Cinders

Moved some black cinder to the base of the Tahitian pomplemousse, Calmondin lime, Tahitian lime, and Rollinia. This should weigh down the weed block and make it more effective as a border. Also moved remaining cinder from front pile to concrete slab (1h).

Will put down weed block & cinder around avo by pond today.

Fertilizing; repotting

Finished fertilizing the ulu, marang, mangosteen (45m).
Placed some weed block around the base of the mangosteen (30m).
Repotted second small vanilla vine into 3 gallon pot with red cinder and a sprinkling of niu potting soil. Put two tied-together bamboo poles in for trellising. Placed atop scrap tiles for weed block and drainage (30m).
Dug up and potted four avocado keikis to use as grafting root stock. Placed under mother tree (45m).
Moved old bathtub under mother avocado tree and dumped 3, 5 gallon compost buckets in with dry avocado leaves (45m).

State of the pasture

What it looks like after mowing.

Fertilized trees; pasture mowing

Fertilized all the citrus, avocados, and rollinia, weeding a bit around them as I went (45m).

Finished mowing the entire pasture (2/3 , 4h) and a bit along the driveway and gulch side of shed. Might do a main pasture touch-up mow in a week but otherwise we probably are done mowing for a while. Finally cleared the area that was under a pile of roofing tin near the tall coconut (30m).

Need to fertilize: ulu, marang, mangosteen. Need to transplant vanilla into larger container and trellis.

Peanut mowing, vanilla

Got a little more aggressive with the field mowing and somehow managed to puncture one of the rear tractor tires. After plugging the tire today I was able to get out and mow about 1/4 of the main field (3 hours). Still getting familiar with setting up the tractor and learning its limitations.

It appears that the perennial peanut is responding well to mowing. I noticed that if you mow near sunset, the peanut leaves fold up and "contract" so that they're much less exposed to the mower blades. This leaves the grasses and other weeds more exposed to the blade.

In other news, purchased a couple small vanilla vines from Plant It Hawaii ($9 each).  The plan is to pot them in cinder pots with some 1/2" bamboo supports, and place them under full size trees for the next six months.  This should provide adequate shelter and water.

Rollinia progress

Rollinia continues to look "droopy" although it continues to sprout new leaves and branches. My guess is that the drooping is not a problem and that the tree in the front entry triangle will double in size by next year.

The Rollinia is already outgrowing its pig protection cage. Will leave the cage on for six months to see how it progresses.

Aphids

Found ladybugs eating aphids on the Key Lime along the driveway. The leaves were showing a lot of curl.

Sprayed the leaves with an insecticidal soap yesterday. Hope this removes the aphids.

Cacao terrace

Checked cacao terrace in gulch near studio. Counted nine keikis in good health, maybe one foot tall with 4-8 healthy leaves each. Perennial peanut is sprouting out of at least one planting.

So far they remain uncovered by any vines or grass. There is some yellow flower climbing vine approaching them.

Will check again before July. Otherwise, looks like a good humid shady spot to plant cacao.

Weed whacking

Yesterday trimmed along driveway and cane road (1 hr). Today trimmed further along cane rd toward shed, and around mangosteen on gulch side (1 hr).

Planted Bearss Lime

1/2 gal pot $18
Planted near water spigot in middle of driveway, mauka of Tangerine.