Another one in Kyushu!

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GaijinAgain
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Another one in Kyushu!

Post by GaijinAgain »

Living in western Kyushu, not really in the sticks but not in the city either. Been here for over 20 years and am thinking of maybe going into agriculture in retirement rather than doing the same job for a reduced salary.

I used to garden a small plot on our land and a little piece of land a neighbor loaned us till I got too busy with other projects. I enjoy doing all different kinds of DIY (from maintaining online forums to rebuilding motorcycles to building different structures around the property.) I'm interested in trying to grow Avocados and maybe some other kinds of weird niche stuff. (Anybody tried to grow Rhubarb yet?)

Anyway, I look forward to getting in touch with other like-minded folks.

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Another one in Kyushu!

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Welcome to Japan Simple Life GaijinAgain and thank you for taking the time to sign up, we really do appreciate that.

Sounds like you have some pretty diverse and interesting hobbies there. Retiring into agriculture is an interesting concept and also seems fairly popular over this way, perhaps that's why we have so many fit and active seniors in the countryside. I sometimes don't know where folk find the hours in a day to get all their farm work done along with gateball and the various social clubs and other hobbies they pursue, I struggle just to get my work completed.

Rhubarb, I've tried it here in Chiba and it didn't like the wet hot summers and the main root rotted away. There is still a tiny clump struggling on but it gets smaller and smaller each year. It is possible to grow it as I do see it for sale in one of our michi no eki's but I think it might be grown in a vinyl house to protect it from the rain. Would love to grow avocados too but not sure how well they would survive the winters we have here, you location may be more suitable than ours.

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Eric in Japan
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Re: Another one in Kyushu!

Post by Eric in Japan »

I have rhubarb, but the boars seem to like it.
About avocados, you can grow them wherever you can grow mikan apparently.
There is a place in Kyushu that sells plants that are hardy to -6
https://yusumura.com/shopbrand/ct5/
"... so, the cucumbers said to the cabbage, `Lettuce Go.`"

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Another one in Kyushu!

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Thanks Eric, that's a good find. Reckon this could be the start of the HiBaro avocado farm :lol:

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Re: Another one in Kyushu!

Post by gonbechan »

Welcome to here. Nice to see new faces and with them new ideas.

The avocados sound wonderful, Eric.
Oh and I have grown rhubarb in Hyogo. You need well draining raised bed with plenty of space for them to spread.

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GaijinAgain
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Re: Another one in Kyushu!

Post by GaijinAgain »

Thanks for the link. 5,000 yen a pop would make it a pretty pricey venture to start at scale. Especially since it takes around 6 years to get a crop.

A bit of research came up with an agricultural co-op here in the prefecture that is also promoting switching mikan orchards to avocados. Seems like it is a potential new trend, so by the time I'd be ready to get into it seriously it'll likely be the same as mikans - everybody and their brother growing them. We'll see.

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Re: Another one in Kyushu!

Post by Zasso Nouka »

I guess someone saw the prices avocados sell for in the super and thought they'd be better off growing those over mikans, perhaps instead you can corner the rhubarb market before anyone else gets a slice of the action :lol:

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Re: Another one in Kyushu!

Post by Ibaraki llama »

Welcome to the forum. Avocados sound interesting, we had one in our garden growing up that my father grew from the seed of one he got from the supermarket. Ended up growing to about 4 metres high with more avocados than we could handle ourselves.

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Another one in Kyushu!

Post by NS49 »

Hi. I’ve just joined JSL and have enjoyed reading your posts. I can really relate to this:

“Been here for over 20 years and am thinking of maybe going into agriculture in retirement rather than doing the same job for a reduced salary.”

I see you have some experience with mikan. I’ve started a thread entitled “Growing Citrus” which might interest you.

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