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Comment by mucholove | Hacker News Reader

Ooh! So fantastic.

I just bought a wheelbarrow today and am planting guava, okra, in addition to the cacao and coffee I already got.

If that sounds weird, it is because I am in Dominican Republic.

The biggest challenge for me is finding information because most home gardening books are done for temperate climates and the DR is not exactly a great place for literature. If anybody has a good site, please do recommend!

I look up Hawaii and Florida often and get OK results. :)

The pro farmers in the neighborhood are helpful as well, but they don’t always have time and most of them have a plantain mono-crop. :)

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> The biggest challenge for me is finding information

If you can understand Spanish: https://foro.infojardin.com/ is probably one of the biggest communities of gardeners in the latinosphere. Just don't be shy and ask direct and well defined questions. Some people in America has problems with that, in my experience.

In English: https://tropicalfruitforum.com has good technical advice for American and Asian fruits

And there are some people that could help in https://news.ycombinator.com/ of course ;-)

Muchisimas gracias! This is exactly what I've been looking for. :)

I wish I could put you in touch with my father. He grew up in the DRC he loves gardening and he lives here in the UK now. I grew up with very large vegetable gardens my whole life in Zimbabwe. He has loads of experience gardening in the tropics and I grew up with a healthy respect for this hobby he cultivated. I can offer a tiny bit of advice. Plants will grow in the most difficult of conditions, you probably won’t get it the first time just keep going. My father had chickens (100x better compost) in Zimbabwe we sometimes struggled for water, something that won’t be hard for you however good soil composition can help retain moisture and eek out time when you are water rationing and waiting for rain.

Thank you :) Has he ever talked about how well his gardening skills translated into a green thumb in the UK? It's sort of amazing how time becomes that much more important a factor when you consider frost.

Yes, we have a smaller growing window. My father has found it hard to figure growing conditions out, but his yields have improved year on year he has a nice backyard garden with all kinds of vegetables and fruit trees.

Being in Florida, your crops don't sound weird based on climate. Cacao and coffee look like a lot of trouble to process though, and I'm not sure how a person can stand to eat okra.

You're missing out on coconut, jaboticaba, mango, dragonfruit, sweet potato, figs, rambutan, lychee, loquat, longan, avocado, jackfruit, and pineapple. Note that mango and avocado should be obtained as grafted plants because seeds usually create undesirable plants.

> I'm not sure how a person can stand to eat okra.

Pickle it, and it’s a pretty great snack (popular here in Texas).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yYey8ntlK_E

It's also pretty tasty fried and salted, although its nutritional value goes out the window, so to speak...

Okra is very good if done right. https://youtu.be/GMnsdI0nO7s

Fantastic video. I love the host and it seems like he tackles the topics I'm interested in—such as the egg peeler machine.

I'd love to be able to buy soft boiled eggs like I did at the vending machine in Japan. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7HBxBCaUMI

I would recommend this guy (self sufficient me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tX-Mnvt1Oo ) if you are looking for good youtuber who gardens in the tropics/ subtropics.

I've been gardening since my teen years (early 40's now) and moved many times. While I find gardening channels and recommendations useful and enjoyable, starting a garden (as I'm sure you are finding out), depends so much on local (this region) and even micro local (this valley, this yard, this side of the house) conditions. I've resigned the art of gardening to be one based almost entirely in fine scale structure in location. A pleasant artifact of plants having roots. While the themes and structures can be broadly applied, the art can only happen at a fine scale, where an in depth understanding of your local conditions as they relate to your goals and styles of gardening is something that can only be learned in situ.

Try beans! There are tons of varieties, theyre pretty easy, and I’m pretty sure they’re grown the world over.

Sounds like a similar climate to northern Australia, pawpaw and kankong grow extremely well.

while we miss out on stone fruit there's a whole world of exotic fruits that only do well in the tropics (except durian, that can rot in hell)

Ooh! Love the idea of Kankong :) I have a "pawpaw" (we call them lechoza) going. It sprouted in my worm bin and it's doing well. What strategy do you use to keep the soil muddy for kangkong?

Take in mind that pawpaw means different things in different areas. The real paw paw is Asimina. Lechosa is the papaya (Carica), also called (incorrectly) pawpaw because... it sounds similar. Papaya is a Mayan word and should be used instead.

Very different creatures. Carica is tropical. Asimina is temperate and can live in areas with snow. Carica is superfast. Asimina starts as a very slow grower. Fruits taste totally different.

In the case of kankong I placed a cutting in my frog pond and it's taking over! So in a container of water is good, bonus to add some small fish for mosquito control (or just change the water every few days)

Check out Bill Mollison’s “Introduction to Permaculture” and “Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual”. He breaks things into principles across different climates. They’re also generally inspiring books.

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