this visually-confusing scene shows vine-on-vine action: lilikoi (passionfruit) vine crosses horizontally.

climbing vertically, and holding on to the lilikoi vine, are some water spinach plants (which, although they are considered water plants, do indeed climb as well!).

on the left is an unripe lilikoi hanging from a different section of that same lilikoi plant. so in this case, the lilikoi vine is acting as a trellis for the water spinach!

#gardening #plants #VineGang #tropicalAg

now THIS is impressive tree mulching!

(this is not my place, it is the neighbor of a friend)

#mulch #gardening #tropical #TropicalAg

#plants @plants #gardening

any tips for fertilizing plants that are mostly or entirely in the air?

i have some #vanilla plants that are crawling their way through the forest. i have no idea where they touch the ground, but they have plenty of air roots.

i was thinking of fertilizing them, but realized i don't know what to do. maybe a mist or spray bottle? but then what goes in the bottle? at what concentration?

thanks in advance!

#TropicalAg #VineGang #tropical #epiphytes

#dragonfruit is a remarkable plant. it's a cactus that likes to climb & then hang down. it grows air roots to grasp whatever it's climbing.

you can break off segments & plant them. full sun is fine. it does very well in tropical dry places.

it has an amazing ability to recover from wounds or rot. it can even live with little scabbed-over holes in its flesh, like the hole seen below.

i love their giant flowers & tasty fruit. <3 dragonfruit!

@plants #plants #gardening #TropicalAg

#DragonfruitRepair

sometimes dragonfruit plants get The Rot. it spreads & liquifies the plant. pic 1 shows a pretty bad case of rot.

i've seen different suggestions for fixing it, but the one that seems to work is to scoop out all the rot w/your bare hand.

i did that, washed it with soap/water (like a wound) & it dried up within a day. (see pic 2.)

i'll monitor this section for more rot. if it repeats, i might split this section off.

#dragonfruit #tropical #plants #TropicalAg #gardening

yesterday's vine work: freeing the 'ohi'a lehua in image 1 from a bunch of lilikoi (passionfruit) that had nearly covered it. i needed a ladder & everything. pic 2 shows some of the vine after i pulled it off. it's really remarkable how heavy it can be. the poor 'ohi'a was overburdened.

once again, i did it to myself: i put some lilikoi starts next to the 'ohi'a & forgot to put them in final locations. so they grew & grew.

#VineGang #gardening #TropicalAg

more vine removal tips on day ?? of vine clearing:

if you can find where the vine emanates from, you can cut a perimeter & then slowly shrink the circle (or circles).

i don't pull vine all day every day, but i do try to pull a little vine almost every day.

the vine expands, i trim it back, & the cycle continues. i merely surf the vine growth. the vine creeps forward, i push it back. it is a dance i do, me & the vine. fin.

#VineGang #TropicalAg #FoodForest #InvasiveSpecies #gardening

what you would see if you were hanging out in a breadfruit tree :}

#breadfruit #ulu #TropicalAg #plants #trees #hawaii #nature @plants

my feelings on the third day of clearing these invasive vines.

@saltphoenix says goats love this stuff. but i don't have goats & this is what happens when you don't have large herbivores in your garden ecosystem: YOU become the large herbivore having to remove & stomp down the stuff you don't want.

at least they don't have thorns!

#gardening #homesteading #CleanUp #garden #ecology #environment #InvasiveSpecies #farm #garden #plants #TropicalAg #FoodForest

Working hard #today in the field. I was gifted 10 lbs of ripe avocados and a very refreshing ice cold coconut. #agriculture #farming #tropicalAg #islandLife

#ForestForensics: sometimes one's kitchen junk box grows a vine (apparently)!

at first i didn't notice it (sneaky plant!), then i was mystified, & then i discovered the air potato i must've set down among the rubber bands b/c i couldn't decide whether to plant it (b/c i don't remember if this is the edible kind, & i don't want to plant the invasive non-edible variety.)

air potato is dioscorea bulbifera.

compare edible/non-edible types here: https://www.fdacs.gov/content/download/76447/file/Air%20Potato%20Quick%20Identification%20Guide.pdf

#plants @plants #tropicalAg

as i was weeding the other day, i found what i think is a tiny #papyrus plant! i must have planted it & forgotten.

it looks just like the larger papyrus i have elsewhere (pic 3), including the distinguishing "tall bit with more leaves coming out" (pic 2).

i still haven't figured out exactly where papyrus wants to live in our climate, but these ones aren't dead yet!

they're meant to grow in water, but the air is water here, so they can grow in soil maybe

#plants #tropical #TropicalAg #PlantID

i checked in on my #vanilla #propagation experiment.

i was about to move this friend because it didn't look like it was doing too well, but i happened to look at the node to see if there had been any more bud growth & THERE WAS A ROOTLING. i was shocked. i just put it back in its spot & covered the node with a little bit of moss.

in pic 3, the red circle is around the new bud, & the white circle is around the new root.

#tropical #TropicalAg #gardening #plants @plants

any #azolla enthusiasts out there? azolla are tiny aquatic ferns that can be used as green mulch, animal feed, & more.

they double in number extremely quickly, so can overtake a pond. we grow them in buckets & kiddie pools. they like shade & can happily share space w/water spinach.

the other day, i started a new azolla pond using just a handful of azolla from the orange bucket in pic 2. i arranged some ferns over it for shade. now it'll just go!

#gardening #garden #TropicalAg #tropical

#ForestForensics: do you know this #plant? it's growing in a tropical wet climate on hawai'i island. (hawai'i people & other people in the pacific probably know.)

@plants #ecology #tropical #TropicalAg #garden #gardening #plants

happy #FlowerFriday from these turmeric bracts & flowers that came up from rhizome even before the leaves (like ginger, turmeric dies down in the fall & comes back in the spring). i almost didn't notice these!

#flowers #plants #garden #gardening #tropical #TropicalAg

i love this #beehive setup that one of my neighbors has.

the hives are off the ground, covered from rain, and even have a tarp in the back to keep the sun off. you can see the bees hanging out at the entrances. love it!

#bees #farm #garden #tropical #TropicalAg #homestead #diy

it's always a pleasure to visit @saltphoenix at their #farm!

there were just-hatched #ducklings, so we got to welcome them to the world (by snuggling them).

the pumpkin patch this year is huge beyond all measure. we found (& propped up) 5 more pumpkins (on top of the 6 that were already found).

plus it's egg season, so i helped with the abundance & made a flan while i was there 🌞

#farming #garden #gardening #chickens #goats #tropical #TropicalAg #plants

very nice video showing food plants that thrive in the shady understory in the wet tropics. i grow all of these except culantro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pElSCnandzM

#tropical #tropicalAg #garden #gardening #FoodForest #farm #farming #plants

learning about how the highly-invasive strawberry guava (psidium cattleianum, also called waiawi) got introduced to the hawaiian islands and the story is just as bad as one would expect...

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/waiawi/

#ecology #history #BotanicalHistory #hawaii #plants @plants #environment #tropical #TropicalAg #InvasiveSpecies #colonialism