Tag: cooperative extension service

December 6, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Freshened frills restyle poinsettias for new year

Poinsettias can transition from Christmas into New Year’s decorations with some additional flair. Get dried, curly ting ting plant branches from a florist or craft supply shop, and place the stems into the pot and among the poinsettia foliage.

Ting ting comes in silver, gold, red, green and natural colors. Floral supply shops also carry spray glitter that is safe for plants. Simply changing the container or decorative wrap will also freshen up the plants to carry into next year.

Poinsettias are native to Central America and tropical Mexico. A botanist and diplomat named Joel Robert Poinsett, who served as a U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 1825 to 1829, is credited with making this plant known throughout the world.

Poinsettias of today look much different from those found growing in the tropics. Short, bushy types have been developed for indoor holiday decoration. Intensive hybridization has resulted in beautiful new colors, including cream, yellow, peach, pink, improved reds and marbled and speckled bracts. The modern hybrids also hold their color for many weeks, lasting through the holidays and into the new year.

The brilliant color of the poinsettia does not come from the flowers, but rather the bracts. Bracts, often mistaken for flower petals, are actually modified leaves. The true flowers are small, yellow buttons, called cyathia, in the center of the colorful bracts. In November and December, when the days grow shorter, the colorful bracts begin to form.

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December 5, 2010 General Ag News and Notes, Mulberry Post a Comment

Autograph trees are invading Hawaii’s forests


by Diana Duff

Many gardeners in Hawaii have become native plant enthusiasts. More and more people are awakening to the beauty of our native species and learning about them and the vigilance required to save them from harm or eventual extinction. Events like Arbor Day at Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, offering free native plants and information on growing them, help folks learn ways to grow and care for native plants. Interest in these plants, which have thrived in our native forests for millennia, helps raise awareness of the threats a multitude of invasive species pose to them.

One particularly threatening species, the autograph, or signature, tree (Clusia rosea) caught the notice of Darcy Ames, who has witnessed firsthand the encroachment of this species on the ohia forests near her home.

“When I first bought property in Holualoa, I thought the autograph tree was quite lovely,” Ames said. “After a few years of experience, inspection and investigation, I began to realize this tree was capable of destroying the habitat of our ohia and other native species unless we began a proactive course against it.

“After witnessing the damage it can cause, I can honestly say that I hate what this plant is capable of doing. Autograph seeds can be dropped by birds and root as much as 20 or 30 feet in the air in the crotch of an ohia tree.

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November 28, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Poinsettia: It’s all about the leaves

by Russell T. Nagata
Special To West Hawaii Today

If it weren’t for the highly colored leaves, the poinsettia would be best known by some other name. Its scientific name, Euphorbia pulcherrima, literally means “most beautiful Euphorbia.” The true flowers of the poinsettia are called cyathia and are the green and white beads tipped with yellow and red in the center of the flowers. The showy parts of the plants are actually modified leaves called bracts.

The poinsettia grows wild in southern Mexico and naturally blooms under the shorter daylight hours of the fall season. The Aztec name for this plant was cuetlaxochitl and was use in many ways. A purplish dye was extracted from the colorful bracts to be used in textiles and cosmetics and the latex sap was used to treat fevers.

The plant was introduced into the United States by Joel Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 1825-29. Although trained in the medical profession, Poinsett’s real love was botany. On a trip to the Taxco area in 1828, he collected the brilliant red flowering plants and grew them at his South Carolina farm. He distributed the plants to friends, who distributed it to their friends and so on. It’s easy to see how the name originated.

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November 26, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

To Bee or Not to Bee

By Glenn I. Teves, County Extension Agent, UH CTAHR Cooperative Extension Service

The relationship between humans and honeybees is ancient, as demonstrated by cave paintings in Spain, South Africa, and Nepal, depicting honey hunters collecting honey from wild hives. The honeybee was introduced to Hawaii in 1857, but the accidental introduction of the Varroa mite in 2007 puts this relationship in jeopardy and is one example of Hawaii’s vulnerability to invasive species.

The Varroa mite (Varroa destructor) is one of the most serious pests of honeybees and is associated with the spread of viruses and the decline of honey bee colonies on the mainland. And it’s only a matter of time before it destroys all feral honeybee colonies in Hawaii. On the island of Oahu alone, over 90 percent of the wild colonies have been wiped out and it has now moved to the Big Island, starting in Hilo. Visual checks of feral honeybees in Ho`olehua and Mo`omomi have not found the Varroa mite to date.

The mites attack both adult bees, and also larvae in the hive. Although honeybees in Hawaii are crosses between German, Italian, and Carnolian bees, the honeybees on Molokai appear to be a special disease resistant strain, first brought in around 1898. They show resistance to a disease called Foul Brood, which wiped out honeybees on most of the islands starting in 1908.

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November 7, 2010 General Ag News and Notes, Organic Ag Post a Comment

Create healthy soil in your own backyard

by Diana Duff

If you are thinking you can’t grow food in your garden, think again. Many Kona residents don’t plant edible gardens believing they haven’t got good soil. Yes, we are soil-challenged here, but help is just a few months of easy recycling away.

We all have rocky soil. At lower elevations, soils are not only rocky but can also be dry and alkaline. At upper elevations, rocky soil is often wet, sometimes boggy, and acidic. No can grow? Wrong. If you think “no can,” try again. Since we are all on the sustainable path, composting presents a solution to two issues we face: recycling waste and building soil.

You can get started toward your gardening goal by getting some beds defined and laying in a passive compost pile that will give you a good soil base, alive with microorganisms. Use those pesky rocks to create borders for your beds, and then start piling garden waste into them. Cut material into small pieces for fast breakdown. For a base of decomposed waste in several months, mix dried leaves, leafy prunings, grass clippings, weeds (without seeds), broken up twigs and branches less than 1/2 inch diameter. If you live in a dry area, dampen the pile and cover it with a tarp or black plastic to maintain a dampness level comparable to a wrung out sponge. In wet areas, covering can help keep the pile from getting waterlogged, which can lead to smelly anaerobic decay. In any case, a balanced mix of organic inputs including green matter for nitrogen, brown (dry) matter for carbon, air and moisture speeds the process. After sitting for several months, you’ll have a base of decomposed organic matter. Mix in some of your rocky soil to improve aeration and you are ready to plant.

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October 6, 2010 General Ag News and Notes 1 Comment

Growing Dryland Taro Part I

By Glenn I. Teves, County Extension Agent,
UH CTAHR Cooperative Extension Service

Molokai is blessed with many Hawaiian taro varieties, in part due to the vision of the late Martha and Cowboy Otsuka in seeking out and preserving these legacies. Also, under the direction of Alton Arakaki and Faith Tuipulotu in making huli available each year at the annual Molokai Taro Field Day.

With the advent of drip irrigation and water distribution systems, taro can be grown in areas where it could never grow before. In the past, dryland taro was only grown in the uplands in mulch where seasonal rains were sufficient to bring the taro to harvest.
Most varieties will mature between eight and 12 months, and keeping plants actively growing is the key. Taro loves water, and along with fertilizer, will flourish before your eyes. Dryland taro is distinguished from wetland taro in that the latter grows in water ponds or lo`i. Different varieties were selected for these two conditions. Taking a soil sample of your planting area is the first step in growing upland taro. Call our office at 567-6932 for more information on taking a soil sample.

The biggest challenge in growing taro is weeds

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