Plants on Oahu

My garden has been producing much spinach right now.  More than 2 people can eat.  Too many beet seeds sprouted, so as the seedlings get large enough they get cut and put in our spinach salad. 

Earlier I took pictures of my garden, but never posted them.  So I will add them to this post.  I have two tomato plants - a cherry tomato and a one that the birds planted.  You will see the comparison of the size of the fruit.  I prefer the smaller one and so does my bird.

I was given a surinam cherry seed.  So of course I planted it in a container.  In less that a year it had blossoms and fruit.  Didn't care for the taste and neither did my bird. 

The third picture is the harvest of Molokai Sweet Potatoes from another container.  The largest one was about 6" long.

My strawberries were an absolute failure.  Don't know if they were shaded too much, under watered, or overwatered.  Both container plants and raised bed plants died.  I used MM for the soil.  Any suggestions?

Nice, Nan!  Not sure about the strawberries.  Were they in boxes on the ground?  Did they flower?  Or just not do anything?  Did you use local cultivars?  I know here, they are a late spring fruit.  Don't like heat much.

Nice to hear from you Nan. 

I planted two bushes of black surinam cherries.  They will never replace real cherries and the bushes keep going crazy out of control and I have to keep chopping them back. 

Win a few, lose a few.

Aloha,
Kauairosina

Scorpio Rising wrote:Nice, Nan!  Not sure about the strawberries.  Were they in boxes on the ground?  Did they flower?  Or just not do anything?  Did you use local cultivars?  I know here, they are a late spring fruit.  Don't like heat much.

The strawberries were on a greenhouse table and in hanging containers.  Maybe you are right, we were having very hot weather for Hawaii when they died off.

Hi Nan & Kauairosina! Nice to see y'all back!

Good to be back. 

Aloha y'all.

Kauairosina

I'm also glad to be back.  I missed the wealth of information on this forum.

AtlantaMarie wrote:Hi Nan & Kauairosina!  Nice to see y'all back!

+1

Hey Nan

I just picked and ate my first two strawberries a few minutes ago.  Pretty puny for an 8 by 4 bed.  So far I have never had enough (8 total) to feed the family.

Are strawberries one of the few produce that is hard to grow there?

Strawberries are grown very successfully on both the Big Island (Hawaii) and Maui.  They had been grown here on Kauai previously.  I am pretty sure that I have not gotten just the right combination yet but will keep trying because they are one of the fruits most inundated by pesticides.  They grew great in our Aquaponics set up.

I will dither around that bed. Perhaps add some new soil amendments, more straw in one half of it.  Blossoms are forming now so will wait until a relatively dormant time.

Now that I can grow my own strawberries and get enough  to freeze some and have them year round, I never buy any strawberries now as I know that they are top of the list for pesticides.

I have two 4x4 beds.

I just transplanted the 4 survivors in the table top.  I am thinking about putting an ollas in the middle to them to keep them evenly moist.  Hopefully that will work.

Nan - Try adding a little bone meal for fruiting around them and some straw if you can get it.  They seem to like a little shade but I am not an expert.  Mine have a lot of blossoms and small fruit right now.  I will take pictures in a week or two or three, hoping there will be abundance.

I really really want strawberries.  I told myself last year I would do a strawberry bed, but didn't.  This is the year.  

Do you grow everbearing or June bearing?  I should look at the archives, I am sure there is a ton of info,there.  

Good to see you both!

I couldn't tell you what kind I have but they are blossoming right now so they aren't June bearing.