Aloha. It feels like winter has finally arrived. The length of the days is shrinking and the rains are back for now. The shooting of the bamboo has been slightly postponed from the dry conditions that we had been experiencing. WIth the recent blessings of rain, the shooting process will take off again. In the meantime, we have been working diligently to finish our bamboo treatment/processing shed. We have one more concrete pour to do on Tuesday before we will start construction on the end walls. We have also been working in the nursery propagating bamboo and cleaning plants for off island sales. All plants leaving Maui for the other islands need to be free of scale, mites, ants, and other pests to curtail their spread throughout the islands. Sometimes the plants have all their leaves clipped off prior to shipping. This is no problem as the bamboo leafs out quickly within 10-14 days to its original fullness. We are very pleased to see sales pick up again. Please help me make the your blogging experience better by telling me what you’d like to hear about.
Archive for the 'nursery' Category
It’s Up to You
Rain, Rain, Stay and Play
Today we worked on bamboo propagation and transferring bamboo into larger pots. I’ll have another “how to” on this mode* of propagation later. but the news I have to share is the rain during work. For the seven months I’ve been on island, this is the hardest I’ve seen it. It was pouring so hard, not even my rain jacket kept me dry! We are all very excited to see it raining this hard due to the fact that there hasn’t been enough rain for the past seven years. We are all praying for more rain like this. So for all those who have too much rain, send it our way. 
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.
- Oscar Wilde
* this mode being root division
We also unpacked our pressure treatment vessel. It felt like Christmas pulling all the parts out with the anticipation of an assembly project.
A New Day, A New Planting
I appologize for making you wait over a week for a new post. Today, the crew worked up near the top of the property planting a new plot. We planted 137 new plants, not including all the nitrogen fixing plants. 4 jack fruit 10 sandal wood 12 peach palm 8 nene leau 68 koa 12 kukui 23 a’ali’i . after we finished the planting the crew worked in the nursery weeding and maintaining the plants.
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Malay Dwarf Propagation
I’ve been talking about the propagation for a while now, and I figured that I would tell you how we are doing it.
When propagating bamboo, there are multiple ways to go about it. For different bamboo species, it differs. We have been working with Malay Dwarf for a while and that is the species that I will be explaining for you.
The first step we take is gathering the bamboo for propagation. To propagate for this variety, we need something to take cuttings from. We take the cuttings from shoots that are at least three years old. In order to tell the age, we have to count the branches on the nodes. There must be at least five branches on at least one of the nodes on the shoot to be at least three years old. Here is a diagram of what I’m talking about.
The filled areas are branches, and the numbers represent what year of the plants life that branch grew.
Once we have found a shoot that is old enough, we cut it out of the clump and bring it over to the nursery for step two.
The next step is to trim all the extra branches off leaving only the strongest branch. that branch would then be cut to the second node, and the shoot would be cut on both sides of the node leaving it looking like this.
Finally your ready to plant. Using a 4 inch pot and custom potting soil bury the cutting with soil and pack the soil making sure to leave the bottom of the branch completely covered. Water very well and admire the new plants you have now created.
New leaves will grow within a couple of weeks if you did well. the finished product looks like this.
And here is some great photo’s from around the farm for your enjoyment.
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All photo’s by Nolin Vultrus.
The Construction Continues
We have two new workers from Hana on the construction crew: Bryer and Lyman. We are right at this moment pouring the foundation for the quonset hut! Here are some pictures I took about 30 minutes ago. I’ll add the video when I figure out how to upload it from my phone in the right format.
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In the nursery,The Malay Dwarf propagation is going well. We have more than 500 cuttings started so far with a total of 1000 being our goal.
Check in again often to see more on the construction and other farm activities!
Atter Cleaning
Today we cleaned the Atter bamboo. The team used sawzall’s to cut shoots that were too small or to crowded. This afternoon’s work is going to be propagating Malay Dwarf keikis. We have been making these starts for a while now, and are about halfway to our (don’t quote me on this. I’m probably wrong) 1,000 keiki goal. For more information on bamboo propagation, I found this website. Bamboo Propagation
Quote of the week:
When I was walking down the hill, I felt like Godzilla. Walking all slow going “rawr rawr rawr”
New Era
Today, I am showing Nathan how to update and keep the blog going for all you loyal viewers. We have certainly been remiss about adding entries, but are very happy to get it going again. This morning on the farm the crew was in the nursery cleaning malay dwarf bamboo for shipment to Oahu. We are now ready to ship out the 200 2 gallon Malay Dwarf plants.
We do have many new apprentices now, including another cook, whom agrees with our “localvore” diet.
The pictures illustrate the work we have been doing to create a space to build a quonset hut to house the bamboo soaking vessel.
In the nursery
Last day of May, and and the crew had a nursery day. Nathan got the hedger out and cleaned up the Malay Dwarf hedge that serves as a windbreak for one of the hardening off zones. Eli and Keori harvested air layers off some of the bamboo that were put on awhile back. Jade dug up textilis, divided them, and potted them. Allison spent the day weeding and organizing the trees in the nursery.
And Virginia, well she got the paths in the garden sheet mulched with cardboard, palm fronds, and palm sheaths with organic matter on top. The farm house looks and feels especially spring cleaned, just in the nick of time before the month of May was over. She always does such a great job wherever she goes. Yay Virginia!
Planting 500
Yesterday everyone went up the hill and planted more trees. There is always more. Native and polynesian introduced species, with a glyricidia and narra NFT nurse crop were installed in good weather and good spirits. There were fun games played as everyone kept busy. It is such rewarding work to do, and at the end of the day makes me feel good to see the accomplishment that many hands make.
At around 4 pm we stirred the 500. Some cleaned the windows on the barn while we took turns stirring the biodynamic prep for the farm. For an hour, we stir it to create a vortex in the water, and then once it gets going create chaos in the barrel by switching directions. About 3 times a minute the direction of the stir changes direction. Then the prep is loaded in the pto driven pump mounted on the back of “Zeus,” our John Deere 5420 tractor. One load covers about 12-14 acres.
Today, two people stayed down in the nursery and cleaned plants that are going to another nursery in Hana. The rest of the crew went up to the planting to finish mulching and interplanting with NFTs. Ryan had a good week putting the Mule back together, replacing a hydraulic hose on the Kubota L5450, changing the blades on the chipper, replacing a high pressure power steering hose on the Dodge 3500, and fixing Jade’s car. What a tremendous week to be alive and to be doing good work on our blessed Earth.
Monday morning and bamboo crafts
A few of us hiked down from Haleakala through the Kaupo gap this weekend so we’re a bit sore this morning. We all spread out and did different work: some of us continued laying forms for the driveway, a few worked in the nursery propagating more bamboo, and some worked with our newly subsidized chicken community, setting up a new coop.
In the mean time, bamboo continues to be a major source of innovation in the world around us. Here are a few great links to some design projects that feature bamboo as the primary design material. We’re especially impressed by the craftsmanship shown by Beppu’s best bamboo craftsmen.
These eyeglasses are another clever approach at shaping bamboo into a unique and modern product.
