Maui County vs Hawaii County for agriculture and farming (Hilo: real estate, credit card)

[Gulf of Aden]

Discuss and please advise

Animal husbandry, agriculture, and farming

[Mikala43]

I think a lot might depend on what you plan to raise.

[hotzcatz]

Gulf of Aden, your question doesn't have enough details for anyone to give any advice. Is this a commercial venture? Will you need access to ports? Access to markets? Do you have any experience in any animals, agriculture or farming? What sort of capitol is available? Will you need machinery? Employees? Or is it just a homestead situation? There's too many variables to answer.

[Gulf of Aden]

Just give me any advise you can offer. That's all. Thank you.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by Gulf of Aden

Just give me any advise you can offer.

Use sunscreen.

Eat your vegetables.

Pay off your credit cards.

Stop being silly - give details of what you are looking for......

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

My advise is to do a lot of reading about different micro climes. I'm on the Big Island and some people are fairly successful (on a small scale) in my area but it takes a LOT of work. Finding land with decent soil and a reasonable balance between sun and rain can take a lot of searching. Raising animals can also be a challenge.

[terracore]

We have goats, sheep, ducks, chickens, rabbits, quail, others, and grow over 100 different species of food plants (mostly small test plots) on our farm. If you have a specific question I would be happy to chime in but anything else would be writing a book.

[leilaniguy]

How did your peanuts do? I cracked 2 nuts = 4 peanuts. got them from a bag at Kai Store, Hilo. Now have an overgrown 5 gal. pot with 4 peanuts and 1 tomato. They're doing amazingly. Peanuts are shooting pegs all over.

[terracore]

Our peanuts did great (1 single pea in the dirt versus ~50 shell peanuts out (most with 2-3 peanuts per shell, so 100x return on investment, not a bad yield) but it was obvious that we harvested them too early and the yield would have been better had we waited longer. We have a lot to learn about fertilizing nitrogen fixers and adjusting growing seasons to Hawaii's shorter daylight hours.

We have done a lot of experiments with growing potatoes in containers. The red skinned variety and the white potatoes so far have done well during all growing seasons. the russetts and blues only performed well during winter. It's pretty early on in our experiments but alternating corn and potato crops in the same soil seems to be the solution to the various blights. Amending the soil with compost/manure in between crops of course. The only summer corn crop we have grown with success with resistance to the maize mosaic virus is the UH 3-way hybrid (#10) and our first stab at a larger test plot is about a week old. It's growing next to a UH #9 silver that has the virus so there will be no doubt if it's resistant or not.

[KaraBenNemsi]

To make money with farming in Hawaii you best bet is to go with what's legally protected by geographic origin.

Maui has Maui Onions. Big Island has Kona Coffee and now also Ka'u Coffee. Ni'ihau has its expensive shell leis. Those names guarantee you a higher price than that of generic crops. The higher price you need to compensate for higher real estate and labor costs in Hawaii.

Problem is that the fakers of Hawaiian regional names are preventing the enforcement of the protection by lobbying our Dept of Ag. But most buyers are being duped only once and actively searching for the real thing. With Kona coffee you can build a solid clientele over the years and make a living. The onion market is a bit narrower and mostly targeting restaurants. And Ka'u Coffee is still too little known.

That said if you really dig into any crops (Vanilla, lychee, avocados, organic salad, etc) and get good at growing and marketing, the authenticity of it being Hawaiian will let you build your own steady market and brand.