Hi everyone, I wanted to talk about how I grow kava. There are a lot of different ways and I mainly use only one way, that is planting the kava in mounds of soil on the ground. This is the process I use to grow my kava.
First of all I will pick a good location to plant the new kava plants. It is important to have shade for the kava in the younger parts of it's life, it will not do well in full sun when it is young.
So I like to plant in shady areas and then after 6 months or a bit longer I will open up the area to let more sun in.
I like to plant my kava as a multi crop, although I do have an area where I grow kava as a mono crop. When I plant as a multi crop I will plant the kava in areas of the land that are naturally shady and weed free, under mac nut trees is a good place, under Hapuu or tree ferns is also good, this is just a few examples of where I look to plant kava. One can also provide shade with shade cloth and then take the shade cloth down after the kava has reached a certain age.
I also look for areas that are not too wet because the kava does not like to be in standing water or in a water logged area. In a case like this I might plant on the hillside of a water soaked area or on the edge several feet away from the wet area.
Wet areas can be a problem for the roots of the kava, it can cause root rot and it can also be an ideal environment for the Phoma fungus or shot hole fungus. Both these problems is not good for kava. Kava also does not like the wind, it will tolerate it but it will grow slower and it will make long internode varieties short. This is not an actual mutation because if you took cuttings and grew them in a area with no high winds then it would grow tall like is normally would.
Once I get the location for growing the kava I will mark several locations and then I will go and harvest a 'Awa plant, after harvesting I will take the stalks and make cuttings from them. On a good mature 4 year old plant or older I will get 100-200 knuckles or more, for making new kava plants. It depends on the variety and if it is a long internode or a short internode variety. I will take these cuttings and I will put down a layer of live moss and then place the cuttings with the eye on the knuckle pointing up and then I cover them all with another layer of moss and I keep them in the shade and I keep them moist. I like to use the moss because it grows all over my yard and it also the moss possesses iodine-LIKE qualities that help protect the baby kava from fungus as it is growing.
This is not the only way to start kava cuttings but it is what I use and I get a 90% or more success rate and I like that.
There is a method of planting 'Awa that involves planting the 'Awa in a big basket or a tall tube made from wire fence and weed cloth.
This way of planting will allow the 'Awa to grow but when you plant kava in baskets it will stunt the growth. The kava stump is much smaller, there is not a noticeable increase of lateral roots to make one want to plant this way. 'Awa is a high energy plant that loves to grow.
I give 'Awa what it wants and needs to grow big and potent. I grow all my 'Awa in mounds on the ground, I have done the tube method before but I will only plant in the ground now, it is so much better, the results are clear just by looking at the 'Awa plants
'Awa also grows in cycles and planting in the ground allows the 'Awa to take full advantage of these cycles. The farmer can also take advantage of these cycles to help the 'Awa grow in size and potency.
I grow mostly Hawaiian varieties of 'Awa but I also have several from the south Pacific in my collection.
I have Moi, Mahakea, Nene, Hiwa, Opihikao, Papa Ele ele, Papa Ele Ele Puu Puu, Panaewa, Hanakapi Ai, Kumakua, Honokane Iki, Mapulehu and Papa Kea. Those are the 13 known Hawaiian varieties.
In the "'Awa Production Guide" it mentions about the different types of soil that 'Awa will grow in, it says this---"These are:
1) deep soil, 2) rocky soil, 3) forest planting, 4) lava
soil, and 5) basket planting."
The way I do my planting is with mounds on the top of the ground. This makes it easy to harvest when the time comes. I also make my own soil,
---
---.
I make a compost with wood chips, sea weed, mac nut husks and a few other secret ingredients. I use this soil to plant the kava in, I will make a mound of this soil on the top of the ground and then plant the kava on that mound. After a few months the composted soil will have settled in and broken down even more, you will see this when the top of the soil from the pot (meaning the pot that I grew it in after the rooting in the moss) of the kava plant starts to look taller than the mound, ---
---this is when I add even more of the composted soil, I will add soil throughout the life of the kava as the kava plant needs it, as it gets bigger I need to add more to keep feeding it.
I like to plant the 'Awa in and among the trees and natural forest and topography, this limits the amount of kava I can plant per acre but as I have said I do have one area that I do mono cropping.
When I talk about planting kava plants, the plant actually took a lot of time to get from a node cutting to a 'Awa plant ready to go in the ground, the baby kava can stay in the green house for 3-5 months before going into the ground.
I take cuttings from the kava after harvesting and I root them in moss, this takes about 1-2 months to root.
---
-----
After they have rooted I will place them in 6-8 inch pots depending on how large the rooted cutting is. I use the same soil I make to plant these rooted cuttings, in about 1-2 months I will transplant them again to a 12 inch bag and then in the ground about 1 month after that. This is a trailer load of young kava plants going out to get planted in the mounds on the ground.----
----Once they go in the ground they will start to take off in growth spurts you can see, the stalks will get larger in diameter and the leaves get huge, they can get quite a bit larger than your hand with no problem. Harvest will come at some point in the future but most of the time around four years or more. I still like to mention the smell of walking through the kava, in the mornings or in moist afternoons the smell is incredible, it is hard to describe but it is pleasant that's for sure, my wife really enjoys walking through the kava and smelling this incredible smell.
There is a technique that I use to get larger kava plants in a shorter period of time. I can't tell any details but I will show a few pictures as examples of what I am talking about, the firsst picture shows a normal young kava plant and the second shows mine.----
----
There are also ways to increase the kavalactone content of the kava. Sunshine is one of them but kava loves to eat, it is a high energy plant, it loves to be fed so I make sure that it has new compost mounded up on a regular basis to ensure the
'Awa gets the nutrients it needs to grow big and strong. Another thing I wanted to mention, I am not certified organic but I will tell you that I do not use any pesticides, herbicides.
After planting the kava you will need to tend the kava on a regular basis, meaning look at the kava to make sure that there is no bugs, fungus or disease. For the most part I do not get any disease like Cucumber Mosaic Virus that will kill a kava plant but I do get some pests sometimes, things like white flies, I use a soap water solution to help with this and some other pests. In areas that get a lot of rain the kava will get Phoma fungus if your not watchful. I find it interesting that one of my largest farms is on the south part of the Big Island and I do not get any fungus or disease in that area. I have to wonder if it is because of the location and the fact that it is dry and isolated by old lava fields. All I know is that the kava grows a lot better over there than in other places.
For the most part if you keep your kava strong and feed it a lot then it will stay healthy, finding and stopping pest, fungus and disease is also important so that you have not only strong but healthy kava plants.
It is too bad that there aren't more people here in Hawaii growing 'Awa. There are a few that grow a plant or two on there property but even the commercial growers are few and far in between.
I seriously doubt there is more than 8-10 commercial farmers here in Hawaii but i suspect that it is a lot less than that. I know Puu Ala Farms and Puu O Hoku Ranch are growing commercially, there are a few others but after that you have just some people with a few 'Awa plants in there yard.
I encourage more people to plant kava in there yards here in Hawaii and most certainly I encourage more people to get into 'Awa commercially here in Hawaii.
There is interest from outside Hawaii in growing 'Awa commercially and that is good but we need more local farmers. I was approached by a German company, they wanted to plant over 150,000 plants, they wanted me to do all for this but I don't have the time. The last I heard they found someone on the Hamakua Coast to grow the kava for them. The only bad thing is that the kava will be sent to Germany and made into kava pills.
It is very hard to start large farms like that because there is no Hawaiian 'Awa in the wild that is (close enough) so that you can get cuttings to start your baby kava. The wild Hawaiian 'Awa patches that were close by are all gone, stolen way back in the 1990ies. There is 'Awa in remote places but it is very far away and hard to get to, no roads that's for sure.
It is not like the old days where you can go not too far in the forest and find some 'Awa but now all the wild stands of 'Awa are very far away and hard to get to. Too hard for anyone who might want to steal the 'Awa
.
I don't have to harvest kava in 4 years, I can let it grow for as long as the kava wants. I have seen Hawaiian 'awa that was bigger than a full size truck, this is old ancient Hawaiian 'awa and it could be a hundred years old of more.
There have been studies that show the kavalactone content will reach maturity in 18 months but most growers will let the 'awa grow longer so that they get a larger 'awa plant.
My 'Awa is of a large enough size and potent enough that I can harvest it in 18-24 months but I like to let them get even bigger than what they are at that age, sometimes I let them get this big like this---
---.
You can see from the pictures of this kava plant that there is a whole lot of cuttings to make baby kava plants, so it is very easy to expand your farm exponentially when you harvest. The more kava you harvest the more kava you can grow.
.
As I said, the way you grow the kava will have a profound effect on the kavalactone content. 'Awa grown in my yard will be stronger than my farm grown 'awa because I am able to take care of it more and spoil it and it responds with increased kavalactones.
I still take steps to make sure my farm 'awa is nice and strong by doing things like letting it have as much sun as I can and making sure that I compost it very well. The key is the soil it grows in and in Hawaii we call that "Lepo", I make a soil that the kava loves and it shows in my end product
The thing about kavalactones is that they can vary a lot, it depends on how the kava was grown and conditions like food, sun, water and some other factors.
There has been some controversy about if the kavalactone content of kava can get up to 20%.
There was some testing that was done, all kinds of factors were taken into account and you can see my the scans that the kavalactone content can get very high indeed. It all depends on how you grow it, it also seems to depend on the variety of kava as well. --
----
I strive to give the kava what it needs so that the end product is the best it can be and my product speaks for itself. I will always give only the best kava I can so you the consumer can rest assured that the kava you are getting from me is among the best every day drinking kava you can find.
Aloha nui loa.
Chris
First of all I will pick a good location to plant the new kava plants. It is important to have shade for the kava in the younger parts of it's life, it will not do well in full sun when it is young.
So I like to plant in shady areas and then after 6 months or a bit longer I will open up the area to let more sun in.
I like to plant my kava as a multi crop, although I do have an area where I grow kava as a mono crop. When I plant as a multi crop I will plant the kava in areas of the land that are naturally shady and weed free, under mac nut trees is a good place, under Hapuu or tree ferns is also good, this is just a few examples of where I look to plant kava. One can also provide shade with shade cloth and then take the shade cloth down after the kava has reached a certain age.
I also look for areas that are not too wet because the kava does not like to be in standing water or in a water logged area. In a case like this I might plant on the hillside of a water soaked area or on the edge several feet away from the wet area.
Wet areas can be a problem for the roots of the kava, it can cause root rot and it can also be an ideal environment for the Phoma fungus or shot hole fungus. Both these problems is not good for kava. Kava also does not like the wind, it will tolerate it but it will grow slower and it will make long internode varieties short. This is not an actual mutation because if you took cuttings and grew them in a area with no high winds then it would grow tall like is normally would.
Once I get the location for growing the kava I will mark several locations and then I will go and harvest a 'Awa plant, after harvesting I will take the stalks and make cuttings from them. On a good mature 4 year old plant or older I will get 100-200 knuckles or more, for making new kava plants. It depends on the variety and if it is a long internode or a short internode variety. I will take these cuttings and I will put down a layer of live moss and then place the cuttings with the eye on the knuckle pointing up and then I cover them all with another layer of moss and I keep them in the shade and I keep them moist. I like to use the moss because it grows all over my yard and it also the moss possesses iodine-LIKE qualities that help protect the baby kava from fungus as it is growing.
This is not the only way to start kava cuttings but it is what I use and I get a 90% or more success rate and I like that.
There is a method of planting 'Awa that involves planting the 'Awa in a big basket or a tall tube made from wire fence and weed cloth.
This way of planting will allow the 'Awa to grow but when you plant kava in baskets it will stunt the growth. The kava stump is much smaller, there is not a noticeable increase of lateral roots to make one want to plant this way. 'Awa is a high energy plant that loves to grow.
I give 'Awa what it wants and needs to grow big and potent. I grow all my 'Awa in mounds on the ground, I have done the tube method before but I will only plant in the ground now, it is so much better, the results are clear just by looking at the 'Awa plants
'Awa also grows in cycles and planting in the ground allows the 'Awa to take full advantage of these cycles. The farmer can also take advantage of these cycles to help the 'Awa grow in size and potency.
I grow mostly Hawaiian varieties of 'Awa but I also have several from the south Pacific in my collection.
I have Moi, Mahakea, Nene, Hiwa, Opihikao, Papa Ele ele, Papa Ele Ele Puu Puu, Panaewa, Hanakapi Ai, Kumakua, Honokane Iki, Mapulehu and Papa Kea. Those are the 13 known Hawaiian varieties.
In the "'Awa Production Guide" it mentions about the different types of soil that 'Awa will grow in, it says this---"These are:
1) deep soil, 2) rocky soil, 3) forest planting, 4) lava
soil, and 5) basket planting."
The way I do my planting is with mounds on the top of the ground. This makes it easy to harvest when the time comes. I also make my own soil,
---
I make a compost with wood chips, sea weed, mac nut husks and a few other secret ingredients. I use this soil to plant the kava in, I will make a mound of this soil on the top of the ground and then plant the kava on that mound. After a few months the composted soil will have settled in and broken down even more, you will see this when the top of the soil from the pot (meaning the pot that I grew it in after the rooting in the moss) of the kava plant starts to look taller than the mound, ---
I like to plant the 'Awa in and among the trees and natural forest and topography, this limits the amount of kava I can plant per acre but as I have said I do have one area that I do mono cropping.
When I talk about planting kava plants, the plant actually took a lot of time to get from a node cutting to a 'Awa plant ready to go in the ground, the baby kava can stay in the green house for 3-5 months before going into the ground.
I take cuttings from the kava after harvesting and I root them in moss, this takes about 1-2 months to root.
---
After they have rooted I will place them in 6-8 inch pots depending on how large the rooted cutting is. I use the same soil I make to plant these rooted cuttings, in about 1-2 months I will transplant them again to a 12 inch bag and then in the ground about 1 month after that. This is a trailer load of young kava plants going out to get planted in the mounds on the ground.----
----Once they go in the ground they will start to take off in growth spurts you can see, the stalks will get larger in diameter and the leaves get huge, they can get quite a bit larger than your hand with no problem. Harvest will come at some point in the future but most of the time around four years or more. I still like to mention the smell of walking through the kava, in the mornings or in moist afternoons the smell is incredible, it is hard to describe but it is pleasant that's for sure, my wife really enjoys walking through the kava and smelling this incredible smell.
There is a technique that I use to get larger kava plants in a shorter period of time. I can't tell any details but I will show a few pictures as examples of what I am talking about, the firsst picture shows a normal young kava plant and the second shows mine.----
There are also ways to increase the kavalactone content of the kava. Sunshine is one of them but kava loves to eat, it is a high energy plant, it loves to be fed so I make sure that it has new compost mounded up on a regular basis to ensure the
'Awa gets the nutrients it needs to grow big and strong. Another thing I wanted to mention, I am not certified organic but I will tell you that I do not use any pesticides, herbicides.
After planting the kava you will need to tend the kava on a regular basis, meaning look at the kava to make sure that there is no bugs, fungus or disease. For the most part I do not get any disease like Cucumber Mosaic Virus that will kill a kava plant but I do get some pests sometimes, things like white flies, I use a soap water solution to help with this and some other pests. In areas that get a lot of rain the kava will get Phoma fungus if your not watchful. I find it interesting that one of my largest farms is on the south part of the Big Island and I do not get any fungus or disease in that area. I have to wonder if it is because of the location and the fact that it is dry and isolated by old lava fields. All I know is that the kava grows a lot better over there than in other places.
For the most part if you keep your kava strong and feed it a lot then it will stay healthy, finding and stopping pest, fungus and disease is also important so that you have not only strong but healthy kava plants.
It is too bad that there aren't more people here in Hawaii growing 'Awa. There are a few that grow a plant or two on there property but even the commercial growers are few and far in between.
I seriously doubt there is more than 8-10 commercial farmers here in Hawaii but i suspect that it is a lot less than that. I know Puu Ala Farms and Puu O Hoku Ranch are growing commercially, there are a few others but after that you have just some people with a few 'Awa plants in there yard.
I encourage more people to plant kava in there yards here in Hawaii and most certainly I encourage more people to get into 'Awa commercially here in Hawaii.
There is interest from outside Hawaii in growing 'Awa commercially and that is good but we need more local farmers. I was approached by a German company, they wanted to plant over 150,000 plants, they wanted me to do all for this but I don't have the time. The last I heard they found someone on the Hamakua Coast to grow the kava for them. The only bad thing is that the kava will be sent to Germany and made into kava pills.
It is very hard to start large farms like that because there is no Hawaiian 'Awa in the wild that is (close enough) so that you can get cuttings to start your baby kava. The wild Hawaiian 'Awa patches that were close by are all gone, stolen way back in the 1990ies. There is 'Awa in remote places but it is very far away and hard to get to, no roads that's for sure.
It is not like the old days where you can go not too far in the forest and find some 'Awa but now all the wild stands of 'Awa are very far away and hard to get to. Too hard for anyone who might want to steal the 'Awa
.
I don't have to harvest kava in 4 years, I can let it grow for as long as the kava wants. I have seen Hawaiian 'awa that was bigger than a full size truck, this is old ancient Hawaiian 'awa and it could be a hundred years old of more.
There have been studies that show the kavalactone content will reach maturity in 18 months but most growers will let the 'awa grow longer so that they get a larger 'awa plant.
My 'Awa is of a large enough size and potent enough that I can harvest it in 18-24 months but I like to let them get even bigger than what they are at that age, sometimes I let them get this big like this---
You can see from the pictures of this kava plant that there is a whole lot of cuttings to make baby kava plants, so it is very easy to expand your farm exponentially when you harvest. The more kava you harvest the more kava you can grow.
.
As I said, the way you grow the kava will have a profound effect on the kavalactone content. 'Awa grown in my yard will be stronger than my farm grown 'awa because I am able to take care of it more and spoil it and it responds with increased kavalactones.
I still take steps to make sure my farm 'awa is nice and strong by doing things like letting it have as much sun as I can and making sure that I compost it very well. The key is the soil it grows in and in Hawaii we call that "Lepo", I make a soil that the kava loves and it shows in my end product
The thing about kavalactones is that they can vary a lot, it depends on how the kava was grown and conditions like food, sun, water and some other factors.
There has been some controversy about if the kavalactone content of kava can get up to 20%.
There was some testing that was done, all kinds of factors were taken into account and you can see my the scans that the kavalactone content can get very high indeed. It all depends on how you grow it, it also seems to depend on the variety of kava as well. --
I strive to give the kava what it needs so that the end product is the best it can be and my product speaks for itself. I will always give only the best kava I can so you the consumer can rest assured that the kava you are getting from me is among the best every day drinking kava you can find.
Aloha nui loa.
Chris
