Planting Medium for Root Vegetables

Vegetables will grow in pure cinder.  There is free mulch at the county dump down in Hilo, though, if you are looking for green waste to make compost out of.

It's nice to know I can get the green waste at the dump. I'll probably grow it myself on site to get huge quantities of it but the dump would be a good place to get it when I'm starting out.

Are you saying that either pure cinder or compost will work fine for root vegetables? If you're planting leafy vegetables do you still need to add a lot of materials to get a deep planting medium or do they grow fine with a small amount of soil?

Root veggies I'm not so sure about in general, but specifically potatoes and sweet potatoes seem to do just fine in mulch. Native Hawaiians used to go into the forest chop down hapu u make a cage of their trunks and fill the center with their leaves and plant SW P in that. But down here at 50 ft makai we used mulch mixed w/ soil and did great, -only weevils found my crop on first rotation so I'd watch out for that too. I'm the second person down here thats discovered this starting from clean cuttings. Must be the weevil sweet spot. 

A hawaiian boy I know said his grams used to pile up two feet of soil and get ginormous 2 foot potatoes, so I'm thinking generous soil if you can come by it would be best for that type of thing. 
 

Though, having said that I talked to one of the guys at the hilo dump where you get the mulch and he says that he gets a big load of it every 3 months, leaves it in a pile and by the time he's ready for the next load its soil. It's fast out here, you just would want to add nitrogen cos that's eaten away in the process. 

Pigeon peas which grow like crazy provide tons of green mulch and fix nitro at the same time and make nutritious peas in winter and down here at 50 ft makai they do fantastic. Short lived perennials going to 15 ft in height. You can trim them for mulch at will they don't care and will fight you back. 

I've noticed our leafy veggies do well given full sun in our 3 to 4 inches of soil. Though we mulch. But I do need to add an organic fertilizer, I use very little, a sprinkle every 2 months and they do great. And we cultivate the worms which for me is the best long run bet. 

Hey Ivy,
I just planted some plants of a mesclun (not mescalin) mix that I got from a local nursery and I immediately thought of you.  We are supposed to have a cooler and wetter winter than normal so winter gardening may get interesting.  Hope things go well for you on your 'plantation'.  Hopefully I will be going through the joys of starting from scratch in HHP in a little more than a year.
Allen
Baton Rouge, LA and HPP

Hey Alan, haha dude, every time I see my mesclun aka mescalin wink wink seed package I think of you too, actually-and getting schooled on national internet ofcourse. ;)

Haa. 
Dude I hope you get out here sooner than later! Chug chug!
Let us know how the winter garden progresses. That'd be interesting. 

Stuff's going great over here. I got one of those clip on mosquito repellents so when I get up later { awake till 3 am writing, tried to get up but dying so going back to zzs for a few} I'm going ape poo on the garden. My only regret was not getting more citrus trees planted when we first got here. My neighbor who did @ the same time has tangerines and limes already. 

Plant It Hawaii sale is on the 13th I think (check their site).  The grafted citrus I got from them this spring threw fruit immediately, but I did cut if off for better production during the tree's lifespan.  I'll have full on citrus next year, no doubt.

Root veggies I'm not so sure about in general, but specifically potatoes and sweet potatoes seem to do just fine in mulch. Native Hawaiians used to go into the forest chop down hapu u make a cage of their trunks and fill the center with their leaves and plant SW P in that. But down here at 50 ft makai we used mulch mixed w/ soil and did great, -only weevils found my crop on first rotation so I'd watch out for that too. I'm the second person down here thats discovered this starting from clean cuttings. Must be the weevil sweet spot. 
A hawaiian boy I know said his grams used to pile up two feet of soil and get ginormous 2 foot potatoes, so I'm thinking generous soil if you can come by it would be best for that type of thing. 
 
Though, having said that I talked to one of the guys at the hilo dump where you get the mulch and he says that he gets a big load of it every 3 months, leaves it in a pile and by the time he's ready for the next load its soil. It's fast out here, you just would want to add nitrogen cos that's eaten away in the process. 

Pigeon peas which grow like crazy provide tons of green mulch and fix nitro at the same time and make nutritious peas in winter and down here at 50 ft makai they do fantastic. Short lived perennials going to 15 ft in height. You can trim them for mulch at will they don't care and will fight you back. 
I've noticed our leafy veggies do well given full sun in our 3 to 4 inches of soil. Though we mulch. But I do need to add an organic fertilizer, I use very little, a sprinkle every 2 months and they do great. And we cultivate the worms which for me is the best long run bet. 

-hedrahelix

Thanks hedrahelix; you've really given a lot of useful information. I like the idea of multi-use plants so pigeon peas sound appealing. I'll definitely try that. I have eaten mature pigeon peas cooked (toor dal) . Is that what you are talking about or can immature pigeon peas be eaten slightly cooked like sweet peas.

Hey ;) That is indeed what I'm talking about, and from what Ive heard you can eat em during any part of maturing so yeah some ppl use em like green beans when young.