permaculture

[Steve Diver <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

To answer your question directly, "what are the pesticides
that you may be concerned with in relation to tropical crops
production in Hawaii":

For a really fantastic source on "what" pesticides, cultural
practices, and related crop production practices are typically
employed in association with modern crop production,
see the Crop Profiles at OPMP/PIAP website -- USDA
Office of Pest Management Policy / Pesticide Impact
Assessment Program.

OPMP/PIAP
http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/opmppiap/

Go to:

Crop Profiles | Search the Crop Profiles Database
http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/opmppiap/subcrp.htm

For Hawaii, these profiles are available:

Bananas
Coffee
Pineapples
Sugarcane
Taro

Let's say you buy the land, the practices I suggest you
employ for kicking organic life into action are:

*cover cropping
*green manuring
*composting
*BD preps
*mulch + worms

Bioremediation and phytoremediation are terms you can use
and think about.  But it all boils down to using plants and
organic soil amendments in a sequence of rotations and proper
tillage just like you would on any organic farm. The bioremediation
is part of the process because you are providing food and shelter
to gazillions of microbes who do the work.

The 3-year pause has nothing to do with "safety" of walking
the land or living there.  To become certified organic as a farmer,
you have to go through a transition phase where no commercial
fertilizers or pesticides are used on the land for a period of three
years; that's all.

How bad it could be?  Look into the historical records from
1920s-70s to determine if globs and globs of lead arsenate,
copper, DDT, dieldrin, and other heavy metal / long-residual
based pesticides were used to raise crops on this piece of land.

A regular soil test offers information on mineral content and
organic matter.  It provides guidance for soil improvement.

On the other hand, you may want to invest in several hundred
dollars and send a soil sample to a lab specializing in toxicity
assessment and have the soil analyzed for a battery of pesticide
residues.

Steve Diver


Elijah Smith wrote:

>  It does have soil, not sure how deep.  I'm assuming it was probably
> cane at one time... most of that area was.  Part of what is attractive
> about this land to me is that it's already been trashed - and we could
> do it a service to clean it up.  I'm just trying to get an idea of how
> bad it could be...