Aloha,

I listed a page in two of the messages below with a website listing botanical gardens in Hawaii. I'm sure you can call and they'll have more info.

We've grown squash, beans, eggplant, peppers, lettuce ... but never had luck with tomato.

Im originally from the Big Island and there is no growing season there. I never understood what a growing season was until I moved to the mainland.

My family grows tomatoes year round, including japanese eggplants, chili peppers, string beans, bitter melon, figs, sweet potatoe. Theres a whole list of plants they grow, but I only know them by their Filipino names not by their botanical names. Hopefully, this list is a start.

Mae

I hope your move to Maui is a smooth one.

Below is a link to gardens on Maui.

And I know personally where a community garden is located in the city of Kihei. It is in North Kihei, just south of the Kihei Youth Center east of the Keolahou Hawaiian church, basically on the same grounds.

I'll go look at it this week and see if it is still running.

Here is a link that might be useful: maui gardens

When I lived on a boat on Oahu, we had a pretty good garden growing on the top of our dockside storage locker. One year we planted corn by putting three seeds in a half gallon pot and planting about a dozen pots. We had to tie the stalks so the wind wouldn't blow our crop into the harbor during storms, but we got enough corn to have a "corn festival" with our neighbors. We ate the whole crop in that one party, but it was jolly good fun.

what direction is your home facing?
wondering about heat/exposure.
are you going to be up country or near the ocean?
let us know
thanksBudw

I've grown cherry tomatoes with success in an open bag of potting soil (some drainage holes poked in the bottom) perched on the roof outside my 2nd story bathroom window. Regular size tomatoes I haven't found the formula for success yet, except patio tomatoes, those do well in pots, they are determinate. Potatoes will grow in containers too. Most of what you listed like heat; lettuce, peas like cooler weather. The best source of information as to which cvs to grow would be the locals, see if you can look up the Master Gardener program and ask their advice.

Hello. I have some suggestions though I am not sure it will be beneficial to you since I live in Honolulu. Each island has its own "micro-climate".
I have grown lettuce here in hot, hot, hot, and low elevation, and humid Moiliili. One was the Manoa lettuce, the other was a heat tolerant Thai lettuce. Others have given me lettuce that was already started so I don't know the names. They were all leafy, not the iceberg type.
Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! Everything from cherry to Roma to local U.H. hybrid, He'elani. It grows but watch out for medflies. Haven't tried a "beefsteak" variety yet. The He'elani is at best the size of an eight-year old child's fist...that probably means patio size.
My personal experience has been to stay away from pots smaller than 3 gallon. 7 gallon pots do well for me with cucumbers, tomatoes, and basil. 5 gallon is really squeezing it. Sunlight! At least 6 to 8 hours can be important to tomatoes and eggplant.
Grow green onions. Would like to try squash in a pot next.
Here is my list: Sunsugar cherry tomato, 3 types of basil, green onions, rosemary, thyme, two citrus trees, cucumber, walking onion, chives, mild Korean pepper, ginger, galangala, cat whiskers, leek, plumeria, Roma tomato, oregano, miniature rose, tagetes, curry tree, curry plant, sage, lavender, Christmas aster, zinnia, echinacea, pink and red ginger, veronica, phaseolus caracalla, eggplant...I think that's most of it. Most of the above are in pots or in pots and in the ground.
Hope you have great success!

jemmeri, check out Burpee Seeds for bush zucchini, bush pumpkin and other space saving veggies. Be prepared to fertilize because most are heavy feeders.