Free grower guides · Big Island

Mainland Garden Advice Doesn't Work Here.

Eight guides written for volcanic ground, catchment yards, and two seasons instead of four. Every planting window sorted by elevation, because Hilo and Volcano Village are not the same garden.

172
CROPS & TREES DATED
24
PAGES, ALL HAWAII
29.3%
ORGANIC MATTER, UH TESTED
1982
GROWING ORGANICALLY SINCE
7 days
PHONE ANSWERED, 8–4 HST

What you get

Eight Guides. Every One of Them Island-Specific

Written on a working farm in Mountain View, not adapted from a mainland extension leaflet. You don't have to choose, all eight arrive in a single email.

  • GUIDE 01

    Big Island Planting Calendar

    Every vegetable, herb and fruit tree we grow here, with its planting window for lowland and upcountry.

    • 172 crops and trees, month by month
    • Three elevation zones side by side
    • Wet and dry windows instead of frost dates

  • GUIDE 02

    Which Soil Do I Need

    Find your project, read across, and you have your order. Prices per cubic yard included.

    • Six project types matched to a blend
    • What each ingredient actually does
    • How many yards your bed really takes

  • GUIDE 03

    Hawaii Garden Problem Solver

    The island's own cast of troublemakers, and the organic fixes that actually hold.

    • Rat lungworm safety, following Hawaii DOH
    • The light trick that stops Chinese rose beetle
    • Slugs, fruit flies, aphids, powdery mildew

  • GUIDE 04

    Growing Guide

    The practical basics for vegetables and fruit trees in the tropics. Start here if you're new.

    • Six things that decide your garden
    • Easiest crops for a first season
    • Windward and leeward watering, compared

  • GUIDE 05

    Soil Building Cheat Sheet

    Read what your ground is doing, then fix it. The guide people quote back to us most.

    • Four Big Island soil types decoded
    • Phosphorus fixation, and why compost matters more here
    • pH, liming, and the signs a bed is failing

  • GUIDE 06

    Container & Small Space Growing

    No land, all lava, or just a sunny lanai. You can still grow a lot.

    • The container mix recipe, in parts
    • Best crops for pots, by pot size
    • How much mix a bucket or barrel takes

  • GUIDE 07

    Composting & Vermicomposting

    Three systems that survive the tropics, and the pest rules that keep them running.

    • Pile, worm bin or Bokashi — how to choose
    • Rats, mongoose, ants and fruit flies handled
    • The worm that tolerates Big Island heat

  • GUIDE 08

    Companion Planting Chart

    Who grows well together when humidity, not frost, is the thing working against you.

    • Good partners, crop by crop
    • What to keep in separate beds
    • Helper plants that pull in beneficial insects

What the guides tell you to build with

Three Ingredients Do Most of The Work

Every blend we deliver starts from these. The guides explain when to reach for each one, and roughly how many yards you'll need.

  • A pile of brown organic top soil, mix of nutrient-rich soil and red cinder, for gardening.

    Volcanic topsoil

    Holds the moisture, feeds the bed

    Our own topsoil at 29.3% organic matter, as the University of Hawaii soil analysis shows. The base of every blend.

  • Close-up of a pile of dark soil or compost

    Black cinder

    Structure, never a fertiliser

    Fast drainage, maximum air pockets, a warmer root zone, pH neutral. What a soaked Puna or Hilo bed needs most.

  • Red cinder 3/8 inch minus volcanic rock for landscaping

    Red cinder

    The gentler of the two

    Holds light moisture and guards against root rot, which is why it's the one for pots, planters and orchids.

Why these are rare

Generic Guides are Everywhere. Hawaii-Zone Guides are Not

Nearly every gardening resource online assumes a frost date, a loam soil and four seasons. On the Big Island none of those three are true.

No frost, so no frost dates

We plant against elevation and the wet–dry swing instead. Succession sowing beats a single spring planting date, and the calendar is built that way.

Soil is built, not found

Young lava, black cinder and heavy red clay all lock up phosphorus. The guides explain what your ground is doing before they tell you what to add.

Our pests, our safety rules

Chinese rose beetle, melon fly, coqui myths, and the rat lungworm precautions every catchment household on this island needs to know.

Who wrote them

Forty Years of Organic Growing, Twenty-Five Acres of it on this Island

ick started his first certified organic farm in 1982 in the mountains of Southern California, as part of California Certified Organic Farmers. Four decades later he farms 25 acres of tropical jungle in Mountain View, where the topsoil runs over ten feet deep.

Hawaiian Volcanic Organic delivers bulk topsoil, compost, black cinder and custom blends across the Big Island — Hilo, Keaʻau, Puna, HPP, Mountain View, Ocean View and Glenwood. The guides are the same advice we give on the phone, written down.