Gardening Year Round

[trinity1111]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

It will bee interesting to see if the Flow Hive works, let us know how it goes. I've been wanting a top bar hive for awhile, but we don't eat enough honey to make it economically reasonable.

Ok, will give a Flow-Hive update, or possibly a new thread. I hear it takes a while to harvest your first honey.

[Kawena]

Originally Posted by trinity1111

Lot of rumors flying around. Sooo, I'm looking into it. I'm taking Agriculture classes @ UHMC, starts in a few weeks. Classes include, but not limited to, " Beekeeping", "Pesticides", and a "Papaya" class. Supposedly the bees travel around therefore pollinate both GMO plants and Non GMO plants and so nothing is truly GMO free....well, should be interesting.
I have a lot to learn. I ordered a "Flow-Hive" (Bee-Hive) from Australia. Want to keep pesticides on the property to a minimum, as not to kill the bees.

cross pollination... bad news if it happens you lose...

The biotech giant hasn’t lost a single case, either. Not one. This includes when farmers tried to sue Monsanto over cross-pollination of their organic crops with GMO seed. For example, a federal court dismissed one of those cases, saying that it couldn’t protect Monsanto against unfair lawsuits should they side in the farmers’ favor.

Monsanto Has Sued Farmers For 16 Years, Never Lost A Case | Food Democracy Now

[Kawena]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Some friends of mine have an aquaponic system in their backyard. They have to buy fish food for the system so it isn't "self sustaining" but it does grow a lot of vegetables and fish. They've had a few problems with various plant pests since they can't use any pesticides since that would kill the fish. They have some sort of fancy golden tilapia which are supposed to be a tasty variety, but they are still tilapia, IMHO. I think some aquaponic systems use catfish.

Farmgirl108, for summer greens, the red lettuces and the romaines as well as butter crunch do best in the heat. Once it cools off in October or so, then the winter lettuces of Manoa and migonette and the leaf lettuces can be grown.

We are doing "permaculture" with edible landscaping. Most of the trees in the yard are fruit trees and I'm getting ready to put in some sort of edible hedge. Maybe thornless blackberries since we are at 1,000 feet and might have good conditions for them. We will find out, I guess. There are a lot of flowers which are edible as well as decorative edible plants.

a tilapia is a tilapia ... if you want some aquaponics advice or info, these guys got a good program going on...
Olomana Gardens Aquaponics

[Kawena]

Originally Posted by thisbloominglife

In Hawaii, however, the growing season is year round! That's very exciting to me...but also a little confusing.



Tell me about gardening in perpetual spring!

http://www.capitalpress.com/Research...t-in-hawaiithe growing is great... "pakalolo" does super good in Hawaii.

everything about Hawaii is good for planting.. unless there are houses on the land.. they plan on developing all of land on Oahu that are prime Ag land.

some of the biggest indicators of the environment for growing stuff here is the GMO companies.. they do allot here for their cause.

Syngenta has 3,000 acres there and 1,000 acres near Lihue.

“We can grow three crops a year. We plant two on the southwest side of the island and give it a break to induce a fallow winter to knock bugs down,” Phillipson says. The cycles are planted in October and harvested in January, and planted in February and harvested in May.

On the east side near Lihue is a slower spring, summer growing cycle, the same as much of the Northern Hemisphere.

“It takes 10 to 12 crops to get a seed that’s marketable because most projects we do don’t make it,” Phillipson says. “It’s testing, honing. Between cycles 1 and 12 a product can get wiped out, deemed a failure. It can be the genetics aren’t performing the way we want. It has to have the desired characteristics for a given area. If corn goes to Iowa, we don’t want it to fall over in the wind.”

http://www.capitalpress.com/research...test-in-hawaii

[Kawena]

Originally Posted by trinity1111

And watch out in Maui now, you can get fined by the county for planing non-GMO papayas!

?? source... please..

[Kawena]

Originally Posted by Vaedrem

Oh, we're at 3800 feet, and yes we do have to irrigate (from catchment) as it's generally quite dry here.

ever test your water for aluminum??

[Vaedrem]

Originally Posted by Kawena

ever test your water for aluminum??

No, but the catchment water is heavily filtered before using/drinking to remove pollution and other contaminants.

[Kawena]

Originally Posted by Kawena

cross pollination... bad news if it happens you lose...
Monsanto Has Sued Farmers For 16 Years, Never Lost A Case | Food Democracy Now

a little more on GMO and monsanto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LomFgGoTsBE