Is there still much agriculture in Hawaii?

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

What I meant by my question about tomatoes and peppers is: Can they be grown year-around instead of as annuals like in most of the U.S.? In other words, is your outdoor tomato plant thriving in January like it did in July?

Yes and no. A lot of it depends on the specific microclimate that exists in a given place. See our many previous discussions of this... from many spots in Hawai'i you can go three miles in any direction and get a different enough climate to make some things grow better, and some worse.

In general peppers need a good stretch of hot weather to mature.

And tomatoes in Volcano have to be grown under cover because there's enough sun, but the rain beats them so hard they don't set fruit well. Some places mold is a problem. Some places fruit flies are a problem.

It's a challenge for agriculture because certain crops have strong preferences for soil type, amount of rain, amount of humidity. The most successful crops have been the ones that can tolerate a wide range.

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

What I meant by my question about tomatoes and peppers is: Can they be grown year-around instead of as annuals like in most of the U.S.? In other words, is your outdoor tomato plant thriving in January like it did in July?

Yup, they can. Although it depends on the exact variety. Out in the garden in front of my house there's a three year old green pepper plant that still gives the occasional pepper. If I took better care of it, there'd probably be more fruit. The Hawaiian hot pepper plant in the backyard here is a small shrub that will grow to about five feet tall (maybe more, the one here gets that tall) and almost always has those really small really hot peppers on it.

The tomatoes here usually last several years and then they get really long and leggy and produce less so they usually get replaced. Or they will get attacked by a mildew or some other ailment. There were some sucking bugs which did in the last batch of tomatoes, but that was after the plants were several years old. To keep the fruit flies from attacking the tomato fruit, you can put out fruit fly traps (a soda bottle is used to make the trap and the attractant gel cube can be bought at the garden shops) or if you plant thick skinned tomato varieties, then the fruit flies don't bother them as much. The cherry tomato types and the Roma tomato types are usually good without the need for a fruit fly trap.

Tomato plants come in two basic types. There's the "determinate" type which will set all the fruit at once (which is good if you're making sauce or ketchup). After it makes the fruit, the plant dies off for no particular reason that I can figure out other than because it's already made the fruit. I never plant a "determinate" type of tomato since the seeds here are saved (I only plant heirloom or non-hybrids so the seeds will produce tomatoes like the originals) and I don't want any determinate types to get cross pollinated into the indeterminate types. The other type of tomato, the "indeterminate" type, will not make as many tomatoes all at once as the determinate type, but they will eventually make more of them since they just keep going and going and going. The determinate types have a more bush like growing habit and the indeterminate types go from a bush form into a vine form as they get older. Most of them all need to be staked to keep them off the ground (where they are more susceptible to mildews) but if you dust the ground with Epsom salt when planting the tomatoes, they will have much sturdier stems.

When planting your garden, there are quite a few plants that will last for several years. Celery (if you harvest by just cutting the outer stalks although they can recover from a clear cutting but it takes a long time) will last for years. There's some here going on four years old and it survived a clear cutting by the house sitters one year. Lima beans will last for years and make huge long vines that can eat your garden shed if you're not careful. For some unknown reason, green beans and snap beans make a short vine, make bean pods then die off. Pineapple takes two years to produce a fruit, but will continue for several more years and produce one annually for a few years after it starts.

A lot of the herbs in your kitchen herb garden will last a long time. Thyme once established lasts for years, basils - if you keep them from flowering - will last for years and get the size of a shrub. Rosemary and lavenders can be used as very aromatic short shrubs. Mint likes cool moist places and will just keep going. Black pepper can be a semi-permanent vine as well as vanilla. Although vanilla is actually an orchid and has to be hand pollinated to get the pods.

[KaraBenNemsi]

The Hawaii ag is supposedly dominated by the 'seed' industry. Which is GMO and hotly contested these days.

The numbers the NASS turns out are also very skewed if not outright wrong. Farmers are supposed to report by law, but many don't. Especially if it is some money they can earn off the books by selling directly.

Coffee is for instance dropped off the records now. As a coffee farmer I can file my harvest under 'citrus' or 'tree nuts' or 'fruits': there's no one checking or giving guidance. The low quality, machine harvested Kauai coffee is mixed with expensive handpicked Kona coffee and results in a wrong value per pound. I personally estimate the retail value of Kona coffee alone being nearly 10 times of what it is officially reported; possibly bigger than what the GMO /Seed companies make.

Then take Kona deep sea water--not reported as an ag product for whatever reason. But the top export of the state. Not that we have a mining industry and record it as such a product. Possible that for political reasons the state doesn't want to see it bigger than their beloved GMO seed industry.

Hawaii is perfectly suited for most agriculture and gardening because of its climate zones. The markets demand specialty over commodity foods and if Hawaii would protect its region like many foreign countries do, the farming would flourish in all of Hawaii.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Originally Posted by KaraBenNemsi

T

Then take Kona deep sea water--not reported as an ag product for whatever reason.

What can you do with sea water?

Can you grow cool-summer crops like apples and pears in Hawaii?

[hotzcatz]

I think they bottle and sell the deep ocean seawater as a healthful drink to folks. Not sure why someone would want to drink seawater, but there ya go. Stick it in a bottle and someone will probably drink it. Kinda like that kombocha stuff that folks like. There's a monkey for every circus.

Apples and pears are a cool summer crop? I always thought of them as a cold winter crop. If they don't get enough chill hours, they won't set fruit. But certain varieties will. For apples, Anna, Dorsett Golden and Pettingill will. The Kieffer and Hood pears as well as some of the Asian pears, but those would need a bit more elevation. There's a few peach varieties which will do well, too.

I just put in a tree order to a mail order nursery that will ship to Hawaii called "Bay Laurel Nurseries". They buy their trees wholesale from Dave Wilson Nurseries and DW does a lot of "low chill" varieties since they are in California. Showing up sometime in January should be two peach trees: "Saturn" and "Eva's Pride". Two apple trees: "Anna" and "Golden Dorsett". One almond tree: "Garden Prince Genetic Dwarf". And four table grapes, two green, one red and one black, all seedless.

They ship nice big trees. Two years ago a pear and some apples were planted and as I type, there's one pear and three apples out there on the trees. But, now that we are moving to a new house, it's easier to just buy and plant more trees than it is to dig up the ones that are planted here.

[McFrostyJ]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Not sure why someone would want to drink seawater, but there ya go. Stick it in a bottle and someone will probably drink it. There's a monkey for every circus.

I'm your monkey!


While we were taking the tour of the Ocean Vodka Organic Farm and Distillery on Maui, we got to taste the MaHaLo deep sea water that they use to make their vodka. It was REALLY good! That said, I wouldn't pay what the Japanese pay to drink it, but what I got for free tasted wonderful! In fact, after sampling the vodka, I found it sad that they ruined this amazing water and turned it into something that to me, tastes like gasoline.


Even though I'm not much of a drinker, I did find the Ocean Vodka tour to be extremely interesting and would recommend it.


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MaHaLo Hawaii Deep Sea Drinking Water

[KaraBenNemsi]

They desalinate the sea water of course, duh! The sales argument is that this water has not been at the surface for more than 3,000 years. Hence there's zero man made pollution. With the word 'Hawaii' attached it is marketable for a premium price. There are 2 or 3 companies at NELHA, Kona, right next to the airport.

A Chicago company wanted to sell their local (!) tap water under the Hawaiian name but the USPTO did not permit them to use our state's name. Not that our state politicians would have had a problem with that, but thank the Feds for looking out a little bit to stop those shysters.

So you see that the Hawaiian name(s) are worth a pretty penny.

[OpenD]

The chief market for the deep ocean saltwater is the Japanese, who drink it for supposed help benefits from the salts and minerals dissolved in it. They pay the equivalent of $20 per liter for it at "health" stores.

[Kawena]

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

Or has the value of land gone up so much that it is no longer profitable to cultivate pineapple and sugar cane?

Pineapple and Sugar cane are not the norm any more. we can produce per person per acre than most places. Just with NAFTA and CAFTA as well as other means of producing sugar or sweeteners, there are cheaper alternatives and places where labor as well as land is more affordable.

the premis for the illegal overthrow of HAwaii was to make it more economical to ship sugar to the US.


salt water....

In Kona from my understanding they are tapping the ice cool waters that flow from the Antarctic? its full of "good stuff" that they raise lobster, abalone some kind of alge.

Administered by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority


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Kona Cold Lobster - Fresh and Live Seafood Products in Kona, Hawaii