Today I planted a cacao seedling tree that I sprouted in April. We planned a field trip today so I planted the tree early in the morning.
Julia and I visited Ma’ona Community Garden in Honaunau on the Kona side to check out their composting operation. Chantal and her team recycles hundreds of pounds of kitchen scraps from local kitchens every week and transforms it into a very high quality sifted and aged vermicast which is basically worm poop aka “black gold”.
Vermicast is hands down the best fertilizer and outcompetes every commerical chemical fertilizer out there. Worms have been making it for hundreds of millions of years now. They are great alchemists that digest decomposing organic material into a substance that contains plant available nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium, hormones and humic acids. There are billions of beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes living in the vermicast and they provide biological services like nutrient cycling, pest and disease suppression. Vermicast improves soil moisture retention, texture, and balances the soil pH and increases cation exchange capacity.
Studies show that vermicast will speed up seed germination, promotes root development, increases fruit quality and yield, and many other benefits.
Until they can ramp up their capacity, Ma’ona Community Gardens is focusing on R&D and is providing limited quantities of vermicast to the co-op’s farmers on a donation basis. Chantal shared some of the precious vermicast with us we’ll be doing some magical things with it on the farm soon.
Originally posted on 2021-09-18, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.