Gardening Year Round (Hilo: buy, live, fence)

[thisbloominglife]

So, here at home, in Georgia, I love to grow things when the seasons are right. Around here, there's a season in which to grow and a season in which things are not growing. In Hawaii, however, the growing season is year round! That's very exciting to me...but also a little confusing.

My question is...how does that work with plants that typically only last one growing season? Generally speaking, after the last frost (or the last one likely to occur), it's safe to put most spring/summer crops in the ground. Once they are planted, they either sprout from seeds or mature from the seedlings you transplant and later, if everything goes right, bear fruit. After they have borne fruit most plants either peter out and die a natural death from old age...or else, the first hard frost of autumn kills them and the whole process starts over the next spring. That's how it works with annuals. Perennials work much the same as far as shooting up, growing and bearing fruit - but instead of dying either from age or frost they simply go to sleep for the winter - they go "dormant".

So, how does all that play out in a place where "winter" never really happens? Do tomato plants (an annual) just keep producing until they are so old they no longer can - at which point I guess you'd just replant? Do fruit trees (perennial ones) just keep producing all year long, never stopping to rest?

Tell me about gardening in perpetual spring!

[HankDfrmSD]

Originally Posted by thisbloominglife

Tell me about gardening in perpetual spring!

There really are seasons in Hawaii. Not as distinct as in Georgia, but different enough so you will notice them.

Their effect on your gardening depends on what you are growing. I gave up on the "standard" vegetable garden a long time ago because of the pests (slugs, bugs, etc.) so I don't know about tomatoes, squash, etc, but avocados, for example, grow all year 'round. Exactly when they bear depends on the variety you have. Some bear in the spring, some in the fall. Papaya bear all year round.

I think the growing and bearing season of most plants is dependent on the diurnal cycle, the daily cycle of light and dark. Even though the temperature doesn't vary more than 10-15 degrees from July to January, the times of sunrise and sunset change almost as much in Hawaii as they do in Georgia, so your plants will notice.

Hank

[thisbloominglife]

Ah, thank you, Hank! That's interesting! I hadn't thought about the difference in light vs dark times. Makes sense!

[Balad1]

I vegetable garden on Kauai and it is difficult. With no frost/freeze there is nothing to kill pests and viruses. Hawaii is a sub tropical environment and has every insect and plant disease known to man. I have learned to only buy seeds of the most disease tolerant varieties of vegetables but even then my harvests are less than half of what I had when I lived back east.

Weather is also a factor but not to the degree as it was on the mainland. During our winter months it gets down into the high 50s at night and I have noticed that when trying to germinate seeds sown direct in the garden I have a high rate of failure. But probably the biggest factor on plants in Hawaii is the cycles/seasons of rain (more rain in the winter).

Crazy as it might seem another problem I have on Kauai is wild chickens. They love my garden and will eat a tomato the second it even starts to turn red.

Don't even get me started about fighting the weeds, lol.

[dianer29]

We live outside of Hilo and if it is not the overabundance of rain and onslaught of bugs both good and bad then it is the lava rock to contend with in gardening. This time hub and I will try upside down planter for tomatoes and continue to try to battle it all using as much mulch ,cups over young plantings,raised garden,potting some herbs to be moved around. Dont forget to check different sources for available help as well as free coffee grinds which makes our chicken manure more pleasing to use...........lol

[hotzcatz]

We have seasons, although they are more determined by the amount of rainfall and the amount of light than the temperature. Elevation also plays a significant part in how each individual garden grows.

There is a whole list of plants and fruit trees which won't bear here because of the lack of winter chill. If they don't go dormant, they won't set fruit. Most apples, peaches, pears, cherries, etc. just won't set fruit here. There are a few specific varieties which will make fruit, but it generally isn't the best fruited ones we get to pick from, just the ones which will make any fruit at all. Some things such as asparagus don't do well since the whole patch doesn't set out spears all at the same time so you never really get enough to have for dinner all at one time.

We do have a whole slew of tropical fruits which aren't generally in a mainland garden. Some of them are sort of seasonal such as the avocado, guava, pineapple, lychee, coffee, etc., and others of them bear any old time of the year such as the papaya and coconut. A lot of them many mainland folks haven't even heard of such as atemoya, rambutan, abiu, jaboticaba, etc.

For the vegetable garden, some "annuals" such as bush beans, sprout, grow, bear fruit and then die off. Other things such as lima beans will remain for several years before dying off. Determinate tomato plants bear a lot of fruit at one time and then die off. Indeterminate tomato plants will continue growing for several years. Frequently any large fruited soft skinned vegetable will be "stung" by fruit flies so when you open the fruit there's larvae inside. Not all that tasty unless you are a chicken. These are generally tomatoes, squash, watermelons, etc. I've had collards last for about seven years. The leaves get harvested and the stem just keeps growing. It got to about four feet of stem with a feather duster of leaves at the top before it got knocked over.

We will be heading into summer here which is usually a hot dry season so we switch to plants that like hot and dry. About the only lettuces which will grow will be the red lettuces, the romaine and bibb, I think. I'll be planting a lot of "helehele" sweet potato later today. That variety is white outside, white inside with sort of chartreuse green leaves. We have a lot of different sweet potato varieties around here and they grow well so we plant a lot of them.

[winkosmosis]

I've seen a lot of blogs, etc where people say Hawaii is subtropical. It's tropical, being south of the Tropic of Cancer

These are the subtropical regions:
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[thisbloominglife]

I vegetable garden on Kauai and it is difficult. With no frost/freeze there is nothing to kill pests and viruses. Hawaii is a sub tropical environment and has every insect and plant disease known to man. I have learned to only buy seeds of the most disease tolerant varieties of vegetables but even then my harvests are less than half of what I had when I lived back east.

Some years, it's not too much different around here. There are winters sometimes that barely qualify, temperature wise, to be referred to as winter. Those years, the bugs are TERRIBLE come spring. This past winter was very "harsh" for the area, though, so it's been relatively nice.

Crazy as it might seem another problem I have on Kauai is wild chickens. They love my garden and will eat a tomato the second it even starts to turn red.

LOL! I'll trade you some wild chickens for some white-tail deer, super hungry bunnies, raccoons, birds of all kinds and the occasional box turtle (also lovers of tomatoes!). Little brats!

Don't even get me started about fighting the weeds, lol.

LOL - omg, last night I wielded the hoe for over an hour and it barely looks like I touched it!

A lot of them many mainland folks haven't even heard of such as atemoya, rambutan, abiu, jaboticaba, etc.

Yeah, I don't know any of those fruits. But I'd love to meet them!

Frequently any large fruited soft skinned vegetable will be "stung" by fruit flies so when you open the fruit there's larvae inside. Not all that tasty unless you are a chicken.

>.<

Oi! Blech! :x

I've seen a lot of blogs, etc where people say Hawaii is subtropical. It's tropical, being south of the Tropic of Cancer

Very interesting, Wink! Georgia is actually, according to this map, subtropical. I think it's technically designated as "humid subtropical climate".

[hotzcatz]

Yeah, I have to fence the chickens out of my garden, too, but at least they are my chickens so they do give me eggs even if they do occasionally rearrange my neatly planted rows of vegetables.

I think it would be fun to have one or two box turtles as pets, although I don't think I'd choose to keep them in the garden. Then I guess they'd be dyslexic pets and become a pest.

To look at some of the different fruits we can grow around here, check out the website of "Plant It Hawaii" which are the folks who graft most of the fruit trees around here: Plant It Hawaii, Inc.

[Vaedrem]

It does depend on where you are. I'm in the highlands of the big island, and because the weather is cooler and we're surrounded by lava and ohia, there aren't too many pests or diseases (no fruitflies, either) so most things grow pretty easily. The tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, kale, etc. do sometimes last for years, and when they don't, we just replant. There are two seasons pretty much; one, the 'winter' is when sugar snap peas, turnips, etc. will grow, and 'summer' is when more heat-loving plants will, but things like tomatoes and green beans come year round. But of course we can't grow durians or coconuts at this elevation, unfortunately.