Hello! My name is Dayna, I'm 35, a lady farmer, and I'm new to figs.

Well actually I'm new to growing just about everything.

I moved to Hawaii two years ago from Alaska... I killed all my house plants.

So now that I'm here, I bought a 3 acre guava orchard (we bought the property for the house) and I'm not really a guava fan so I'm slowly turning 300 guava trees into other fruit trees that I like. We also bought the empty lot next door recently so I have 6 acres to play on. :)

I decided that since I love figs, my parrots love figs, my goats love figs... I should grow lots of figs!

So far I'm trying to root up some LSU Gold cuttings. I ordered a few different types from someone who I think is on this forum, and also 2 bare root black mission trees off ebay.

So the hurdles I have ahead of me are plenty.

1. Rain. We get about 200 inches of rain per year. People say we get between 150-250 inches of rain. It never gets very cold, but it also rarely gets above 85°. Have to fert a lot more because the rain just washes whatever you add down through the porous lava rock and down into the belly of the earth.

2. Lava. Our one main lot is "ripped". Meaning the lava was broken up by a big bulldozer thingy so that the roots of trees can reach the layer of dirt below the lava. Still is a pain in the butt to move heavy lava rocks, create a "planter" add dirt and plant trees. 

3. Lava 2. Our other lot we have is NOT ripped. So whatever I grow over there needs to be able to have shallow roots that spread outward, less downward. That does limit things I can grow. Probably should not grow anything tall. The roots CAN break the lava and go down, but it will inhibit the growth on deep rooting plants.

4. Chickens and Goats. I have both. They all like to eat anything I plant so I have to fence off any new trees and net them over the top to keep the goats and chickens out.

5. Mynah birds love figs and mynah birds love my property, they are everywhere!

So any suggestions to help me figure out types, ideas to help me grow better, etc.

I've been doing a lot of reading on here. I'm having to learn a LOT about growing in such a short time period. A lot of what I've learned has been trial and error.

So far I've found out I'm a kick butt papaya and egg plant farmer. I don't actually eat either of these things... but my neighbors love egg plant and my animals love the papaya! So it's still a win for me. :) I've got a few citrus trees, a 3 way no/low chill apple, persimmon, pomegranate, tons of bananas and lots of lychee and rambutan and avacado. :)

Welcome! You can grow lots of cool things in Hawaii. There are quite a few Hawaii fruit growers on this forum:

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php

You could ask them about figs there as well. I wonder if there are any Hawaii members on here? (besides you :)

I'll check out that forum as well.

Ken Love (who I think is a member here) suggested I check out this site.

Welcome!

Nice intro.
Oh the troubles people have in paradise, sounds nice. FiggyfiveO is member from Hawaii, I don't remember which island though.
Chicken wire works great for chickens, probably not good as goat wire though. I never had goats but when I had chickens everything I liked that was under 3 ft tall got a chicken wire cylinder around it. I probably should have had one for my daughter at the time too, LOL.. she liked the chickens but always had red buttons or shoe laces or something that they were curious about on.
If I had all that land, I would gradually plant many different varieties of figs.

Welcome to the forum!

Sounds like if you can get closed eye varieties for the rain issue and enough fencing to keep out the livestock and poultry, you should be able to grow plenty of figs to feed those mynah birds! Oh wait, you wanted some too?

Welcome to the forum!where one fig tree isn't enough. I lived in maui a couple years. Have to say I miss it. Any way aloha and mahallo

Welcome to the fig forum, Dayna.  Yes, I am here! :)

Is there ever a season there on the east side of the Big Island when it doesn't rain as much?  Most of my time there was spent on the Kona side with day trips to Hilo, etc. and it's been way too long.  You may need to try some structure with plastic to shed rainwater.  I posted a link in FB to the page of the guy in Malaysia.  Figs can be very productive and worth the effort, IMO.

Good luck!

Oh, and the tropical fruit forum is also something worth checking out.  Oscar is on there and is a major source of plants and seeds and is from Pahoa.  His site is http://www.fruitlovers.com and he would certainly be worth visiting!  Ken would agree, I'm certain.

HarveyC! Good, glad you are on here. :)

Hmmm, maybe not as much rain in the summer. The winter is the rainy season, though we had a bit of a drought this winter and I had to water my banana plants. 

Welcome!  You'll be able to grow all kinds of great things!

Aloooooha and welcome, Dayna!  Good to see another fellow islander here.  Much more warmer than Alaska, I would say.  Sorry, I haven't been on in awhile or else I would've been first to greet you.  Anyways, a lot of good people here with great advice and a breadth of knowledge.  We're on Oahu, although at times I wish we were on the Big Island away from the crowds and all.  I also just started growing figs, but I keep mine in pots because we live in an HOA and they are Nazis about certain in-ground plants.  Keep in touch and we'll exchange ideas and more.

Aloha to you, too Calvin!

Nate

Welcome... If I could I would move there. I saw a fig farm for sale on craigslist, so I am sure they are growing there. I went to Honolulu for a few hours to do some work in Immigration courts and I saw huge fig trees in some back yards... I wish I had time to talk with the owners... if you see a tree, stop and talk, usually they share, and if already proven to grow there you are set.

my good friends moved there last year to Ewa Beach. He passed away a couple of days ago, without me having a chance to go visit with them in the paradise.