permaculture

["Wendy Faubert" <dawntreader2001@hotmail.com>]

Hello!  We are working on an old Mac Nut Orchard on the Big Island of Hawaii that hasn't been worked for about 10 years and is overrun with Guinea Grass(8 foot clumping monster weeds), California Grass, and Ironwood Trees(50 foot monsters 10 times worse than the Guinea Grass).  We are at 1,200-1,500 ft elevation and get between 60" and 100" rainfall annually. We are currently clearing away the weeds and are planning on planting food producing trees and understory crops using permaculture/agroforestry techniques.  We’re looking for a perennial ground cover to establish underneath our trees (citrus, fruit and nut). Our priorities with regards to the cover crop characteristics are:

1. Weed suppression and ability to take over other weedy plants,
2. Low growing and spreading habit (less than 1’ tall, ideally) (we are working away from using lawn mowers)
3. Easy/relatively fast to establish
4. Enhances soil- through nutrient enhancement and improved soil structure.
5. Erosion control

We are particularly interested in information that is specific to Hawaii.  Does anybody have experience with regards to permanent ground covers that we should look into? Does anybody have any recommendations that might be helpful? Is there anyone else that we should contact that might also have some information on this subject?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Aloha!

Wendy 

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