Statewide University of Hawai'i
Master Gardener Newsletter
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Issue 21 September ~ December 2017
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Heat Stress in the Home Garden
Jayme Grzebik, UHMG Statewide Coordinator
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The accumulative stress of climbing temperatures, peak sunlight hours and lower rainfall percentages over the past few months has resulted in more and more home gardener inquiries. After asking many investigative plant questions, UH Master Gardeners are deducing symptoms are due to heat or climatic stress.
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SPOTLIGHT on WEST HAWAI'I
Ty McDonald, West Hawai'i MG Coordinator
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As 2017 comes to a close and we shift into the Holiday Season I would like to pause and take the time to mention just how immensely thankful I am for all the West Hawaii Master Gardener volunteers who donate their time and energy to help our local MG program fulfill its mission.
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- The Kaua’i Farm Bureau’s Annual Farm Fair was a huge success with Kaua’i Master Gardeners well represented this August. The KMGs had educational displays, Plant Doctor outreach, and plants and seeds for sale during the 3-day long event.
- Kaua’i Master Gardeners have a new program coordinator! In October, Emilie Kirk joined CTAHR as the new KMG coordinator and junior extension agent specializing in agroecology and edible crops.
- Arbor Day was another great opportunity for Kaua’i Master Gardeners to engage with the community, providing information on proper tree planting and care at the annual tree give-away event. Many visitors benefited from the literature and advice the KMGs were able to provide.
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- Our Second Saturdays at the Garden event concluded for the year in October with outreach from our Xeriscape Hui, container gardening workshop, and a successful plant sale by the Sprouts.
- The Arbor Day plant giveaway was our last big outreach event of the year. We had Master Gardeners giving advice at six locations on Oʻahu.
- Other highlights include coconut rhino beetle training, rat lungworm and food safety training, Hawaiʻi Tropical Fruit Growers mini-conference, garden activities in Waimānalo and Pearl City, school gardens, compost harvests at Kailua schools with composting professional Mindy Jaffe, and more.
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Outreach Events
- Aug 26, 2017 - First annual Lā ‘Ulu (Breadfruit) Day at Maui Nui Botanical Gardens. Along with our information and Help Desk Booth, MMGVs provided two Fruit Fly Management Classes, teaching 24 people.
- Oct 4 – 8, 2017 - Annual Maui Fair. Maui MGVs assisted the Maui County Farm Bureau in registering all the flower and vegetable entries for the horticultural contests held at the Fair. This is the MMGVs largest fundraiser of the year. MMGVs sell plants they’ve propagated, a long with honey harvested from the MMGV apiary, and UH seed. We also provided a Fruit Fly Management Class. This year we raised over $1400 for the program at the Maui Fair.
- Nov 4, 2017 – Maui Nui Botanical Garden’s (MNBG) Arbor Day Native Plant Giveaway. MMGs assisted MNBG with providing handouts and information about the native trees and plants that MNBG was giving away and provided a Fruit Fly Management Class. To train MMGVs for this event, we partnered with MNBG to provide MMGV with education and information about the Hawaii’s native species in special-arranged tour one-week prior to the event.
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- Sep 9 - Fruit Fly Booth and plant giveaway at Mountain View Elementary School.
- Sep 15 - Little Fire Ant Workshop - more advanced training for MGs from the Ant Lab folks
- Sep 22 - Ohia Seed Collecting workshop - exciting response to the devastation on Hawai'i Island; plans to collect seeds from the different varieties for the seed bank.
- Sep 28 - Chiefess Kapiolani Elementary School Fruit Fly Booth at their Health and Wellness Fair. We gave away 100 Kabocha Squash, Papaya, Cacao, Malabar Chestnut, and Turmeric plants.
- Oct. 17 - organizational planning with CTAHR statewide staff
- Oct 20 Gardening talk at the Senior Wellness Fair at Edith Kanaka'ole Tennis Stadium in Hilo.
- Oct 24 - KTA Food Day 310 plants given away, winter squash, green onions, turmeric root, lima bean, cherry tomato.
- Nov 1 - Nursery Tour - MG tour of small nurseries: Leilani Nepethes, JD Anderson Nursery, Orchid Plantation
- Nov 6 - Gardening talk and plant giveaway at Lapauhoehoe Library with our Blue Zones Project partner.
- Nov 14 - "Brain Hap": a MG brainstorming session using mind maps
- Nov 21 - MGs move to a new "temporary" office including an "clean sweep" of paper clutter
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Honey as an alternative rooting stimulant for cuttings
Candace Firth (Kaua’i MG) and Ashly Trask (NTBG
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This project was a series of experiments to test diluted honey as an alternative to commercial rooting hormones to stimulate new root growth on cuttings with ground cover and woody shrub plant species.
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Jayme T. Grzebik
University of Hawai'i CES Urban Garden Center
Phone: (808) 453-6059 . Fax: (808) 453-6052
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