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Growing Dendrobium in Hawaii manual is out of print |
MANOA, HAWAII, July 29, 2010: The College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Ressources has launched the manual, Growing Dendrobium Orchids in Hawaii. Written by Ken Leonhardt and Kelvin Sewake, the manual gives a comprehensive overview of production and pest management of Hawaii-grown Dendrobium.
The Dendrobium orchid industry is one of the fastest growing agricultural industries in Hawaii. Strong market demand in recent years, especially for potted Dendrobium
plants, has resulted in increased awareness of and interest in commercial Dendrobium production and marketing.
In 1969, the first year statistics on Dendrobium were published by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, 19,000 dozen cut sprays sold for a wholesale value of $50,000. In
1997, the wholesale value of Dendrobium sales was approximately $10 million. Cut Dendrobium sales totaled $3.3 million from 80 acres, from which 368,000 dozen sprays
($2.6 million) and 25 million individual lei blossoms ($0.7 million) were harvested. Revenues from cut sprays and lei blossoms averaged about $41,000 per acre for the 56 producing farms.
Producers of potted Dendrobiums marketed 1.4 million pots in 1997 from 30 acres, generating $6.4 million in revenues, an average of over $200,000 per acre for the 63
farms having sales. Dendrobiums accounted for about two-thirds of the $15.5 million in revenues from the sale of Hawaii-grown orchids in 1997. Other important orchid genera include Phalaenopsis, the Oncidium, Vanda, and Cattleya alliances, and Cymbidium.
The increased interest in Dendrobium production has resulted in greater public demand for information and technical assistance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) and its Cooperative Extension Service (CES). Farmers are constantly seeking better ways to control insect,
disease, and weed pests, to obtain new cultivars to meet consumer needs, and to learn better cultivation techniques based on scientific research. In addition, new farmers need assistance in developing business plans, obtaining loans, and getting advice on starting an orchid business.
Growers need guidelines that allow optimum crop protection and production while addressing environmental concerns and fostering good land stewardship. Information that
fulfills these needs is preferably based on reducing dependence on agricultural chemicals. Integrated pest management (IPM) strategies, which emphasize the use of non-chemical pest control practices, can be used to achieve these goals. This new manual was developed to provide concise, accurate, and current information on
IPM for the Dendrobium industry. Its purpose is to educate the reader in the general concepts of IPM as well as recommend specific applications of IPM principles.
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