Seed Farm Update

I've been quiet on the blog during the month of January simply because I've run out of free time. The time I've normally spent blogging and reading has been usurped by my first income generating project. Not that I intend to switch over to a life of all work and no relaxation. Naw. I just got enthused and hooked on starting this new project. Now that the first baby step is underway, I need to slow down and be less intense. I noticed that I was gradually slipping back into the rat race lifestyle. Whoa........."slow down, you move too fast, ..." Yeah, I gotta make my mornings last.       :)

In order to have a micro seed retail business, I need seed to sell. I plan to sell only my own farm produced seed. Thus I've been setting up seed grow boxes down on the seed farm to grow them. In fact, I've hammered together 32 new boxes and am working on filling them up with compostable debris. I got the boxes made in just 4 days, but filling them will take a weeks. So far I've got 6 filled and seeded with beans, plus another 11 in the process of being filled. Now that I'm seeing the first boxes germinating, the frantic need to fill boxes seems to have lessened somewhat. My senses seem to be returning to me, rather than being over consumed with my new ideas. So time to back off, smell the roses, enjoy the sunsets. Ah, time to remember why I moved here. 

So far I've lined up 28 bean varieties to grow. Some snap beans, dry soup types, cowpeas, limas. And so far 9 pea varieties that I really like. A few shelling types but mostly snaps and snows. Next I'll take a  look over the radishes and decide which to grow. Now that I've got things rolling, I'm thinking that adding just one or two grow boxes a week would be just fine. No, I need to back off some......so let's say just one a week for now and see how that goes. 

No photos yet of the seed farm progress, but I'll get to it some day. 

Seed Farm Update

Not much has happened at the seed farm lately, but I'm flattered to know that readers want to hear about it. So here it goes.......

We've been getting a bit of rain, but all the benefit has been blowing away with the tradewinds. Is been constantly windy during the day the past several weeks. So this is when the mulch is proving its value. When I water, the moisture is staying in what little soil is there. Thus the plants are surviving. But the soil fertility is real poor, so plants don't thrive. Well, guinea grass excluded. That stuff can survive really poor soil and drought. 

But I'm actually getting seed harvested. Not lots, but at least a good enough return for starters, considering the conditions. Today I harvested the first of the Black Knight limas, the Christmas limas, and the purple podded yard long bean seed. 

Not much, but these were the first pods mature and dry. Much more are yet to come. 

I saw that the sweet potatoes are spreading, the taro is holding its own and starting to produce lots of oha (side shoots). The newly seeded pumpkins, peas, and limas are starting to sprout. Only small plantings of each, but it's a start. 

Carting a truck load of water and compost tea to the seed farm, everything got a good drink. I see that  the rows could use a couple of truckloads of mulch, something that will have to wait until the end of next week. Shame that I couldn't have done that this weekend, since I just watered everything well. But such is life on a homestead. Simply not enough time to get everything done at once. I guess that's why some people resort to hiring employees. But I'd rather not. I prefer to just accept what I can do and leave it at that. 

Seed Farm Update

I was down at the seed farm today. I only had a hour for working, so I surely didn't get everything done, but it felt good to be working down there anyway. The sun was out, it was warm but there was a great breeze blowing. Paradise! 

The warmth and the wind are two reasons why this location is usable for seed production.....it stays hot and dry. Things don't rot, seeds don't prematurely sprout. 

This photo didn't turn out to be the best, but you can see that the pea vines actually dried out. That would not have happened at the homestead farm. So I consider the seed farm a success...at least partially. The soil fertility is terrible, plus there's hardly any soil. But it's a start. 

The pea vines only reached 3 feet in length and only produced 2-3 pods per plant. Pretty pathetic for a normally 5-6 foot vine. The soybeans were only half their normal height. So the ground needs lots of improvement and soil building. 

I did get to harvest peas, soybean, and yard long beans. The lima beans are 5-6 foot long with their first pods. They are better suited to the conditions. The taro is slow and small but growing. Some of the varieties are actually looking fairly ok, though others are decidedly unhappy. What is dong just fine are the sweet potatoes. Incredible vegetable! Grows even in hot, dry, poor places. I don't know if they will produce tubers, but I am growing them for the vines so that I can take cuttings. 

Pulled weeds, which I chopped up for mulch. Cleaned up the taro. Straightened up the sweet potatoes, getting their vines going in the right directions. Still plenty of work to do chopping weeds. So I'll return soon to bring more water, chop weeds, bring mulch, bring compost, plant the next seed crops. 

Seed Farm Beautification

The seed farm is just in its infancy, but I'm already thinking about beautifying it. Oh that will be a long term project I know, but I've started taking the little baby steps towards that goal. I'd love to see flower beds full of marigolds, pansies, daffodils, but they are a poor choice...guaranteed failure. I need the match the flowers' needs to the environment. 

Being that the farm is dry, I'm looking at succulents and other flowering or colorful plants that can survive. The ice plant is a prime candidate. I've seen thick beds of this plant growing at the Costco parking lot where it gets zero attention, other than getting weedwacked back. It roots easily from cuttings, so I've just planted a few dozen segments. 

Bromeliads are a family that can grow right in the rocks. No soil required though a little is preferred. 

They come in a variety f colors, sizes, and shapes. So I'm adding a few here and there as I find interesting ones. 

Some prefer shade, some sun. So there are varieties that are suited for just about any spot on the seed farm. It's wonderful having a plant the even I can't kill !!!

Some succulents might not be colorful but they have interesting foliage or growth habits. As a plus most don't require fertile soil. Perfect for this piece of land. Next time I head to town I intend to pick up an assortment of baby cactus. The trouble will be that I won't know which varieties they are so I won't know how big they will grow. It will be a surprise! So I will give it my best guess in choosing where to place them on the farm. 

The plumaria grows like a tree and produces very colorful flowers. Whites. Yellows. Pinks. Reds. Bicolored. I've planted six small trees and I'm hoping that they're all different colors. I think that they are, it was my intention. Time will tell if they indeed are. This yellow one is the first to bloom. 

 

Seed Farm Update

Mark from Georgia asked for an update. Good timing, Mark! I planned to visit the seed farm today.

Rather than load the 330 gallon tote into the truck, I opted to full the green jugs with water. The seed farm is dry, so I have to bring in my own water. Every time I go there I always bring whatever water I can fit on the truck. Currently the water reserves are down to 150 gallons, so I need the bring some water with me today.

By not using the 330 gallon tote, I have room to load grass clippings, buckets of soil, and plants. Three more trays of soil and I'm ready to go. 

The baby taro is growing. I've not grown taro here before so I'm not sure if the wind will hinder it. But so far, so good. I used the clippings that I brought to re-mulch the two rows on the right. Over the next few days I'll bring more to do the other four rows. While I'll eat some of this taro, I hope to be able to sell it to other gardeners. 

This is my first attempt at Lima beans on this farm. This variety is Black Knight. It's a pole type and I'll use the fence as its trellis. I'm growing it for a seed crop. Rather than devote a full row to it, I'm first trying out 10 plants to see how it does, 

The little bananas that I planted last month are all pushing new leaves. Bananas are a thirsty crop, so in order to conserve water for them I will build up a thick mulch around them. I've been cutting the tall grass, weeds, and other vegetation to use for mulch. It's coarse but effective. 

The next two projects for the seed farm are:

1- rebuild and replant the grow boxes

2- plant sweet potatoes as a living mulch around the taro

Mulching is a must on this farm. The wind and sun dry out things super fast....as in 24 hours after a rain. But I am finding that if I can keep the ground covered, what little soil there is between the rocks tends to stay moist for days. My goal is to have a thick and healthy enough mulch layer to keep the soil moisture in for weeks between rains. 

Seed Farm - The Resident Critters

I was working at the seed farm the other day and was pleased to find that it's the home to assorted critters. For some reason I feel more at ease knowing that there's animal life around me. Unlike a city person, I'm comfortable with critters. Guess I'm just "country blooded".    ;) 

Day gecko. This little guy is about five inches long with a startling iridescent tail. He was heading across a mulched area, and being so small and short legged, it would have been like me walking 3-4 miles. So I gave him a helping hand and moved him to the other side. He scamped off into the greenery. 

Butterflies. Until today I didn't know the name of this butterfly. I see dozens of them around the seed farm. So very pretty. I also came upon a caterpillar of the monarch butterfly. Monarchs are common here. 

Blind snake. I don't know if the one we have here in Hawaii is the brahminy variety, but the one I saw looks very much like this photo but the snake is blacker. The blind snake is Hawaii's only allowed snake. It is seldom seen because is stays under the litter out of sight. And if exposed, people mistake it for a worm. But it travels much faster than any worm, disappearing in a second. If you manage to catch one, you become instantly aware that this is one very different sort of worm. 

While moving some buckets of soil I flipped back a large section of mulch. Behold, a blind snake! I carefully, quickly caught it. No easy feat. And keeping a hold of it was even harder! I saw its little tongue flick out several times, "tasting" or sensing the air. I had hoped to photograph it, but I was unable to keep it in my hand. Rather than risk squashing it, I allowed it to escape. The one I caught was about 6 inches long, pretty big. Quite honestly I'm pleased to know that blind snakes live on my seed farm. They supposedly eat ants and termites, big pluses as far as I'm concerned. 

(The bigger one in front is three long. They get bigger! )

Now this critter I'm not so happy about. It's an African snail that has a voracious appetite for all the plants that I like to grow. I've been doing battle with this species for months now, eliminating dozens and dozens, possibly hundreds of dozens so far. I've definitely made a dent in the population since I don't find as many now, but I will never be able to eliminate them. I turn them into chicken food, so they don't go to waste. 

Centipedes. Egads! These critters are far worse than the African snails because they sting. Wearing gloves is a must when working the seed farm. You never know when one of these things is under a rock or a pile of mulch. I can't help but jump every time I come upon one. I've discovered that my reflexes are still pretty good. It's amazing how fast I can jerk my hand back! Luckily I don't come upon them too often. 

Mice and rats. I haven't actually seen a live one, but I've seen the damage that they've done at night. And I've caught a number of them with traps. Like the snails and centipedes, I'll be forever in battle controlling their numbers. They attack my crops, so I won't be too happy having many of them around. 

Purple finches flit around in the weeds and brush while I am working. 

Saffron finches work the weeds, scavaging for seeds. When I moved here I thought that they were canaries like I used to see for sale in pet stores. 

Seed Farm - From the Beginning

Via email --- Rick asks, "Your seed farm really interests me. Can you tell me more about it? How did you start? You said that there is no soil to grow in. What can you do there with no soil? Why did you buy it when you already have a good farm?" 

Ok Rick. Here's a bit of background about the seed farm. Plus what Ii am now doing there. 

Hubby and I are retired, sort of. He went back to work because not working didn't sit well with him. Plus he wanted the extra money to be able to buy his toys and build a house to his liking. I retired from my career but now work full time creating a homestead. So based on that, we both think that our actual retirement is still down the road, someplace in the future. With that in mind, we've been looking around for a retirement property. Some place that suits us where we will build our handicap friendly, tiny, very low maintenance home. We found the land we were looking for just five miles from our farm. 1 1/2 acres with an ocean view. Virtually no soil though, just broken lava with bits of plant detris between them in places. 

In the interim between now and building our retirement home, I'm using the land for a seed farm and for crops requiring more warmth and dryness than exists at the homestead. But the land is not "farming friendly". 1/2 acre is wooded with a shrubby "trash" tree. On the other acre what weeds can grow there stand thick and five feet high. Quite a tangle. 

Using the truck to gauge it, you can see that the dense weeds are 3-5 foot high. The tall guinea grass can easily go 6-7 feet high! 

In the past year on 1/2 acre I've weedwacked down the weeds three times. To select areas I've applied multi layers of cardboard, newspaper, grass clippings, plus a little soil/compost/manure. Not much of the latter though. I'm finally getting ahead of the weeds with less and less of them being able to punch through the mulch. 

This past week I took a closer look at how things are coming along and discovered that I have close to an inch of manmade "soil". Wonderful! It got my farming blood roaring and before I knew it I was carting down water and more things to plant .... Taro, bananas, pineapples. 

I have several pallet grow boxes there which I used to produce my first seed crops -- purple stringbeans and sweet potatoes. The boxes now will each give me a cubic yard of soil to use. Ah, things are looking up! 

Using a hand pick ---- forget a shovel, it won't work in lava --- I've made a small hole every two foot in rows 3-4 foot apart. I filled each hole with about a gallon of soil. Into these spots I've planted taro. 

As of today I now have five long rows of taro planted. Two rows are lehua varieties. The other three rows are interesting to look at but I haven't yet identified what varieties they are. One has light green leaves and stems with beautiful pink along the stem bottoms. Another has purple red stems and dark green leaves. The final one has brownish streaked stems, green leaves with a purple piko. I'll be acquiring some more taro huli in the few days and plan to put in at least two more rows soon. Over the course of the coming month, I'm aiming to put in at least 8 more varieties, named ones. These named varieties will be for resale in addition for home eating. 

The new seed farm didn't make enough money last year to even pay the real estate taxes. I only produced 9 small seed harvests for resale. But for now on, now that it is developing soil, it's time for it to earn its keep. So some seed crops and resale plants need to be grown this spring. 

In the next few weeks after the rest of the taro, pineapple tops, and banana keikis are planted, I hope to put in okra, soybean, and winged beans. After that, it's anyone's guess what crops I'll try. I'm thinking corn, sorghum, beans, squash, cukes.....but it will take some experimenting and creativity to get past the soil situation. We'll see.