Moving Right Along

Moving Right Along was Originally Posted on September 3, 2010 by lavarock

I am in the final rush to have my farm fully planted before the end of October. As you may know, I signed an agreement with my lessor that states I will have the property pretty well planted with productive crops. By doing so, I get a very reasonable rate on the land. I have about 9 acres and a house I bought and the leasehold fee is $1600 a year (or so). Because the previous owner did not comply with his agreement for many years, he ended up signing away his rights to the property and actually lost money on the deal. I purchased the property for $145,000! By complying with the lease agreement to plant and manage the land, I will get yet another 40 year lease when mine comes up for renewal.

I had cleared the productive area on the farm, removing macadamia nut trees, and punched holes all over for coffee. I planted half of the area, however, the other half was left alone and the holes have pretty much filled in with rocks and dirt, or been covered with ines and grasses. I could probably find them with lots of work. Instead I may just have new holes punched in the rock and immediately plant in them.

The coffee trees at the top are planted in a 5 by 10 spacing. 1600 trees take up about 41 rows of 41 trees. That is also how I punched the bottom area and was to plant there first, until the water system was completed up top first, thus it got planted and the bottom area waited. Holes for coffee trees don’t need to be very large, as the trees were seedlings when they were planted.

1600 coffee trees can create around 1600 pounds of roasted coffee. I could double that on the lower area but punching 1600 holes, buying 1600 seedlings and dirt for the holes would cost at least $16,000 more. I am opting to diversify some and decided to add fruit trees. Even though the trees would be 6 times the cost of the coffee trees, I would only be planting one tenth as many trees. I calculate 160 fruit trees at reasonable spacings would fill the same space. Although the holes will need to be larger, there are only a few of them compared to the coffee holes.

As long as I am planting productive crops, the lessor is happy. I will have a deversified farm and not be relying upon just one type of crop.

So what types of fruit might I be planting? Well, I looked at the Twelve Fruit Trees Project information and also at what fruit trees can be grown here. Becaus eof our climate and soil, we have a very big group from which to choose. I may be taking off more than I can chew with this, but here is the group of trees I am considering. I have already eliminated some trees from the list because of pests or the amount of work to prune, etc.

Atemoya, Rollinia, Fig, Kumquat, Rangpur Lime, Tree Tomato, Valencia and Navel Oranges, Ruby Grapefruit, Meyer Lemon, Tahitian and Kaffir Limes, Pummelo, Climentine, Dandy, White Sapote, Longan, mammey, Miracle Fruit, Mountain Apple, Pineapples, Sapodilla, Soursop, Starfruit, Breadfruit and a few others. I may also plant some spices like Clove and Cinnamon. For a bit of excitement I’ll throw in some Cacao to make a bit of chocolate.

The nice thing about it is that the citrus all take pretty much the same nutrients and water requirements, and I do have water available.

To get information about the items I’ll be planting, I traveled to Kurtistown (a few towns past the volcano) to a nursery called “Plant It Hawaii” (no relation to Planet-Aloha [.com and .info]) It took me about 2 hours or more to get there, spent a hour talking plants and looking at trees and fruit, and then it was time to go home. I opted to take Saddle Road back home, so I continued towards Hilo. I considered going to the Rainforest Zoo but decided to pass this time. I stopped at Jack In The Box (I’m a stockholder) and had a very nice lunch. Their sirloin burger, fries and drink completely filled me. It was a very nice experience. Also, since they don’t cook the food until you order it, they end up bringing most orders to your table for you. The Hilo restaurant is like many chains (Steak N Shake comes to mind) where you can almost see your breath. Restaurants often do this to keep people from sitting all day nursing a soda, just for a place to sit. That is the only reason I can think of. If you think this is evil, I understand that oftentimes banks have lines of perhaps 5 minutes wait time. Hopefully you will look at the signs with their other products for you. Think about it, why fill a lobby with posters if your customers are not there long enough to read them?

As I walked the farm today and looked to see where I would plant each item, I was passed by two dogs, running at full steam. Koa and O`Lena like to run and play and run more. O`Lena was born this past April and Koa was born 3 years earlier on the same date! They get along well considering that O’Lena is driven to chew on Koa’s ears and he really does nothing to discourage her. If he would just growl once or twice she would back off.

Well, time to get back to my projects.