa,, jackfruit, breadfruit, cara cars navel orange, fisher navel, lane late navel orange, Moro blood orange, Valencia orange, Washington navel orange, calamondin lime, eureka lemon, kaffir lime, improved Meyer lemon, variegated pink eureka lemon, Tahitian lime, clementine tangerine, fancy tangerine, Fremont tangerine, honey tangerine, kishu mini tangerine, satsuma, Ben hu pommelo, flame, star ruby grapefruit, miewa kumquat... Cannot forget the blueberries! That's all I got for now...

[laurarice]

I am starting to plant a small piece of open land at 1700 feet.. Good deep soil. I'll keep this thread going as I progress.....I personally would not plant grapefruit that high. It need more heat than other citrus. Kumquat would be a good choice, although I know it is not the best citrus.

Laura

[Lee M-S]

*Permacopia* is an invaluable set of books on growing food plants written by local (Volcano) author D. Hunter Beyer.
She notes elevation and rain requirements for each plant, uses, and more.

bk. 1. Endemic, indigenous & Polynesian plant species of Hawai#699;i : including plants of the Ahupua#699;a
bk. 2. An encyclopedia of plants for a sustainable future in Hawai#699;i
bk. 3. The weeds : the plant species not appropriate for Hawai#699;i.

They may be available through library and used to be available at Basically Books or on Amazon, but they're not showing up in either online listing right now. Also, it looks like the books may have been consolidated into a single volume since I bought mine.

http://www.basicallybooks.com/gardening.html is Basically Books list of gardening books, looks interesting.

Might try Wi apples, guava, those local kine raspberries, mulberry. Those all do fine at 1500 feet.

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[rbrgs]

Jabotacaba, Rollinia Deliciosa, Abiu, Pitanga. I'm at 1900', and all of those have fruited for me.