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One of our lots has never been cleared, ripped, or grubbed. We were planning to leave it in it's natural state full of ohias. Other than albezia poisoning I haven't done much to it. I did a pretty thorough survey of it today and all the ohias are dead or dying and the already losing battle against invasives has taken a turn for the worst. Although we've taken about 25 pigs in the last year they have really done a number on the lot and rooted up (destroyed) a significant amount of uluhe. I don't know what is up with the pigs but we have had more pig action in the last year than in the previous 8 combined.
I don't really want a 3 acre "invasives" farm and if ROD has won, should we put something in their place ? This is in OLE so not much in the way of soil.
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(12-13-2020, 02:08 AM)terracore Wrote: One of our lots has never been cleared, ripped, or grubbed. We were planning to leave it in it's natural state full of ohia....
agreed! I grieve over the loss of Hawaii’s ohia forests.
I like the trees that are planted in the demonstration plot just below leilani estates on the way to Pahoa.
Anybody know what they are?
ccat
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Our established ohias are not doing well but I see new growth at their roots and I find several keiki each spring that have done well so far. The keiki that establish themselves on moss-covered rock, I've been transplanting and I get about 50% survival rate. I don't think its ROD here since it's a slow dying process. Last spring they all looked great. Maybe they will revive again. Can you replant other native trees where the ohias have died to keep out the invasives? I find that if I give them about six inches of soil they'll eventually find their way into the cracks of the lava.
Certainty will be the death of us.
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Let it come back naturally would be one way.
Let it come back naturally and weed out the invasive stuff is another.
My place in HPP is 1/3 ripped and rolled, 1/3 lava that we cleared of vegetation and 1/3 that we just poisoned the albezia's .
It's only 1 acre though.
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12-13-2020, 08:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-13-2020, 08:13 PM by Durian Fiend.)
Ohia’s won’t come back on their own without help, they will be outcompeted by
the junk invasive species.
I would go with a mix of native trees along with easy, fast growing fruits such as Jackfruit
and breadfruit. Ohias seem to be holding their own at my place. Maybe 10% have died so far
from ROD.
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To terracore: from your previous posts, it seems we live in the same back quadrant of Orchidland. I am also experiencing a surge of ohia die-off, seemingly as a result a big uptick in pig activity disturbing their roots. I have no solution to the ohia dilemma, but I'm fairly sure the increase in pig activity is due to the large increase of new bulldozing/building in the area. Over the last few months there have been over half a dozen lots close by that have had major clearing done - not just driveway/housepad, but acreage. Every time has resulted in new damage at my house as old pig trails get disrupted, and they look for new feeding areas. Suburbia has arrived.
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without a fence it will always be an uphill battle.
best thing to do is plant large seeded quick growing fruit trees to replace ohia. you can literally just throw the seeds around the base of the dead ohia trees if youre trying a low input approach. or grow out the non native 'weed' trees and cut them down twice or three times a year and utilize their biomass around your young trees. the trees that i find grow well with minimal efforts are: avocado, jackfruit, kukui, inga, and mountain apple. throw around 100s of seeds, or fruits with seeds for extra nutrients (make sure no fire ants in your propagation material) only so many will make it to sapling stage. mamaki and kokio hibiscus are good additions as well. once you get a small canopy going then you can replant natives if thats your desire. ohe, akia, alaheʻe, kolea, kopiko, lama, papala, mamaki, loulu, hoawa, sandalwood, hame, hapuu, hala all grow nicely once there is light canopy. a lot of the natives are slow growing delicate plants who desire some shade
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We had some nice hapuu in our forest lot but as far as I can tell the pigs have destroyed all of them. I think they go after the juicy base during droughts. We had a stand of bananas in the back of one our properties that were there for years and after a pretty long dry spell the pigs completely obliterated them, digging all the rhizomes out of the ground for the water content.
I was thinking about avocado, we found one growing at the end of our property and grew a tree from one of the pits, surprisingly it started producing edible avocados after a few years. They aren't as good tasting as the mother plant and the pits are much larger but it's a strong, sturdy tree and it fruits every year.
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I planted a Samoan Breadfruit a couple of years back and it has done well. It has beautiful rich dark green leaves. Frankly in over watered and cloudy Eden Roc there is lots of brown in the landscape so the dose of vibrant green is very welcome. I really hope it fruits of course but even if not it looks really good.
About the same time I got some eucalyptus seedlings from the state. Boy have they taken off. The largest are nearly as big around as your leg now and well over 20' high.
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12-15-2020, 03:03 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-15-2020, 03:05 AM by terracore.)
Breadfruit is a great idea. We are already growing breadfruit and definitely plan on growing more. It grows really well here, and fast, looks nice, and it's a great staple food. I just wished it wasn't a "feast or famine" crop always coming in at the same time.
What kind of eucalyptus is it, and is it good for anything in particular (lumber?).
I've also thought of clumping bamboo. We have a few varieties on the ripped lot and they can probably get a start in lava crevices. There are varieties you can eat, some that are just pretty, and others make good lumber. I'm not interested in labor-intensive uses like weaving.
I would also like an edible nut other than coconuts the parrots and we can eat. Macadamia is an obvious choice but not sure that I want to wait that long (have never seen a grafted tree for sale). We try to feed the parrots edible palm nuts but they have little enthusiasm for them.
