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Mao hau hele
Official State Flower
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2017: A year of INNOVATION for the UH MG Program
Jayme Grzebik, Coordinator, State Master Gardener Program
As we begin a fresh new year, we'll also start fresh with the content of our Statewide newsletter. Here's what to expect: We'll publish every two months. We'll include a summarized bullet list of educational outreach activities from each Program, representing our 5 Fabulous Programs in the State of Hawaii. Our purpose is to inspire each other and create synergy among our 5 programs to Grow Together overcoming geographical barriers. One article each newsletter will highlight the hands-on educational projects that are being conducted in the featured 2017 UH MG Training Class. We'll include what we learned and what questions arise during the journey. There are some great ideas to be shared here. We might sneak one issue in that will be dedicated to our presence at the International Master Gardener conference in Portland, Oregon. And will continue to add advanced training links or links to new CTAHR publications. We hope you enjoy your 2017 UH Master Gardener Program year!
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UH Master Gardener Program on O'ahu
Class Projects: Display Gardens and Zero Waste Programs
AAS and UH Seed Display Garden: All-America Selections (AAS) is a non-profit organization that conducts trials of new, never-before-sold flower and vegetable seed varieties throughout North America.
O
ʻ
ahu has the first and only AAS Display Garden in Hawai
ʻ
i, located at UGC in Pearl City.
Windward Zero Waste Program: Mindy Jaffe, formerly of Waikiki Worms, is working her compost magic at local schools on Oʻahu. Our 2017 UH Master Gardener Interns on Oʻahu have the chance to be learn and be involved in a zero waste program from the ground up located at 3 schools on the Windward side of Oʻahu.
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~~~ UH Master Gardeners GROWING in Hawai'i ~~~
NEWS FROM KAUA'I
Joshua Silva, MG Coordinator Kaua'i
- Started Training Class Feb 8th, meet every Thursday until May.
- Created two games to spice things up. The first was "Garden Charades" where teams acted out different items or concepts related to gardening, while the second was a "Plant Scavenger Hunt" at the station, where teams raced to find and photograph different plants (fruits, natives, weeds, etc.) on the list.
- Botany and Plant Propagation (2nd week) covered concepts regarding plant structures, physiology, and processes, and included hands-on propagation via seeds, softwood cuttings, and even air layering of a Myers Lemon tree, which hopefully can be used for our plant sale later in the year.
- Steady presence every Saturday at the Kaua'i Community College Farmers' Markets, where they've been answering plant questions as well as selling UH seeds and home grown plants in order to raise funds for the International MG Conference.
- Starting in March, Josh wil be organizing monthly gardening presentations for the community. The first will be in March regarding nutrition of fruits and vegetables in preparation for National Nutrition Month.
- Kaua'i MGs continue to partner with the Village Harvest program to harvest and donate unused produce to after schools programs and food banks.
- Upcoming events include:
- April 8: Kaua'i County Garden Fair
- May 4: Agricultural and Environmental Awareness Day
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NEWS FROM O'AHU
Kalani Matsumura, Junior Extension Agent, O'ahu MG Program
- Started Training Class Feb 3rd with 29 UH MG Interns. For the first time, we are hosting the class at the Waimanalo Research Station. We meet every Friday, until May 26th.
- Focus of outreach events:
- Second Saturdays at the Garden at UGC https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/ougc/
- Plant Doctor Walk-in Hours at UGC Pearl City concentrated to only Wednesdays, 9-12. We'll concentrate our Volunteer presence on Wednesdays. All other days Oahu MGs are encouraged to utilize plant helpline office for researching plant questions or doing this from home. We also hope to see plant question parties, gathering together to figure out questions as a group.
- Farmers' Market Booths (1x per month @ 5 different locations: Waianae, Waimea, Windward Mall, Pearlridge Mall, Kapiolani Community College)
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Lokelani Rose
Rosa damascena
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NEWS FROM MAUI COUNTY
Cynthia Nazario-Leary, MG Coordinator Maui
- Started Training Class Jan. 18th with 25 interns. We meet every Wednesday, until May 30th.
- We've successfully been using Zoom for many of our talks and last week extended our video conferencing capabilities using digital microscopes to provide long distance diagnosis. Thanks to Brian Bushe at ADSC for giving a great talk on insects and diagnosing various pest problems.
- Spring is a busy season for outreach events for the MMG program. Here are events we are participating in.
- March 2-3, Maui County Farm Bureau's Ag in the Classroom where second graders from both private and public schools will visit Haleakala Ranch to learn about agriculture. The MMG program gives presentations on Canoe Plants, or Polynesian-introduced Plants and their uses.
- April 1, Maui Ag Fest. MMG will have a booth providing Help Desk services, selling UH seeds and MMG Apiary Honey, and providing information on the MMG program and Fruit Fly classes
- April 22 is the Ha'iku Ho'olaulea Flower Festival. MMG will have a booth providing Help Desk services, selling UH seeds and MMG Apiary Honey, and providing information on the MMG program and Fruit Fly classes.
- MMG Apiary and the Hawaii Dept. of Ag Apiary Program are partnering to provide the following Beekeeping classes, open to the public. The fee for the classes is waived for Maui Master Gardeners participating in the Maui Master Gardener Apiary project.
- March 1, 2-5 pm Beginning Beekeeping & Bee Biology
- March 2, 1-4 pm Honey Bee Health: Pests & Diseases
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March 3, 9 am - 12 pm, Hands-on experience in the Apiary
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'Ohi'a
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NEWS FROM EAST HAWAI'I
Bill Miller, President, East Hawai'i Master Gardener Association
Mahalo and Aloha to Marisol Quintanilla-Tornel for her energizing support of EHIMGA as our MG Coordinator. We wish her the best in her new position at Michigan State University.
- Started Training Class Feb. 13th, with 29 UH MG Interns. For the first time, we are hosting a 9 year old home schooler. She will be our first Junior Master Gardener. We meet every Monday, Wednesday & Friday, until March 24th.
- Completed Food Safety, Insect anatomy, Plant Anatomy, Insect ID, Plant Disease ID, Little Fire Ant ID and treatment, Soils and amendments, Turf ID and turf diseases, Soil food web
- Class project is demonstration garden which is 50x100 feet. No till garden was weeded and will have a buckwheat cover crop and compost for two weeks and then mowed. It will be planted with UH vegetable seed and the harvest will be donated to the food bank.
- On 30 January, 36 Kamana Senior Center gardeners came to Komohana Research and Extension Center for a tour. East Hawaii MGs toured them through the Ethnobotanical Garden and Demo Garden as well as through the Extension offices and to explain the purpose of Cooperative Extension Service at Komohana. They observed MGs on the phone lines and were offered plant sale plants. Everyone went home with soap/oil spray directions, an MG business card, and a state flower in a one gallon pot. They were very happy. Thank you to East Hawaii Master Gardeners Steve Nemeth, Bill Miller, Linda Halsted, Kate Burroughs and David Henry!
- March 4th is a community volunteer event - invasive species will be removed and native forest trees planted at the EHIMGA ethnobotanical garden.
- April 1st is our fund raiser plant sale, we have 4000 plants ready to go. Last year we had 600 people come and buy plants. We hope to double that this year.
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Ty McDonald, MG Coordinator West Hawai'i
- Training: We are ~halfway through the 2017 MG Volunteer Training Program, with 25 students meeting every Tuesday morning until April 18. This year we added a new class (Weed ID & Control) as well as three Thursday morning hands-on activities:
- Field trip to Palamanui Dryland Forest (service learning project).
- Demonstration Garden Field Day learning about our gardens and participating in their maintenance.
- Pruning Field Day - each trainee will have a block of five pitanga plants to prune in the orchard of this dark-fruited type of Surinam cherry.
- Outreach:
- January - Wiliwili Festival in Waikoloa.
- February - Keauhou Farmers Market.
- March - 11th Annual Avocado Festival in Kailua-Kona. MG program coordinator, Ty McDonald, will provide an avocado grafting demonstration to festival attendees.
- April - 10th Annual Kona Coffee Expo in Kailua-Kona.
- Continuing Education & Fellowship - March
- Hands-on grafting workshop. MGs will graft avocado seedlings they each grew themselves at home.
- Tours & Potluck Lunch - MGers Cheryl C and Stacey R will lead association members through tours of their home gardens and dryland forest restoration project in South Kona and Ka'u, respectively.
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