Is anybody replacing their ohias?

[MarkP]

Eucalyptus Robusta I think. AKA swamp mahogany? I can see harvesting useful logs in a few years. I don't think I have a single Ohia on site that would yield a usable log. They are all too small or crooked.

I have thought about bamboo. So many to choose from. Even the clumping varieties can be a bit overwhelming. Some make edible shoots though. That is a mark in their favor.

At least for the unripped section nearest the road I went through and tried to kill off all the guava and glory bush trees. I tried not to kill any uluhe. I sprayed the foliage of the glory bush with diluted roundup and hacked and squirted the trunks of the guava with a much richer concentration of roundup. It takes multiple applications but eventually does the job. I like to think that the Ohias have benefited.

[bgiles]

I've planted Koa, maybe lost 4 ohia, planted 4 koa. Unfortunate, koa is a legume and da pigs love it, so had to protect the trunks with sewage pipe and roots with massive amounts of cinder and some barbed wire. Killing guava and glory bush is a full time job.

[Justin]

Several years ago, when ROD was just taking off, I had just purchased two acres of mostly pristine Ohia and uluhe in Leilani, adjacent to the lot with my house. As soon as I started seeing some of the Ohia get sick, I planted 15 or so Mahogany trees (4 different species) in areas where there was the most damage. I picked those because they are hardwoods (so less brittle in windstorms), and also that they don't have any low branches, so I could put them closer to walking paths. So far, they've grown very fast, and have provided some canopy where otherwise there would be none. Because they are close to paths, if I ever wanted to cut them down (for whatever reason), I could. I also checked to ensure that they won't proliferate, and only the "Toona" mahogany appears to be at risk of being invasive, so I didn't purchase any of that variety.

The mix of the Mahoganys and the remaining Ohias looks fairly natural, at least to me. Future Forests Nursery on the Kona side grows keikis that you can order. I hope this helps.

[terracore]

What is the name of the invasive weed with the purple flower (not glory bush or kosters curse, the smaller one)? I forgot. Our lot used to be infested with them. A sword fern moved in and completely displaced them, they are virtually gone now. I've found that as I hack the glory bush and koster's curse down the fern moves in quickly. We had a similar fern in Oregon and Alaska but they only grew to about knee height. In Hawaii they get 10 feet tall and extremely dense, even in very poor soil.

It's like invasive species whack-a-mole. The LFA don't seem to like either the glory bush or the kosters curse because I never find them there, but I do get occasionally stung while hacking through the sword ferns. They absolutely love the guava. If I'm fighting guava I get stung every time.

[Amrita]

Have 4 acres, 37th.  Never ripped even house is on posts on pahoehoe.  Many many ohias but a few have died.  Re: pigs.  I have found the best deterrent is to build up cinders around every tree.  Pigs do not like snouting in cinders. So I have wheel barrowed cinder for the last 19 years all around the property and it helps greatly. The pigs will dig where there is grass and a bit of soil/mud so I lift that up and distribute it to other trees.  Old now, 79 so cannot do it anymore but the years of effort still have provided a barrier to much damage to ohia and hapu'u and other trees I've planted among the ohias. Took a pledge when retired here to never hurt an ohia.

[CaptnCaveman]

What is the name of the invasive weed with the purple flower (not glory bush or kosters curse, the smaller one)?  I forgot.  Our lot used to be infested with them.

Not sure if you might be referring to the "sleeping plant, shameplant, or sensitive plant" (mimosa pudica)?  I spent nearly three hours weeding it out of my yard today.  My dog doesn't like to walk on it, nor do I. 

My wife was excited to show me this plant on one of our visits years ago.  Now that we live here, I wish I never crossed paths with it.

[kalakoa]

the best deterrent is to build up cinders around every tree

The best deterrent is a fence. Anything less is a constant battle.

[terracore]

No the one I'm thinking of isn't sleeping grass. The goats love that stuff. Somehow the thorns don't bother them.