Can vegetation grow on this? (neighborhood, living in, land)

[rhbj03]

Hello,

This is from a piece of land on the Kona side. This looks like dirt but not too sure. The whole area has no vegetation. So I'm wondering if it's because plants can't grow or just nothing has been planted.

[steiconi]

that's lava. Some plants will grow on it, eventually break down the rock into soil so more plants can grow. Give it a few hundred years.
The process is much faster on the East side of the island, which gets enough rain to jump start the process.

Of course, you can bring in mulch and soil and grow plants that way.

Is that HOV Ranchos?

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

It looks like Miloli'i. What you are looking at is lava that has had some work done on it. There's no place on the Kona side of the island where you would find that much dirt!

The reason why there's no vegetation on that lot? Because the lava flow is less than 100 years old and Miloli'i gets very little rain (average 25 inches per year). There is some scattered vegetation in your picture so obviously there is some rain. You can grow stuff on that lot; yes, vegetation grows in lava. It would take a lot of water, and that area is on catchment. So you'd probably be trucking it in.

[Grassyknoll]

As others have said, bring in the soil and you can grow pretty much whatever you want. But with Miloli'is' lack of rainfalll, you will need to collect what rain you can and supplement with hauling water during the dry season.
I live on lava and have grown hundreds of varieties of ornamentals and crops.
But I also live at elevation which also plays a factor. Miloli'I is pretty much sea-level and is going to have relatively high day and night temperatures.

[leilaniguy]

Those rocks in the photo are called A'a which translates to OwOw! An accurate description.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by rhbj03

Hello,

This is from a piece of land on the Kona side. This looks like dirt but not too sure. The whole area has no vegetation. So I'm wondering if it's because plants can't grow or just nothing has been planted.

Those lots aren't much to look at, unless you like a lunar looking lot and neighborhood. I would suggest choosing another location. However, if you already bought or own, and living in that location is your only choice, you can grow crops above the land, using hydroponics. Another option is using raised beds, but hydroponics is drastically more efficient than growing in soil.

Hydroponic grow sites would be installed above the lava, possibly inside greenhouse(s). Hydroponics requires drastically less water and produces much more produce in much less time than conventional soil farming methods, in drastically less time.

It's tougher to do hydroponics with tree form crops, but easy to do with produce. There are many hydroponic methods. You can learn about hydroponics for free watching thousands of YouTube videos. There are forums dedicated to hydroponics, where you can ask question and answer questions.

[terracore]

A bulldozer can rip the lava and roll it flat, then soil can be brought in and you can grow a lush green lawn if you can afford to have water trucked in every week.

Another option is to spend twice as much money and look at land a few dozen miles to the NE.

[hotzcatz]

Yup, as mentioned, it's not dirt but cinders - crushed up lava. Tons of drainage so even if you water it, the water won't stay very long. If you have a lot of water you can grow things in pure lava rock. Most of Puna is the same sort of lava rock, but they have enough water that stuff will grow in leaf litter on top of lava rock.

Some folks put in drip irrigation systems to water their plants in similar situations.