A vine mess

Recent heavy rains devastate crops at many isle farms

At Aloun Farms on the Ewa Plain, this should have been the time to begin harvesting crops of its Ewa Sweet watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydew. But the family-owned farm is instead facing fields of rotting melons and withered vines.

Standing on a field of sun-cracked mud yesterday, Mike Sou, who runs Aloun Farms with his brother, Alec, picked up a shriveled, baseball-size Thai watermelon. The melon should have been the size of a football by now, he said.

"This was going to be harvested at the end of April, but it all dried up," said Sou. "Almost 100 percent of what we planted is lost."

As farmers like Mike and Alec Sou head back to their fields after the record rains of February and March, others are finding what the Sous have found: ruined crops and substantial losses.

Although agriculture experts say it could be months until the full extent of the damage is quantified, anecdotal evidence indicates that the rain was not good for anyone.

"There's no benefit," said Steve Fukuda, an Oahu county extension agent for the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. "When you lose sunlight, you lose photosynthetic energy you need from the sun, and that results in lower growth yield and poorer plant quality overall."

There is also the damage from water, which can rot roots and turn fields into mud pits that farmers cannot harvest or spray for pests.

Alec Sou said it was that one-two punch of too much water and not enough sun that devastated Aloun Farms.

"That was the big killer the last 45 days -- the combination," he said.

Altogether, Alec Sou reckons Aloun Farms has suffered direct losses of about $450,000 from its lost crops, which include more than 100 acres of melons and other vine crops such as zucchini. He said he was researching how much of the damage, if any, could be covered by insurance.

Although the farm's fields of apple bananas went mostly unscathed, the fields were so muddy that workers could not get in to harvest the bananas, and many became overripe, Mike Sou said. It all has added up to a substantial blow for a 3,000-acre operation that employs more than 100 people.

Aloun Farms' plight is not unique.

"We're down for about two to three weeks, maybe longer," said Dean Okimoto, proprietor of Nalo Farms, which grows lettuce and herbs on about four acres in Waimanalo.

Okimoto estimates he lost about $50,000 of lettuce and greens. Rain made lesions on lettuce, making it susceptible to rotting. He said he needs to get back into the fields to replant, but the land is just too muddy to work.

"The good thing today is we have some wind, so that helps dry the fields," he said.

Greg Yee, who runs a small organic farm producing fruit, honey, eggs and free-range chickens in Hauula, said he lost several fruit trees and a couple hundred chicks because of a leaky roof in his henhouse. In addition, several beehives were flooded before he could get them into permanent hive boxes.

Having seen reports of people losing their homes or lives because of the rains, Yee is taking things philosophically.

"There's nothing I can do; it's just kind of 'bite the bullet,'" he said.

Still, not everyone is reporting big damage.

Larry Jefts, proprietor of Sugarland Farms in Central Oahu, said the farm suffered little damage to its fields of tomatoes, cabbage, bell peppers, cucumbers and other crops.

"It's not our best month; it's not our worst," said Jefts. "This is my 48th year I've put in a crop. It's not the worst I've seen."

Lorie Farrell, administrator of the Big Island Farm Bureau, said she had no reports of damage to crops there. And Alexander & Baldwin Inc. reported no serious problems at its Kauai Coffee unit and nothing more than rain delays in harvesting sugar cane at its HC&S sugar plantation on Maui.

It is likely to be some time before analysts can quantify the extent of the damage, said Alan Takemoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, which represents all of the islands.

"We won't actually know what the damage is until things dry out," he said. "They're just trying to get back into regular operations right now. It's going to take a while for us to get a picture of the whole thing."

"Everyone thinks that after the rain stops, everything is back to normal," Takemoto said, "but for the farmers, it takes about four to eight weeks to get back."