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Agriculture

Swarm Season is Here

Friday, September 18th, 2015

Community Contributed

By Elisabeth Kaneshiro, Molokai Meli

Here at Molokai Meli, in addition to producing local honey, we also help residents and businesses with bee removal. We have had a lot of calls for removals and have seen the bees moving around. Honey bees swarm when the hives are getting too big and need more space. The rain causes the bees to swarm more often because the bees are bringing more nectar so the hive grows. The bees make a new queen and take a big group with the old queen and leave. These often look like a big cloud. They send out the scout bees to go and look for a new home.…

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Taro Field Day to Host Queen’s Challenge Taro Competition

Thursday, September 17th, 2015

Sust`aina ble Molokai and UH Cooperative Extension Service News Release

The Molokai Taro Variety Field Day will be held on Saturday, Sept. 19 at the Molokai Applied Research and Demonstration Farm, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The annual event has been organized by the UH Cooperative Extension Service since 1985, and is something that many residents look forward to. This year promises to be another outstanding event.

An important highlight of this year’s Taro Day is The Queen’s Challenge Taro Competition. This year, Molokai has been selected to host the competition, which is held annually at selected sites around the Pae `Aina in honor of Queen Emma Kalanikaumakaamano Kaleleonalani Na`ea Rooke, who recognized the value of the Hawaiian taro varieties and has written in detail on methods she used to produce large kalo (taro).…

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Waves of Flickering Taro Leaves

Friday, September 11th, 2015

Community Contributed

By Alton S. Arakaki, County Extension Agent

In 1895, Katherine Lee Bates wrote the famous words “for amber waves of grain” in the lyrics of “America the Beautiful.” I didn’t know what the words meant until my teacher pointed to the thousands of acres of sugarcane and I watched the countless wave-like action of leaves as the wind move across the field. In this live classroom, he concluded that the mainland kids would never identify with words “for green waves of sugarcane” if Katherine Bates had used them instead.

These same kinds of words were written in the journals of early sailors and missionaries arriving in Hawaii, to describe the fields of kalo or taro, ko (sugarcane), uala or sweet potato, and mai`a (banana) they observed as they sailed the coast and walked from one island district — ahupua`a — to the next throughout Hawaii.…

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Between Food and Climate Change

Friday, September 11th, 2015

Community Contributed

By Glenn I. Teves, UH CTAHR County Extension Agent

Characteristics of climate change include weather extremes — very hot and very cold — as well as violent storms. We’ve seen it this year with one of the coldest winters in decades, record high summer temperatures, and more than our share of threatening storms.

One of the positive aspects of a cold winter was a bumper crop of lychee, a native to South China. Most of the older lychee varieties, including Kwai Mi, Hak Ip, and No Mai Tze require colder weather to flower than is normally found in Hawaii, while the newer ones such as Kaimana and Groff require less of a cold snap to trigger flowering.…

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Local Farmers Turn to Export

Wednesday, September 9th, 2015

Local Farmers Turn to Export

Molokai was once known as “Molokai `Aina Momona,” or the abundant land, providing plentiful food for a population many times its current size. While there are still many farmers and crops on Molokai, the economics of farming are making it challenging to provide for the community the way ancient Hawaiians once did. Thus, many island farmers have turned to exporting to make the numbers work.

A recent study by nonprofit Sust`ainable Molokai has found that the economy of scale – or the cost advantage of producing larger amounts – plays a key role in the success of local farmers.

“It’s all about quantity and the ability for farmers to make money,” said Harmonee Williams, Sust`ainable Molokai project manager.…

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A Steak in the Local Economy

Wednesday, September 9th, 2015

A Steak in the Local Economy

In Hawaii, 85 percent of calves are shipped to the mainland, said Pu`u O Hoku Ranch General Manager Jann Roney. They’re raised and butchered, and the finished product is not always sent back to the islands. However, like others around the state in recent years, Molokai ranches and businesses are working to keep the full cattle operation at home.

Molokai Ranch

Last August, Molokai Ranch launched its 100 percent grass-fed beef in an effort to establish its new pillars of animal husbandry and sustainability, said Operations Manager Dathan Bicoy.

About 1,800 cattle graze 30,000 acres of pasture in Maunaloa. Over the last two years, the ranch has been introducing Wagyu cattle DNA into their herd.…

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Summer Avocados

Friday, August 28th, 2015

Community Contributed

By Glenn I. Teves, UH CTAHR County Extension Agent

Mid-summer is the leanest season for avocado in Hawaii, but the West Indies avocado fills the void and is there for the picking. The most heat-tolerant avocado, it’s the best adapted to the lowlands of Molokai, although it doesn’t do well along the shore where salty winds and soils can cause burning of roots and leaf edges.

The avocado is native to Mexico, where it’s been eaten before 10,000 BC. It spread throughout the Caribbean, Central and South American, evolving into three distinct races: the high-quality and cold-tolerant Mexican, the tropical forest Guatemalan, and the heat-tolerant, lowland West Indies.…

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Changing Seasons

Friday, August 14th, 2015

Community Contributed

By Glenn I. Teves, UH CTAHR County Extension Agent

We are in the midst of the Dog Days of summer, which runs July 3 to Aug. 11 and named after the star Sirius or the Dog in the constellation Orion. This is traditionally the hottest weather of the year, and I can’t argue that. Plants can sense subtle changes in day length and temperature in our changing seasons as the days get shorter, and the nights get longer. Long-day plants, such as corn and soybeans bask in the long hot days of summer, while others such as lettuce and kale prefer cooler days and nights.…

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Oriental Fruit Fly

Friday, July 10th, 2015

Community Contributed

By Glenn I. Teves, UH CTAHR County Extension Agent

The most damaging pest of fruits in Hawaii is the Oriental Fruit Fly, a small fly about 3/16 inch in length. It arrived in Hawaii around the mid-1940s, and is a major pest of over 230 kinds of fruits and vegetables. Native to Southern Asia, it’s also found on the islands of Sri Lanka and Taiwan. In the U.S., it’s only found in Hawaii but has been intercepted in California several times. Summer is their heyday when mango, papaya, and banana are in full production, and can be distinguished from another fruit fly, the Melon Fly, by its clear wings and a black T on its abdomen.…

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Judge Rules County GMO Ban Invalid

Wednesday, July 8th, 2015

A federal judge has ruled that a Maui County ban on the cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) crops is invalid. The order determined that the ordinance, initiated and passed by voters in November’s election, was preempted by federal and state law that allows cultivation of GE crops, and therefore the ban exceeds the county’s authority.

In the decision issued last Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Mollway made it clear that the decision was not a comment on the validity of concerns for or against the ban, but simply a legal response to the question of whether the ban was enforceable based on existing state and federal law.…

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