Thanks, that's great info!

My results are a bit different from yours, could be 'cause I'm on windward side, at 1500 foot elevation; I've had great luck with Hawaiian Chilies outdoors in the ground, same plants going strong for 3 years; jalapenos and other haoli chilies have produced well for a season or two. String beans do great in the ground here, too, and I've got eggplant and strawberries that have lasted 2 or 3 years.

Cukes, tomatoes, zukes--there I'm in total agreement with you! We grow them in the greenhouse with fresh soil/mulch each season, but that's not enough anymore, we'll have to switch to containers.

I've completely given up on snow peas, spinach, broccoli, but swiss chard, cabbage, kale do great.

herbs mostly need to be grown under cover so they don't drown--we get 170" rain a year, you may have different results.

Who else has results to share?
Lee

Here at about 1000' on the windward side of West Maui i have grown arugula, bok choy, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, bush beans, lima beans, pole beans, tomatillos, garbanzo beans, snap peas, snow peas, leeks, round onions, carrots, onions, shallots, ginger, all kinds of herbs, wing bean, pipinola, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, turnips, radish, beets, peppers, eggplant, lettuces, kale, cow peas, long beans and zucchini. All pretty much grown right in the clay although i do have a few raised beds. I took a soil sample to the extension office and amended based on the findings before i started planting and that seems to have really helped. I also try to rotate plantings and amend with as much organic matter as i can get my hands on.
The things i've had trouble with include regular sized tomatoes, melons, squash and cucumbers due to fruit fly damage. I've abandoned spinach because chard grows so much better and the perpetual variety is a decent substitute. Fava beans and runner beans grew but not very well but i want to try some different varieties before i give up on them. Tried peanuts one year but the birds ate them. Peppers are hit and miss between the fruit flies and the pepper weevils but i enjoy some success as well.
Planting things at the right time of year really helps. I don't worry too much about plant disease and i don't like to spray insecticides but the bugs can really get you down. Floating row cover is a gardener's best friend.
So lilaalil i guess you are not the only one who has hard time being concise ; )

Update: just got my first sweet potatoes! I planted some a bunch of slips about 4 months ago in one of my old rubbermaid tubs with some potting soil. Just dug them out and got about 15 nice potatoes. They were grown from one of those purple-skinned, white-fleshed sweeet potatoes from the grocery store. The best part is, I just replanted the vines again, and in another 4 months should get some more potatoes, all off of one parent potato from the grocery store.

I also have a bunch more growing in this raised bed filled with red clay soil that came with my house. They've been there about 2 1/2 months, so in a month or so it'll be time to dig those out and see how they did in the clay. Supposedly clay is not the best for these, but I had the slips needing a home, and that bed just sitting there empty... we'll see.

Congratulations on your harvest! Sweet potatoes are good any time of year but especially now. Sweet potato haupia pie maybe?
Containers are a good idea for sweet potatoes. Easier to harvest and easy to contain. The vines will take over the world if you look the other way for a little too long! It will be a good experiment to see how the sweets do in clay v. container soil. I usually end up slicing all of mine in half with the shovel ; ( Still good to eat!

I have had some success with each of the following towards the back of Manoa:

Hawn chili peppers - lasted 2-3 years then died.

Cherry tomatoes - got quite a few off of one plant before the dreaded grey mold killed all the leaves.

Arugula! slugs don't seem to like it. It grows and grows. Handy hint - If you cook it it loses all of its bite and is just like spinach.

Rosemary - super easy but how much can you eat? Likewise with turmeric, basil, and Cuban oregano.

Papaya - super easy, but somehow I never get the right gender ones, and it takes months to determine if you do or not.

Bananas - take fo-evah! but will grow.

Okra - some only grow 9" then stop. finally got some to grow to 3ft and got a decent number of pods off them. I think they need lots of sun.

Sweet potatoes - easy but some get disgusting big grubs in them. Once you cut into one of them you never want to eat a sweet potato again.

I'm trying bitter melon now. They started off well but now are kind of dying back. The melons I got off them were very tiny and turned orange before they could get big enough.

I been doing small scale gardening in my ewa beach subdivision lot. I buy my seeds online. I love soybeans so much, but when I planted it, it only yield enough for myself, not the kind you buy boiled from the store. I guess I got to try nitrogen rich soil next time.Okra: I got like 4-5 plants that were from seed packets also from the mainland. it grew for like 5 feet tall, hairless variety, it produced a great amount of okra, pretty big and you just have to watch and harvest it on the right time or it will get so tough to eat. No luck on tomato here, I am not sure why? sweet potato: yes, I have Okinawan purple kind, I eat the young shoots like salad style. takes 4 months for it to grow. Long squash: I bought a small plant from home depot, and it grew like crazy, and the vine literally wrapped around my lime tree. it lasted for about 6 months and I pretty much gave away fruits to friends and neighbors. Papaya: so easy, but scary because the tree grew up to 20 feet tall, had to cut it for safety reason. green peppers, bell peppers, did pretty slow but it was the only one resistant to bugs? arugula....soooo much of it but too bitter!!! kale, and collards, I never really eat them but tried to plant it and they did pretty well. pak choi. no luck, grew some but only small kind harvest. Malabar spinach, a native of asia, grew like crazy in my backyard. I am still trying to experiment with different plants. I compost, I never use pesticides because I grow plants that I eat. anybody have luck on kohlrabi?

Hi All,
I recently moved to Maui and have been trying to learn more about all the different fruits & vegetables here. A friend just gave me this huge thing which he said he found in his yard. It's about 2' long and is green. Does anyone know what kind of vegetable this is? I'm thinking squash? Is it safe to eat & if so what is the best way to prepare it? Thank you for the advice! Have a great day :)

Pali27: Long squash / Opo squash

It can be cooked like most any zuke/squash. Most people pick them smaller than that, but they tend to stay rather tender even at large sizes like that. The size it's at is bordering on the area where it may be bitter, though.

This post was edited by nc-crn on Sat, Dec 21, 13 at 4:46

that's Upo long squash, good for soups, but harvest it early when its smaller. I usually sautee it with garlic, onion, tomato, add chicken, beef, or pork, and use chicken broth for soup.

Aloha Family, I have recently started a garden here in kapoho on the Big Island with the intention to not have to rely on the market as my family's source of nourishment. I am using a combination of cinder soil and mac nut husk as well as mixing in I.M.O.s and compost/mulch into the medium. I decided to start with some perennial vegetables. Okinawan Spinach, Malabar Spinach, Edible hibiscus, and Chaya or tree spinach. I believe greens are essential for health. We are also growing Cherry Tomatoes from UH, mustard greens from UH, nasturtium which is a edible flower, garlic chives, onion chives, kale from UH, spinach from UH, pak choi from UH, strawberries, collards, Katuk, Moringa, basil, sweet potato, sweet peppers, and a few other things. I have found so far that my biggest pest/ obstacle is wild pigs then second are white moth larva which eat holes in all my brassica plants. I find spraying BT once a week really helps and It is organic approved. I am however having a hard time growing rosemary for some reason. I have it in a pot with not alot of soil and mostly cinder. Any suggestions? I am not into using chemical fertilizers or anything along those lines. Mahalo!!!!!!

I am the original poster back in 2012. I have learned a lot in those four years. First and foremost is the difficulty of gardening with powdery mildew attacks. Tomatoes, peppers, beans of all kinds, cucumber and eggplant are all susceptible. The first year I gardened I grew these vegetables without much difficulty, the thrived and produced. Then they started to get yellow and die back on the tips and leaves until the plant dies. I usually get some produce before that happens. I still grow cherry tomatoes and some beans but I gave up on cucumber. Eggplant will do well in a moist area near the gingers, which brings me to an odd characteristic of powdery mildew, it hates WATER! I live in dry Nanakuli, and I never had this problem in Makawao. I have tried the organic treatments without success, but if I sprinkle my eggplant with water it helps kill the fungus. I know a farmer from Ewa that has 20 acres of Thai basil that has to by very expensive fungicides every year to fight powdery mildew, so I know I;m not the only one with the problem. It is a world wide problem, especially in the southern USA. So, other than that problem I grow beautiful watermelon, kabocha pumpkin, okra, kale, collards, green onions, upland watercress, Gai lan(my favorite vegetable, a chinese brocolli), bok choy, and wong bok. Now I will deal with vegetables I CAN grow, but with problems. I love sweet potatoes, and the grow well, but I can only eat the leaves because some grub eats the roots. I only get half a tuber on harvesting. So that's it, if any of you need any information, leave a note.

does anyone know if russet potatoes, watermellon/ honeydew and pumpkin grow well in hawaii? oh and nut trees like almonds and walnuts