Growing Elevation in the Ocean View area??

[hotzcatz]

There will be a few nippy nights where an electric blanket and fuzzy socks will be a delight, but you most likely won't necessarily need a wood stove. (Cold nights are a good time to bake a cake or something, if you like to bake) It most likely won't get below the very low fifties at night which can be quite chilly in a house without a heater, but socks, sweatpants and flannel shirts will be enough to get by, most likely.

Best way to figure out what grows best in your new area is to look around and see what it growing best at the neighbor's house. If you have a plant that doesn't like wet feet, try growing it in a raised area or a raised container garden. You can do a lot to create different growing conditions depending on what you want to grow. Planting things with more distance between them also helps when dealing with a moist area. That allows more airflow to keep down moss and mildews. We increase drainage with either raised beds or planting on a slope or some such and add more airflow between the plants and get species to thrive that may not usually like the conditions.

Will you be growing a crop? Food for the family? Fruits and flowers to sell? All of those sorts of considerations will probably change what you want to grow.

Bay Laurel nurseries in California will ship plants to Hawaii and they have handy 'required chilling hours' listed on their website. You could probably successfully grow things that require less than 300 chilling hours. Seems to me, if you were growing fruit for sale, being able to produce locally grown peaches and apples would be a good thing. Especially peaches, since they don't ship well at all and are usually picked green in order to be able to ship them so they aren't tasty at all when they reach the Hawaii market.

For local and tropical fruit trees, then Plant It Hawaii has a large selection.

There were some folks around Laupahoehoe who were doing well with a range fed broiler chicken operation, but they moved to town and aren't doing it anymore. It seems that almost anything you produce will find buyers, there's a demand for local food. Although I may only be seeing the successful farmers.

[MT-HI Travelin]

Originally Posted by davephan

You could filter out the salt with a reverse osmosis filter system. I use a reverse osmosis filter system for my hydroponic indoor gardening. The RO filter reduces the TDS (total dissolved solids) down from about 320 PPM (parts per million) down to about 4 to 6 PPM. Hydroponics uses much less water than raised beds if good quality water is in short supply. Hydroponics is much less labor, since there's no weeding.

Oh MY! Your system sounds wonderful. I would love to hear more. What are you growing? Are you able to post a pic? Also, do you have an idea of what the cost has been to get it up and running? Are you in the Ka'u area or are you in a more green area of the island?

[MT-HI Travelin]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

You might think about going to the Saturday Swap Meet near Malama Market. There are usually people selling plants and produce there and they may be able to give you some friendly advice.

Oh yes! great idea! It would be a good opportunity to possibly talk to the neighborhood folks as well.

[MT-HI Travelin]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

There will be a few nippy nights where an electric blanket and fuzzy socks will be a delight, but you most likely won't necessarily need a wood stove. (Cold nights are a good time to bake a cake or something, if you like to bake) It most likely won't get below the very low fifties at night which can be quite chilly in a house without a heater, but socks, sweatpants and flannel shirts will be enough to get by, most likely.

Best way to figure out what grows best in your new area is to look around and see what it growing best at the neighbor's house. If you have a plant that doesn't like wet feet, try growing it in a raised area or a raised container garden. You can do a lot to create different growing conditions depending on what you want to grow. Planting things with more distance between them also helps when dealing with a moist area. That allows more airflow to keep down moss and mildews. We increase drainage with either raised beds or planting on a slope or some such and add more airflow between the plants and get species to thrive that may not usually like the conditions.

Will you be growing a crop? Food for the family? Fruits and flowers to sell? All of those sorts of considerations will probably change what you want to grow.

Bay Laurel nurseries in California will ship plants to Hawaii and they have handy 'required chilling hours' listed on their website. You could probably successfully grow things that require less than 300 chilling hours. Seems to me, if you were growing fruit for sale, being able to produce locally grown peaches and apples would be a good thing. Especially peaches, since they don't ship well at all and are usually picked green in order to be able to ship them so they aren't tasty at all when they reach the Hawaii market.

For local and tropical fruit trees, then Plant It Hawaii has a large selection.

There were some folks around Laupahoehoe who were doing well with a range fed broiler chicken operation, but they moved to town and aren't doing it anymore. It seems that almost anything you produce will find buyers, there's a demand for local food. Although I may only be seeing the successful farmers.

Thank you-
I don't plan on doing any crops per se maybe enough to have a little stand at the market and provide food for my family. I plan on sticking with native plants as much as possible, I would also like to have some palms.

[terracore]

"There were some folks around Laupahoehoe who were doing well with a range fed broiler chicken operation, but they moved to town and aren't doing it anymore. It seems that almost anything you produce will find buyers, there's a demand for local food. Although I may only be seeing the successful farmers."

I know a commercial chicken operator on the island, they have way more buyers than they have chickens.

One thing that is very important for anybody intending to get into any business that involves legally selling a butchered animal, the USDA requires that only county water can be used- no catchment, though I do believe county water that has been trucked in can meet the requirements, I don't know what the storage requirements for the water is.