News and Events


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Root and Berry

Root and Berry 11 April 2018

Root and Berry

Big Island Extension’s Andrea Kawabata, Jen Burt, and Matthew Miyahira represented CTAHR at the 11th annual Kona Coffee Farmer’s Association Coffee and Small Farms Expo at the Old Kona Airport, where they discussed issues such as the coffee berry borer and root-knot nematode.

Fair Without Fair Weather

Fair Without Fair Weather 11 April 2018

Fair Without Fair Weather

Pouring rain didn’t stop Kaua‘i islanders from pouring into the Garden Fair this year. Jointly hosted by CTAHR and the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau, the 23rd Annual Garden Fair at the Kaua‘i Community College featured a series of CTAHR garden and agriculture presentations.

Learning to Grow

Learning to Grow 11 April 2018

Learning to Grow

CTAHR students and other volunteers engaged 169 elementary first- and fourth-graders in garden activities over the spring semester, teaching them about nutrition for people and plants.

Steering in the Right Direction

Steering in the Right Direction 11 April 2018

Steering in the Right Direction

A Moloka‘i 4-H participant and his award winning animals were featured in a USDA Farm Service Agency Fencepost newsletter article on the FSA Youth Loan.

It’s Gene-ius!

It’s Gene-ius! 11 April 2018

It’s Gene-ius!

The highly popular and acclaimed Gene-ius Day program is the subject of a recent laudatory article on the UH Foundation website that describes how the original program has expanded into three complementary outreach efforts that are reaching and teaching more kids than ever before!

Food Safety in the Pacific

Food Safety in the Pacific 11 April 2018

Food Safety in the Pacific

The Western Regional Center to Enhance Food Safety held its second annual meeting, and 10 members of the FSMA team of UH, University of Guam, and the American Samoa Community College, including Extension agents Kylie Wong and Joshua Silva, attended to deliver progress reports.

Hot Conversation

Hot Conversation 4 April 2018

Hot Conversation

CTAHR wildfire researcher Clay Trauernicht recently joined other experts on disaster vulnerability and resilience in the Islands on Hawai‘i Public Radio program The Conversation.
 

Try Kaua‘i

Try Kaua‘i 4 April 2018

Try Kaua‘i

Junior Extension Agent Emilie Kirk welcomed edible crop and flower farmers to a free spring workshop and tour of the Kaua‘i Agricultural Research Center.
 

A Graftin’ Good Time

A Graftin’ Good Time 4 April 2018

A Graftin’ Good Time

Hawai‘i Island CTAHR Extension staff members teamed up with USDA to offer hands-on avocado-grafting workshops for 45 growers and promote their ‘Sharwil’ Avocado Project.

Sustainable Swine

Sustainable Swine 4 April 2018

Sustainable Swine

Rajesh Jha (HNFAS) recently offered a training course on “Feed and Nutrition Management” for a group of young ethnic-minority farmers in Nepal, in which he provided knowledge and hands-on skills on utilizing local feedstuffs and food waste as a sustainable source of feed for swine.

Feeding Greatness

Feeding Greatness 28 March 2018

Feeding Greatness

Research by Rajesh Jha and his Animal Sciences students focuses on locally grown feeds for chicken to lower costs, improve environmental sustainability and improve flavor of local fowl.

On Parade

On Parade 21 March 2018

On Parade

The Waimanalo Research Station will be the home base for the 3rd Annual Parade of Farms, presented by the O‘ahu Resource and Conservation Development Council, on Saturday, May 5, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. This year’s parade will be featuring farms in Waimanalo.

Healthy in Guam

Healthy in Guam 21 March 2018

Healthy in Guam

Former CHL trainee and now Guam EFNEP coordinator Tanisha Franquez Aflague was recently featured in Fresh From the Field, NIFA’s newsletter highlighting success stories of its grantees, about her work with the Children’s Healthy Living (CHL) Project. 

Heritage Roots

Heritage Roots 14 March 2018

Heritage Roots

A Taro Field Day will be held at the Waimanalo Research Station on Saturday, March 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

More Trees, Please

More Trees, Please 14 March 2018

More Trees, Please

Rich Criley (TPSS) participated in the Trees for Honolulu’s Future workshop on March 9 by showing the series of Extension publications he has written called Expanding Tree Diversity in Hawai‘i’s Landscapes that provide alternatives for landscapers and home growers to the most commonly used trees.

Prune Your Plants

Prune Your Plants 14 March 2018

Prune Your Plants

Cooperative Extension’s Andrea Kawabata (TPSS) and Stuart Nakamoto (HNFAS), along with Tracie Matsumoto from USDA ARS DKI PBARC, hosted two coffee-pruning field days at the Kona Cooperative Extension and Research Station.

New Faces: Roshan Manandhar

New Faces: Roshan Manandhar 14 March 2018

New Faces: Roshan Manandhar

Welcome to Roshan Manandhar, who is joining the Cooperative Extension team in Kaua‘i County as an assistant Extension agent! Roshan has both MS and PhD degrees in entomology from UHM, with post-doctoral experience at Lincoln University in Missouri. 

Tropical Showcase

Tropical Showcase 14 March 2018

Tropical Showcase

The Variety Showcase Goes Tropical event hosted by GoFarm Hawai‘i and the Culinary Breeding Network at Kapi‘olani Community College was an exciting celebration that brought an array of exciting crop varietals together with culture and cuisine, blended brilliantly in bite-size tastings by local chefs.

Up, Up, and Away!

Up, Up, and Away! 7 March 2018

Up, Up, and Away!

Hawai‘i 4-H is highlighted in the National Institute for Food and Agriculture’s Annual Report. The section on youth development notes the STEM-enrichment activities, such as rocketry, that 4-H brings to youth in the Islands. 

New Faces: Casey Bohan

New Faces: Casey Bohan 28 February 2018

New Faces: Casey Bohan

Welcome to Casey Bohan, who has just started at Waiakea Research Station as an agricultural research technician. 

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1 May 2020

Fast Green Food

Grow a salad bowl in your back yard

Fast Green Food

You may be eating less salad these days. Everyone’s making fewer trips to the supermarket, and lettuce and other tender greens are easily perishable. But growing your own lettuce is a great solution—now and going forward. Lettuce is fast growing and ideal for backyard gardens. You can pick individual leaves each day or harvest whole heads at once. By starting a new set of seeds or transplants every few weeks, you can create succession plantings to ensure a continuous salad bar!

Temperature and Varieties

Lettuce does best in cool climates or during cool seasons. At higher temperatures, lettuce can bolt (flower), become bitter, and form loose heads.

No problem! Just make sure you select the right lettuce. Varieties with tolerance to high temperatures can be grown in warmer areas year-round.

The variety commonly called ‘Mānoa’ lettuce, identified by CTAHR researchers as ideal for Hawai‘i conditions, has always been a local favorite. It has a buttery flavor and crisp texture—my family loves to eat it with a little mayonnaise and shoyu as dressing.

However, in recent years, ‘Mānoa’ lettuce has become extremely sensitive to heat. It may prematurely bolt and develop “tip burn” on the leaf edges. So CTAHR has identified ‘Ānuenue’ as a more heat-tolerant variety. Similar to ‘Mānoa’, it’s another local favorite that can be grown at low elevations. Both can be grown year round in Hawai‘i, and the seeds are available from the UH Seed Laboratory (which offers mail ordering).

There are plenty of other lettuce varieties you can try—just look for types that say they’re heat tolerant. Plant several for a rainbow of colors and tastes!

Nip Problems in the Bud

Besides heat, tip burn can be caused by not enough water, too much fertilizer, or not enough calcium in the soil—but these conditions are easy to fix. First, try watering your lettuce more, then ease up on the fertilizer. As a last resort, add a soil supplement containing calcium.

Thrips, birds, and spotted-wilt virus can also affect your backyard lettuce crop. Consult the UH Cooperative Extension service for the latest pest-control techniques.

Be sure to wash lettuce and other produce thoroughly before serving, to remove any tiny snails or slugs that might be on it.

Feed Your Heads

Lettuce grows best in soils rich in organic matter with a neutral pH. Add organic compost, properly composted chicken manure, and a sprinkle of triple superphosphate fertilizer (0-45-0) to the planting hole for a healthy start. If you can’t find superphosphate, a general-use fertilizer such as 16-16-16 is fine.

After planting, apply a dry general-use fertilizer every three to four weeks or fertilize every two weeks with a water-soluble fertilizer. Because lettuce is eaten raw, use clean, potable water for overhead irrigation and when fertilizing.

Happy salading!

Jari Sugano, O‘ahu County Administrator, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources