Category Archives: Hydroponics

Busy Week: Speaking, Sponsoring & Aerial Photography

Richard Ha writes:

It’s been a busy week.

It started out with my being part of a panel discussion for the Ulumau IX class.

This was the 9th class of the Hawaiʻi Island Leadership Series called Ulumau, which was founded by Mark McGuffie in 2003. It has its roots firmly planted in the core values of Hawaiian Values, Community and Servant Leadership.

Unlike a traditional “leadership” class, where attendees are usually taught how to “manage” people, Ulumau expands the ranks of community leadership by providing a broad range of leaders (both existing and emerging) who have the knowledge and incentive to confront the needs of our specific community.

There were five of us on the panel. Jeff Melrose gave an overview of agriculture and what different types of farming are happening where on the Big Island. Everyone should see his presentation, which gives the context in which agriculture exists on the Big Island.

Nancy Redfeather talked about the school garden network and the many other outreach events she is involved in. She touches a large group of people. Other speakers were Elizabeth Cole, deputy director of the Kohala Center, and Amanda Rieux, who leads the culinary garden, the Mala‘ai Garden, at Waimea Middle School.

I talked about agriculture and energy, and how they are inextricably tied together. I also explained about how food security involves farmers farming, and that if the farmer makes money the farmer will farm.

I am helping to sponsor students in the Sustainable Hawaii Youth Leadership Initiative (SHYLI). This group’s mission is “to inspire young people to envision, plan and create a more sustainable future for their lives and their island.”

The students I’m sponsoring are Sherry Anne Pancho and KaMele E. Sanchez, who were both Big Island delegates to the Stone Soup Leadership Institute's 9th Annual Youth Leadership Summit for Sustainable Development conference on Martha’s Vineyard this summer. They came by the farm a few days ago to give a presentation of their project on hydroponic food production.

This is something I can help with, and I will track and write about their progress. I am very interested in supporting our next generation leaders as they work on ways to continue and improve our food security through changing and difficult times.

A crew from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo came by the farm to test an unmanned aerial vehicle. “Flight Control” was in the back of the pickup, where the screen was, so we could see what the camera was viewing.

Banana Survey 4

They set up a GPS coordinate, and the little six-bladed chopper flew the route as directed by the program. It was set up to fly parallel, overlapping camera runs until our whole banana field was filmed. Then they will make the recording into one large map.

Besides doing a photographic imaging, they ran a light spectrum recording. The value of seeing our banana plants from the air in different light spectrums is that we will be able to see where plants are stressed and take corrective action. The possibilities are immense. This is so interesting to me.

All three of these things that happened this week had to do with the future. I’m not only thinking of our farm and profit from day-to-day; it’s much bigger than all that. It’s the future – of Big Island farming, of our people, of our island.

Sometimes looking forward is actually about looking to and learning about how we used to do things, and I will continue to write posts about what I’m doing in those areas. And sometimes, it’s looking at new technologies and ways. Always it’s about talking with the young people coming up, so we can share what we know and discuss some of the challenges they are going to be facing.

The Wheres & Whyfors of Hamakua Springs

By Leslie Lang

The other day Richard gave some of us a tour of Hamakua Springs Country Farms in Pepe‘ekeo, and its new hydroelectric plant, and wow. I hadn’t been out to the farm for awhile, and it was so interesting to ride around the 600 acres with Richard and see all that’s going on there these days.

Most of what I realized (again) that afternoon fell into two
broad categories: That Richard really is a master of seeing the big picture, and that everything he does is related to that big picture.

Hamakua Springs, which started out growing bananas and then expanded into growing the deliciously sweet hydroponic tomatoes we all know the farm for, has other crops as well.

tomatoes.jpgThese days there are farmers leasing small plots where they are growing taro, corn, ginger and sweet potato. These farmers’ products go to the Hamakua Springs packing house and Hamakua Springs distributes them, which speaks to Richard’s goal of providing a place for local farmers to farm, wherethere is water and packing and distribution already in place.

As we drove, we saw a lot of the water that passes through his farm. There are three streams and three springs. It’s an enormous amount of water, and it’s because of all this water that he was able to develop his brand new hydroelectric system, where they are getting ready to throw the switch.

The water wasn’t running through there the day we were there because they’d had to temporarily “turn it off” – divert the water – in order to fix something, but we could see how the water from an old plantation flume now runs through the headworks and through a pipe and into the turbine, which is housed in a blue shipping container.

hydro.jpg

This is where the electricity is generated, and I was interested to see a lone electric pole standing there next to the system. End of the line! Or start of the line, really, as that’s where the electricity from the turbine is carried to. And from there, it works its way across the electric lines stretched between new poles reaching across the land.

Screen Shot 2013-06-06 at 11.17.00 PM

He asked the children who were along with us for their ideas
about how to landscape around the hydroelectric area, and also where the water leaves the turbine to run out and rejoin the stream.

Screen Shot 2013-06-06 at 11.17.00 PM

“We could do anything here,” he said, asking for thoughts, and
we all came up with numerous ideas, some fanciful. Trees and grass? A taro lo‘i? Maybe a picnic area, or a water flume ride or a demonstration garden or fishponds?

There are interesting plans for once the hydro system is operating, including a certified kitchen where local area producers can bring their products and create value-added goods.

Other plans include having some sort of demo of sustainable
farming, and perhaps ag-tourism ativities like walking trails going through the farm, and maybe even a B&B. “The basis of all tourism,” he said, “is sustainability.”

Hamakua Springs is also experimenting with growing mushrooms
now, and looking into several other possibilities for using its free
electricity.

As we stopped and looked at the streams we kept coming
across, which ran under the old plantation roads we drove upon, Richard made an observation that I found interesting. In the Hawaiian way, the land is thought of as following the streams down from mountain to sea. In traditional ways, paths generally ran up-and-down the hill, following the shape of the ahupua‘a.

“But look at the plantation roads,” he said, and he pointed
out how they run across the land, from stream to stream. The plantation way was the opposite. Not “wrong” – just different.

Richard has plans to plant bamboo on the south sides of the
streams, which will keep the water cool and keep out invasive species.

At the farm, they continue to experiment with raising
tilapia
, which are in four blue pools next to the reservoir.

June & Tilapia.jpgJune with a full net

The pools are at different heights because they are using gravity to flow the water from one pool to the next, rather than a pump. Besides it being free, this oxygenates the water as it falls into the next pool. They are not raising the fish commercially at present, but give them to their workers.

Everything that Richard does is geared toward achieving the same goal, and that is to keep his farm economically viable and sustainable.

If farmers make money, farmers will farm.

Continuing to farm means continuing to provide food for the local community, employing people locally and making it possible for local people to stay in Hawai‘i: This as opposed to people having to leave the islands, or their children having to leave the islands, in order to make a decent life for themselves.

The hydroelectric system means saving thousands per month in
electric bills, and being able to expand into other products and activities. It means the farm stays in business and provides for the surrounding community. It means people have jobs.

This is the same reason why, on a bigger scale, Richard is working to bring more geothermal into the mix on the Big Island: to decrease the stranglehold that high electricity costs have over us, so the rubbah slippah folk have breathing room, so that we all have more disposable income – which will, in turn, drive our local economy and make our islands more competitive with the rest of the world, and our standard of living higher, comparably.

When he says “rubbah slippah folk,” Richard told me, he’s always thinking first about the farm’s workers.

This, by the way, is really a great overview of how Richard describes the “big picture.” It’s a TEDx talk he did awhile back (17 minutes). Really worth a look.

It was so interesting to see firsthand what is going on at the farm right now, and hear about the plans and the wheres and whyfors. Thank you, Richard, for a really interesting and insightful afternoon.

Conversations With My Mom

Richard Ha writes:

I took Mom to Hamakua Springs to get a few tilapia for her dinner.

Mom1

While we were there, we looked at some of the things we have going on.

Corn field

Corn
 
Corn field
Hamakua Springs bananas
 
Corn field
Hydroponic lettuce, with special procedures to control slugs
 

Corn field

Sweet potatoes

Corn field

Zucchini

One thing that strikes me is how much water we have running through our 600-acre farm. We must maximize its usage.

Reservoir

Water Supply will build a new reservoir adjacent to this one and bring electricity right through the farm to the new well, which is right behind this reservoir

I really want to raise tilapia when the price of oil goes so high that bringing it in from Asia is prohibitive.

Tilapia for mom

Tilapia for Mom. These are the small ones, to fry crispy.

And, while doing that, we want to demonstrate how Hawaiians were self-sufficient in ancient days.

Then while we are at it, we want to reforest the streams with ‘ohi‘a, koa, bamboo, kukui, hapu‘u, etc.

  1. Also, how about aquaponics with tilapia and taro?
  2. How about a certified kitchen to make lomi salmon, poi and other things where we and other farmers can add value?
  3. What about classes for at-risk students?
  4. Maybe a permanent imu.
  5. Events set around food?
  6. How about showing how food was produced then and now – ancient and modern?

Mom and I always have these kinds of conversations. I like it.

Forcing Change

On Saturday, I spoke at a workshop on soil-less farming, which was put on by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at UH Manoa. The core group was made up of aquaculture enthusiasts, and the workshop expanded into hydroponics (the growing of crops in soil-less media). About 170 people attended.

WorkshopParticipants

Fred Lau spoke on the challenges that he has faced while developing his aquaponic operation. Tim Mann and Susan Friend spoke on their Friendly aquaponic operation on the Big Island. They sell modular aquaponic systems with complete, how-to instructions.

Tisha Uyehara spoke about marketing produce. She pointed out the importance of growing what is in demand, and in the quantity and quality that retailers need.

I was asked to speak about Hamakua Springs’ hydroponic tomatoes. I started by asking how many in the audience were new farmers or folks who are interested in farming. Maybe 40 people raised their hands. They looked to be younger folks, in their 20s to 30s. I have noticed that lots of folks are interested in farming; they are just trying to figure out how they can make a living at it. I got the feeling that most of the audience was made up of community folks.

Instead of talking about the technical details of our operation, which they could learn by taking courses or getting information from the internet, I decided to share with them the thought processes that went into developing our farm.

I related how my Pop told us small kids to look for three answers to every problem and then find one more. He also said, “There are a thousand reason why no can; I am only looking for the one reason why Can!”

I told them about being influenced by my experiences in the jungles of Vietnam, where the unwritten rule was that “We all come back or no one comes back.” I liked that attitude of taking care of each other. Although I had flunked out of UH earlier, this time I knew I wanted to go into business and so I decided to major in accounting, in order to keep score.

Then Pop asked me to come and run the family poultry farm. I had no money, but really that was a blessing, because then I could not lose money. Instead, I gained experience. We traded chick manure to get banana keiki, and eventually grew to be the largest banana farm in Hawai‘i.

Along the way, we had to change and adapt constantly, and so change is second nature to us. We just look into the future five to 10 years, and force the changes to get us there. I told the audience that this is the secret to our survival. It isn’t rocket science, but is common sense: Being able to adapt and force change are traits that have served us well over the years.

I could tell from the audience’s reaction that they absolutely got it; that they have the tools, or can get the tools, that are necessary to make a difference.

Six or seven years ago, we realized that input costs to our farm were rising due to the fossil fuel component. I went to the Peak Oil Conference to learn about oil and figure out how we would force change so we could adapt our farm to be relevant in the future.

I learned that the world has been using twice as much oil as it has been finding, and has been doing so for 20 to 30 years. That was clearly not sustainable and we set out to transform our farm. We looked into using the water flowing downstream to generate electricity. Soon we will be completely off the electric grid.

We also downsized our farm, and then made up for the loss of production by leasing land to area farmers. The result is that the productivity of our land has actually increased, and the variety of products has increased as well. Another benefit: It strengthens our community.

I talked about how sun energy gives mainland farmers an edge over Hawai‘i farmers. Long summer days result in high production, and as the production follows the sun around the country, this advantage is kept throughout summer.

But I told the audience that we could get an advantage if we were able to use our natural resources to get cheaper electricity. Quite often folks think that fuel is the highest cost of getting farm-grown food to the table. It is actually the cost of electricity that is more important. Keeping the cold chain from the farm to the home refrigerator is actually more costly than the cost to run the tractors.

When oil is $100 per barrel, which is near today’s price, the cost to make electricity from oil is around 20 cents/kWh. However, the cost to make electricity from geothermal is only about 10 cents/kWh, and it will remain stable.

Lloyds of London warns of $200 per barrel oil by 2013. The cost to generate electricity from that oil will rise to 40 cents/kWh, while geothermal electricity will stay at 10 cents/kWh.

The answer to food and economic security is to force change.

I was struck by people’s reactions to my talk. The way that people expressed their appreciation for what I said makes me think that people are getting very worried for Hawai‘i’s future. I think that people felt hopeful, that common sense was more important to survival than any amount of letters after one’s title.

Kahua Ahupua‘a

The last few days, I’ve been focusing on Kahua Ahupua‘a. Of the three ahupua‘a that comprise Hamakua Springs Country Farms, I find this one the most interesting.

Within 600 feet there are two streams: Makea on the north boundary, and Ali‘a on the south. Between the streams is a ridgeline, maybe 75 to 100 feet from stream level, and running on the ridgeline from mauka to makai is a cane haul road.

It has a clear view of both Mauna Kea and the ocean, as well as of the greenhouses in the valley facing north, toward Honoka’a, and the banana fields facing south, toward Hilo. June and I plan to eventually build a house there. We just submitted a plan to the County in order to subdivide.

Yesterday I spent several hours on the bulldozer, reopening old roads and clearing access to the streams. Today I spent time knocking down many, many 20-foot albizia trees, and making sure the roots were completely pulled out of the ground. There’s one giant albizia tree that is even larger than the ones in this picture. The base is at least 10 feet around and the tree is easily 100 feet tall with many giant side branches. That’s where the seeds for the others are coming from.

I wonder how I’ll get rid of it. Cutting it down is just unimaginable. Here is how they cut a tree down at Lyons Arboretum.

Here is an easier way, with a drill and injecting.

The whole time on the bulldozer, I was thinking about how I can situate some hydroponic hoop houses that would allow us to capture fertilizer runoff, grow algae and raise tilapia. I would get the water further upstream, at a higher elevation, and then run it to the hydroponic hoop houses and use the excess fertilizer to grow algae and then, further downstream, send it to the tilapia. Gravity and free water are our friends.

I am going to grow algae for fuel. Not for cars, but to grow tilapia. Food fuel. The hydroelectric project is close by.

I’m also thinking of making a place to just sit and listen to the stream. I wonder where I can get hapu‘u? Where would kukui nut trees go? Lauhala? Ulu? Hmmm.

This is going to be a big, long project. I’ll write about it as I go along.

For Rent: Farming Opportunities

We are going to rent out seven of our nine hoop houses here at the farm.

Hoop houses

A side view

Side view

They have been in continuous production for nearly two years, and are set up with a hydroponic system of floating rafts.

Here’s our green onion production in the floating rafts.

Green onion prod in floating raft

A bouquet of our green and red lettuces.

Bouquet green and red lettuces

Some of the different lettuces we have grown in the hoop houses.

Different lettuces

Each hoop house is about 100 feet long and has two raceways that are each 10 x 96 feet. Both spring and county water are available. Electricity is available at the site as well. I think that a family unit would be more practical to run this system than a corporate type like us. We are renting each house for $175 per month. Interested parties can reach me on my cell at 960-1057.

As for us, we have been simplifying our operations. We are now concentrating on bananas, tomatoes and Japanese cucumbers. We have leased some of our land to farmers growing sweet potato, apple bananas and for field vegetable crop production. We want to encourage poi taro production, as well.

Our goal is to achieve a balance of our own production with other folks’ production.

We are planning on constructing Value Added Processing so we can help farmers move their number 2 and 3 products, and make poi and other products.

When we finish building our hydroelectric plant, we will be able to refrigerate and consolidate Hamakua area farmers’ crops and ship them together with our products to O‘ahu. This will be mutually beneficial as we try to grow more food for Hawai‘i’s people.

Video: Hamakua Springs Using Old Flume to Generate Electricity

Big Island Video News has a video up on Richard Ha:

The sustainably minded Richard Ha of Pepeekeo’s Hamakua Springs Country Farm seeks to have no resource go to waste. He has even found a future use for the old sugar plantation flume on his property.

The Wai‘a‘ama flume was a part of the old Pepeekeo mill and was used to transport harvested cane. According to Ha’s blog, for many years before 1935 the hydraulic head of mountain ground water (spring water) drove a hydroelectric plant that supplied all of the mill’s needs and also supplied power for housing.

Plans to restore the flume to a power generating resource once again are underway at the farm. A new hydroelectric generator will use the flume to generate enough electricity to supply the entire farming operation, and Ha believes there will still be enough left over to allow the farm’s workers workers to plug in their future electric hybrids as an extra employment benefit.

Watch the video here.

It’s part of a 5-part series; the other Hamakua Springs videos are listed at the bottom of the page.

Simple Aquaponics

I’ve changed my mind about how we’ll use fish waste as fertilizer for hydroponic vegetables. Instead of using the University of the Virgin Islands-developed high-tech aquaponics system, I’ve decided to use Roy Tanaka’s simple “rubbah slippah” system.

The University of the Virgin Islands concept is a recirculating system using a series of pumps, aerators and bio filters. Very elegant.

But then I visited Roy Tanaka, who has been using a run of the river at his place near Papaikou for many years. He uses a small pipe which runs from a nearby river into the first tank, and then overflows into a second tank and so on. It is the essence of simplicity and common sense. He tells me that he has never had to wash his tanks because they are always clean. Free water, no electricity for pumping or aeration and no need to clean the tanks. What’s not to like about that system?

We will take a little water out of the pipe that fills our reservoir and run it through several species of aquatic animals. We are thinking of trout in the first tank and tilapia in the second, overflowing to catfish in the third, prawns in the fourth and finally crawfish in the fifth. Then, the nutrient-full overflow will go into the reservoir that supplies water for our hydroponics operation.

The effect is that we will borrow water ahead of the reservoir, run it through the fish and then put the nutrient-laden water back into the reservoir to feed our hydroponic vegetables.

We plan to start small, producing fish for our employees. As we learn about the system’s limitations, as well as what the demand might be for our products, we will increase production. We don’t, however, intend to reduce the amount we provide to our workers.

I have the utmost respect for small innovative farmers. Roy Tanaka is a perfect example of a wise and practical farmer.

Challenging Assumptions

Because of the challenges we are currently facing at the farm, I’ve gone back to being involved at the most basic levels of our farm operations. Last week I walked each of our 135 plant houses and looked at every single plant.

The other day I wrote here that we are taking out all the virus-infected plants. But I have learned, through years of experience, that one must always challenge assumptions. So I asked Dr. Scot Nelson, a plant pathologist from the UH Hawai‘i at Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, if he would come evaluate our virus problem.

The first thing he said was that the samples I’d submitted the other day tested negative for virus. I could not believe it. Everywhere I looked in the tomato houses I observed it. How could there be no virus?

I showed Scot what I thought were virus-infected plants and he took four samples, each slightly different in its stage of infection. Besides taking samples of what I thought were virus-infected plants, Scot took apart the growing media of an infected plant and evaluated the roots, which looked perfectly healthy. They were all white except that there were no roots where water sits in the bags holding the plants in the media.

He surmised that the roots were waterlogged and lacking oxygen, so the roots could not survive. I made a note to cut a drain hole in the bags.

Because of the lack of roots, he also left open the possibility that it might be a nutritional deficiency, caused by the roots’ inability to take up nutrients. He suggested we do a tissue analysis to check on the plants’ nutritional status. If the levels are low, he told me, we might have to compensate by spraying some fertilizer on the leaves.

I filed all this away.

This afternoon Scot called me. The three youngest samples tested negative for virus. But the oldest sample tested positive. Scot had told me that sometimes viruses cannot be detected in the youngest leaves that exhibit symptoms. So it appears we do indeed have a virus; just one that is difficult to detect in young tissue.

I’m writing all this down because it illustrates the truth that one needs to check, double check and question assumptions in order to be a plant doctor. One can never assume anything.

There’s a lot more to being a farmer nowadays than just sticking a plant in the ground and waiting.

Later this week, nutritional consultant Pete Bunn is flying in from O‘ahu for the day, and we’ll see what else we learn.

Earth Box

This is my friend Jim Murray’s garden.

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Jim lives in a condominium and has a limited amount of ground area to work with. Earth Box is the simplest method of growing vegetables that I know of, and I was happy to see it in action at Jim’s house. The farming principles are sound, and it’s what I will use to grow stuff for myself.

From the Earth Box website:

The patented EarthBox was developed by commercial farmers and proven in the lab and on the farm. Our maintenance-free, award-winning, high-tech growing system controls soil conditions, eliminates guesswork and more than doubles the yield of a conventional garden-with less fertilizer, less water and virtually no effort.

I see this method of gardening as useful to someone with a limited space to plant. It is also good for someone who has a full time job and not enough time. Another plus – you do not need machinery for ground preparation.

Certainly there are other systems of gardening that might be more appropriate for feeding larger groups of people. But this system works well for a small family.

This system is meant to lower maintenance time. The light film on top prevents weeds from growing by preventing light from hitting the soil. If the black side is up, it retains heat. If the silver side is up, it keeps the media cool. The silver side is probably best for Hawai‘i.

There is a pipe that one fills with water. Since there is a drain hole about two inches from bottom of the box, it self-drains. At the time of planting, low-release fertilizer is buried about an inch in the growing media. One application is enough for the life time of the plant.

To change the subject for just a moment – When we toured Taiwan many years ago we observed that their water table is extremely shallow. So shallow, in fact, that sometimes the plants grew on the top of the row of mounds while the walkways were under water. This observation led Dr. Bernie Kratky of the UH Manoa Extension, and others, to realize that the top part of the roots were taking in oxygen while the bottom part took in water and nutrients.

This is the basis of the theory of non-circulating hydroponics – that is, that plants need to have a portion of their roots exposed to air or they drown. The Earth Box takes care of this problem with holes in the bottom of the containers, so drainage is assured. And it uses soil, instead of water, because soil is more forgiving as a growing medium.

A roma tomato plant and a regular beef tomato.

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Note that the container is elevated to discourage slugs and make it difficult for ants to carry aphids around. One could also put the chair legs in water to accomplish that. Rosemary, basil and other aromatic herbs are said to repel insects, too.

One can plant many different types of crops this way. Here are some strawberries and eggplants.

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When my friend Jim told me how his system worked, I realized right then that it was sound practice. So much so, that I will use this method to grow plants for myself.