Ka`u News Briefs Monday, April 21, 2014

      Wilson has served as a board member for decades for Volcano Art Center. He serves as President of Pacific Tsunami Museum Board of Directors. He is a member of Hawai`i Island Chamber of Commerce and serves on the promotions committee for Hilo Hospice. He is a member of Big Island Press Club. He and his wife Audrey have been residents of Volcano Village for 20 years and operate a B&B called AJ’s Volcano Cottage.
      Wilson can be contacted at 987-5984 or xjwilson@hawaiiantel.com.

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Jim Shaffer talked about soil health at the Ka`u Farmers Union United meeting Photo by Julia Neal

SOIL HEALTH EXPERT BOB SHAFFER told Ka`u farmers over the weekend that tillage management to keep the ground from becoming hard and compacted is one of the important practices for successful farming. He said that no amount of composting or cover crops and good minerals management can overcome the fact that soil needs structure with space, air and water. Calling himself “a mechanic for the soil,” Shaffer noted that efforts to nourish living soil can work for seven years, but that production tends to wane without tillage management. Hard compact soil in orchard and truck crops can cause a collapse of the farm, he said. He said that all root crops need earthworms. They are particularly important in orchards, he said.
    Shaffer said that soil “has to have a lot of life, with bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa.”
      He differentiated free-living microorganisms from those that kill plants and said that all of the beneficial “microorganisms also need to be healthy.” Shaffer explained that tiny organisms help to break down organic matter, which releases nutrients into the soil, which are eaten by bacteria. Free-living nematodes eat bacteria and pass the waste full of nitrogen right onto the roots of the plants. Growth-promoting enzymes for the plants are also produced. Microbes also break down toxins. “It is a symbiosis between plant and microbe,” he said.
      The plants recognize the value of the microbes, and about half of the sugars made by the plants are exuded by their roots to help feed them. The relationship leads to disease prevention and some resistance to pests, he said.

      Shaffer, who has a farm in Kona, said that he has been working for farms from macadamia orchards in Queensland, Australia to truck farms in California with organic matter management with compost and cover crops to mineral and tillage management. He also works with compost manufacturing in Dixie, CA, with 250 tons of food waste a day brought from San Francisco. The compost is sold to farmers.

      Shaffer recommended reading soilcare.org.
      Farmers who attended the meeting included coffee grower Wally Young, who said he got into farming and became “caught by farming” after losing his longtime job in the sugar industry.

      John Ah San, a Pahala resident who also grows coffee, said he is a lifetime farmer and will never retire.
      Ann Fontes said she owns a small family farm with coffee and farm animals, just makai and east of Pahala.
      Whitney Coffman owns a farm where he grows macadamia and coffee in Wood Valley.
      Trini Marques recalled she and her husband’s work as two of the first Ka`u Coffee farmers after losing their jobs and the sugar company.
      Greg Smith recently moved the Earth Matters Farm to Ka Lae. He has worked with the Hester farm in selling its produce at farmers markets at Keauhou and Ho`oulu. He said he is starting a Community Supported Agriculture box program for families to have locally grown produce, all of it organic, weekly or twice a month from Ka Lae or Ocean View locations. The Smiths will host an open house for the public tomorrow from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Earth Matters Farm on the west side of the intersection of South Point and Kama`oa Road. Turn right onto the unpaved Kama`oa Service Road.
      Rep. Richard Creagan said his farm was never been in sugar. About half the land is in native `ohi`a, and the rest is in orchard and some vegetables.
      Malian Lahey, who owns a farm in Wood Valley, said she has just started growing coffee and has vegetables and flowers. The next meeting of the Ka`u Farmers Union United will be Saturday, May 17. For more information, call Lahey at 503-575-9098.