9 February 2010 by Robert.

The Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden is located about 8 miles north of Hilo, Hawaii, and is along a four-mile Scenic Route at Onomea Bay. During our recent vacation, we ensured we had enough time to make a stop here and the time was well spent. First, be sure to bring mosquito repellent with you. This imported critter does like the area.

Next, the path through the park is not easy and some parts are not wheelchair accessible. The path is well marked and mostly paved but the climb back out can be difficult.

But it is all worth the effort! You start the walk down a 500 foot elevated boardwalk that goes along the Kahalii Stream. This ravine is covered with giant bamboo, bananas, flowering vines, orchids and ferns. One of the first items I noticed was the SIZE of the plants! Bamboos were well in the 50 foot high range.

Our favorite area was filled with nothing but orchids. We took over 50 photos just of the different colors and shapes of orchids in the small garden (which overlooked their tropical bird aviary).

Although the Onomea Falls (a three-tiered waterfall) brought us a sense of serenity, the Heliconia Trail amazed us with over 80 different species of these colorful flowerheads. The Heliconias ranged in size from about 2 foot to about 20 foot high with numerous shapes and sizes! In case you didn’t know it, at one time, Heliconias were classified the same as bananas but now are considered a separate family. What I thought were flowers were actually highly modified leaves called bracts. My favorite, and possibly the largest, bracts were from the hanging lobster.

There are several other areas such as Banyan Canyon, Bromeliad Hill, and the Vistas (Wi-apple Vista, Coconut Vista, and Monkeypod Vista) that were side trips we walked down.

The scents and sights were amazing and almost overwhelming in the diversity, color and size.

On your next trip to the Big Island, make sure you plan to stop here for at least 2 hours but preferably for 4 hours. Once you complete your journey, you can also stop and shop to have orchids mailed back to you here on the Mainland.

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26 January 2010 by Shari.

**January 28, 2010**

Nobody knows how much water a pecan tree needs? No guesses at all? Take a wild guess - it is probably more than you think.

The fact that water is so important leads us to discussions related to sustainable production systems. But we have to understand how much we currently use and how can we make our systems more sustainable. So take a guess at the amount of water needed for pecans.

**January 26, 2010**

We all know everything needs water to live, including us! But just how much does plant material need to survive? Sitting in this workshop on Pecans, I realized that pecan trees need lots of water during the growing season. I mean lots of water.

You see water is essential for nut development. It is imperative that pecans have lots of water when the nut is setting all the way through the process of breaking the shuck. But really, how many gallons of water do you think a pecan tree needs during this process?

Any guesses?

Hint ***a mature pecan needs about 55 acre inches of water per year.***

Posted in Water | 2 Comments »

26 January 2010 by Barbara.

Check back for weekly updates!

January 23:
Stopped by the greenhouse to check on the seedlings. A few of the peppers seems a bit dry so we moved a few trays around to be sure they get enough moisture. The eggplants have not sprouted yet, hopefully we’ll see a little green soon. The pepper still in the mist tent are looking great.

January 20:
It’s time to plant the eggplant seeds. Opps, no room in the mist tent. We removed several of the TAM pepper trays, they were showing two tiny leaves and growing rapidly. They were place on the table with the Sweet Aussi Basil, this table has a great misting system, and a raised heat pad system. They should be fine.

January 15:
Stopped by for a quick visit to the greenhouse. Checked on the seedlings, the ones in the mist tent and on the table look good.

January 13:
The pepper seed trays in the mist tent were checked, everything looked fine – the soil was moist and the heat pads were working. Now we are waiting for the seedlings to show a little green.

On to the next plants — 53 cuttings of Sweet Aussi Basil were started with lots of help from our wonderful dedicated MGs. The cuttings were made, given a soak in a mixture of Hasta-Gro fertilizer and Consan Triple Action 20 fungicide/ algaecide before being dipped in rooting hormone, they were then planted in 1 quart pots (4 cuttings to a pot). These were set on heat pads on a table in the greenhouse not in the mist tent.

January 11:
Stopped by to check on the mist tent, moisture in the seed trays appeared even and the heat pads are warm.

January 9-11:
Due to the really cold weather the water in the greenhouse had to be turned off at night. Thanks to our great Greenhouse Chairman the seedlings did not go un-misted. This dedicated MG went to the greenhouse everyday during the freezing weather to turn the water on during the day and back at night to turn it off. That’s a REAL gardener!!!

Jan. 9, 2010:
We began with a Kick-off meeting, had great attendance from our FBMG veggie team, then started planting seeds.

We had over 20 Master Gardeners and Associates join us as we discussed the plans for growing and selling the vegetables, then we planted a total of 728 pepper seeds. These included 2 varieties of bell peppers, 1 banana pepper, 2 varieties of jalapenos and 1 variety of chili pepper. All seed trays were labeled with the variety and date planted, and then placed into the mist tent with heat pads set at 82 degrees Fahrenheit. The mist tent is totally full!!

Notes: As with all projects you always learn from the experience, some of the things we learned from the project last year:

1. Double check all labeling
2. Include more varieties of peppers
3. This is a Vegetable Sale not an herb sale
4. Improve timing so that plants aren’t too leggy

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