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We're ready for our first experiment - Lemons
#1
I've posted prevously about our interest for gardening in Volcano (We're in the top end of Royal Hawaiian Estates just off Alii Anela). We've been told that most things we try to grow up here can be an experiment. So we're ready to try! I'd like to try lemons since they are very versatile when it comes to cooking.

So, any pointers? Most hardy variety, where to buy, fertilizer, where to plant in relation to the sun, etc..

I plan on planting in a naturally raised part of our property so drainage shouldn't be an issue.

Mahalo.
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#2
Adam, have you tried to put a shovel in that spot you're planting. Unless your lot was ripped and refilled, you first have to be sure you're in a hole or at least a large, deep Crack!



You'l need full southern exposure, and find a variety that likes altitude! Assuming lemon would like acid conditons, your ground's got it!
Hold off on any smelly organic fertilizer, as the pig's will wipe it out, and your tree with it!
Gordon J Tilley
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#3
I've grown lemons in an area that gets down to almost freezing. They are hardier than any other citrus. If you don't have soil depth, build a raised bed.
Use citrus fertilizer ... (not being a smartass, just saying that's a common formula)
Lemons (citrus) get chlorosis here; the citrus formulas have the iron chelate in them.
My lemons are suffering from black sooty mold /aphids.
The way to control this is to get rid of the ants that farm the aphids that excrete the honeydew that the sooty mold lives on. [Wink]

Mine is still suffering because I don't like to use poison around food crops.
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#4
We had the aphid problem on our citrus here in North Glenwood; we sprayed the leaves with kitchen dish soap solution and let it sit a day. Then we washed each leaf with a sponge with a scrubby sponge and resh water. It did the trick. I have wonderful citrus trees now. It is labor intensive but it worked well.

Aloha, Pam

Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
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!"
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#5
Mmmm, lemony-fresh...lemons.

Wait, what?

John Dirgo, R, ABR, e-PRO
Aloha Coast Realty, LLC
808-987-9243 cell
http://www.alohacoastrealty.com
John Dirgo, R, PB, EcoBroker, ABR, e-PRO
Aloha Coast Realty, LLC
808-987-9243 cell
http://www.alohacoastrealty.com
http://www.bigislandvacationrentals.com
http://www.maui-vacation-rentals.com
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#6
After reading Plant-it Hawaii's website, it appears that Satsuma does very well at higher altitude, in fact it prefers it. I've also thought about blueberries. Does anybody have any info on where to get blueberry? I know it is not a common crop but is it even available? I found an article online by I thing the Star-Bulletin from a year ago that UH was testing many different blueberry varieties in Waimea and that initially they responded very well.
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#7
quote:
Originally posted by Adam79
I've also thought about blueberries. Does anybody have any info on where to get blueberry? I know it is not a common crop but is it even available?


Adam,

My wife actually saw the trials of the Waimea MRS testing.
She was bummed because they weren't ready to eat yet.

This HA article is about the UH Research.

"Mealani Research Station, which is 2,800 feet above sea level. Yields ranged from 9 pounds to 22 pounds per 10 plants during the course of a year, depending on the variety of blueberry."

-------
Today in History:
Mrs. Mary Castle, one of the few early missionaries to the "Sandwich Island Mission" who lived into the 20th century, dies at the age of 87. She arrived in Hawai'i in 1843. 1907
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#8
http://www.baylaurelnursery.com/

These folks have a lot of "low chill" fruit tree varieties as well as blueberries and other berry bushes - HOWEVER - they have finished shipping the bare root trees for this year so you'd have to wait for next year to order.

We got an order of fruit trees from these folks this year as well as some of the bare root fruit trees from Paradise Plants which came in from L.E. Cooke nursery in California. Many of the Bay Laurel plants we got were from the Dave Wilson Nursery which is a wholesale nursery like L.E. Cooke. The Bay Laurel/Dave Wilson plants were smaller than the Paradise Plants/L.E. Cooke plants but all of them are leafing out very vigorously and doing well. We bought two larger trees from PP/LEC and one of them is leafing out although not with such wild abandon as the BL/DWN trees and the larger tree from PP/LEC seems to be dead. Don't know for sure yet the limbs are still flexible, but there's no budding and it has been in the ground for several weeks now.

Plant it Hawaii has several big sales every year getting a few trees from them is a good choice.

"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales." 
Kurt Wilson
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#9
Has anyone here ever tried keeping lemons (or limes) as a container plant? I know that couldn't last forever but it would make it easy to control sun, water, cold, etc. I know that it can be done with Meyer lemons specifically but just wondered if anybody has experience doing so.
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