What are Hawaii folks planting and harvesting?

Rosina, what is the basil doing? Dying? Maybe you can put it in a different location and control the amount of water it receives to help, if it is a fungus?

Nan, sometimes neglect is the best care a garden can get! LOL! What a great homecoming present!

Scorpio - the basil gets a certain kind of fungal stuff on it.  We have looked it up. It has a name which I foget.  It seems to have started somewhere in the South.  We don't even find it at our farmer's markets anymore.  Lemon basil and Thai basil do just fine but the Genovese and other Italian basils do not survive well.   We keep on trying.  Different places, different soils, etc.   Too bad, because, being Sicilian ancestry, it is truly one of my favorite fresh herbs.   Fortunately, Costco sells some pesto from California so we are not totally without that wonderful flavor.

Bummer! I love Genovese basil ,and, is it Spicy Globe? Keep trying! Thank goodness for Costco! Lol

Kauairosina - maybe start some inside in a planter? That's where I've got all of my herbs right now.

I'll make a point to try that.  Mahalos,

NanSFG wrote:Shall put my two cents in about my SFG.  I had planted three types of lettuce seedlings and one type of beet, then left on vacation for 2 weeks.  When I returned the SFG was filled with produce and the "volunteer" tomato plant grew 3' and has green tomatoes.

Have to give away some lettuce as there is too much for us to eat.  This is the 3rd planting in that bed, and the one that was most productive.  I wonder if my going away had something to do with it being so productive.

Perhaps you had talked to your plants too much and they appreciated having a rest?

Thanks for bringing a smile and laughter to my day.

Here are photos of Rosina's seedling operation.  I'm a few days late posting them for her.  

Initial sowing of seeds in earthbox.

This is next step - We call it stepping up (to four inch pots)

Mature lettuce

A view of a couple of the beds.  Notice the incredible proliferation of
weeds all around.  Not neat.

Thanks sanderson/rosina.  It seems the soil is quite fertile there on your island.

That is not our native soil.  The starts and step ups are in Fox Farm Ocean Potting soil, expensive but really good. (The pot growers use it.). The square foot beds are Mel's Mix, a blend of our compost and the other stuff that goes in Mel's Mix.  From the store, of course.

Our native soil gets pretty depleted with our rains and lots and lots and lots and lots of weeds grow in it.  Bananas do well also.

kauairosina wrote:That is not our native soil.  The starts and step ups are in Fox Farm Ocean Potting soil, expensive but really good. (The pot growers use it.).

Where did you buy that potting soil?  I have not seen it on Oahu.  I have not been successful with starting seedlings and that sounds like something I should try.

Sill harvesting my leggy lettuce.  Tomatoes are still green.

We buy ours at ACE hardware stores. Hope you can find it

Photo from Rosina:
Seed flat 2 weeks later:

Nice! Spring........

Finally have some time to post pictures of my gardens.  The large growing plants are in containers - now to learn what size pots are best.
The first picture is of my 1st SFG when it was full of plants.  The second picture is of my 1st table top garden.  It has strawberry spinach (needs to go elsewhere), red and yellow strawberry plants and violas. The last picture is of my pineapple plants - the goal is to harvest one a month.

Abundance is overtaking us.  Way too many Emirite and Fortex beans, lots of kale, just finished broccoli and cauliflower (cauliflower was weird, I should have posted a picture but gone now, kind of made many tiny heads on stalk).   We have also harvested turnips, carrots and beets.

and lettuce up the kazoo.  Some lovely very large cherry tomatoes (about 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter.

NanSFG wrote:

I love that these pineapple plants are different colors.  Why is that...are they different varieties?  

CC

and I just picked some strawberries and asparagus!!

You all might remember the asparagus gal did not want to ship to Hawaii because her information said it wouldn't grow here.  We have asparagus farms here!!  Those zone maps are not always correct.

My strawberries are loving the very rainy weather we are getting.  I found that putting straw around them helps with minimizing the damage from those little beatle type kind of thingees. I wonder if that is why they are called "straw"berries?

kauairosina wrote:
My strawberries are loving the very rainy weather we are getting.  I found that putting straw around them helps with minimizing the damage from those little beatle type kind of thingees. I wonder if that is why they are called "straw"berries?

I wonder! Lol

CapeCoddess wrote:

NanSFG wrote:

I love that these pineapple plants are different colors.  Why is that...are they different varieties?  

CC

I have two varieties.  One is "Maui Gold" and the other is "Royal Hawaiian".  I do not remember which is which.  Both are sweet pineapples.

Rosina and Nan, Missed you guys! Love those pineapple plants!

Hello Rosina:  Hope all is well with you.  How did your strawberries do this year?

When I get time I am going to clear out my freezer and sort out all the bags of strawberries to weigh them to see how much I managed to preserve for those dark days of winter when  strawberries are in short supply.

Hey Uke!  How is your Anahola garden growing?  I come your way every six weeks to see my acupuncturist in Kilauea so could stop by on one of my trips.  

Sanderson suggested I post my reply to what we are eating from our garden in the Hawaii post so here goes:

Lots and lots of lettuce all rainy season long.   We have figured out what it takes from seed to transplants to harvest and hope to apply that kind of formula to our other veggies.  Not as simple, we are finding.

We are getting a lovely amount of broccoli, enough for dinner for 16 (8 for dinner, 8 for lunches). We usually have an abundance of greens like kales and mizuna and Italian dandelion.  Our okra harvest is finished as is our measly tomato harvest.   We harvested turnips and carrots and grilled them on the barbee. 

Our garden team meets most weekday mornings at 7:30 and it really helps to have the consistency.  I am the least able but get to kibitz and love telling others what to do, which they take with admirable grace.