A Experiment in growing kava

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

Hi everyone, I have been growing kava for many many years and I have come up with was to make the kava grow fast and big and potent. I thought I would do a small experiment to show you how the kava grown in a regular way is and how the kava grown in my homemade soil is.
The picture shows the 'Awa plants, the row on the left is regular and the row on the right is with my homemade soil. I start with wood chips and I add things like dead fish heads from the fish shop, sea weed, Mac Nut husks and shells and other things , I let it compost for a number of months before I use it. The picture shows the results. All the plants are the same age, the same variety and the only difference is the soil. I hope you enjoy the picture. Aloha.

Chris

 

[kastom_lif]

Looking very healthy! Compost is the way to go. Anyone who grows plants should try composting. Adding seaweed is smart. It's a great way to get trace elements.

 

[kasa_balavu]

Great experiment, Chris; thanks for sharing.

Kava absolutely loves humus-rich soil. This poses a problem in the Pacific islands where farmers don't have access to commercial quantities of compost (making your own in commercial quantities isn't feasible without heavy machinery).
The solution that costs nothing is to plant kava in virgin forest. As you can imagine, the deforestation resulting from this is quite devastating. There are organisations currently working to stop deforestation and eventually restore watershed areas that have been impacted, but time will tell whether they can stop this and turn back the clock.

Back on topic, have you tried biochar, Chris?

 

[Omai]

A snake!
(in Hawaii?!? - upper left corner)
`'"~

 

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

Great experiment, Chris; thanks for sharing.

Kava absolutely loves humus-rich soil. This poses a problem in the Pacific islands where farmers don't have access to commercial quantities of compost (making your own in commercial quantities isn't feasible without heavy machinery).
The solution that costs nothing is to plant kava in virgin forest. As you can imagine, the deforestation resulting from this is quite devastating. There are organisations currently working to stop deforestation and eventually restore watershed areas that have been impacted, but time will tell whether they can stop this and turn back the clock.

Back on topic, have you tried biochar, Chris?

Yes heavy equipment helps a lot. see the new pictures. I have thought about trying bio char but I have not tried it yet. Have you tried it?
Aloha.

Chris

 

[kasa_balavu]

Damn I'd love to have one of those.

No, I haven't tried biochar. A friend of mine showed me pics of plots in his veggie garden, one with added biochar and the other without. The difference was amazing, so I've always wondered about trying it with kava. I imagine that it should have a particularly good impact in the first year of growth.

We're going through drought right now, but I'll see if I can set up a trial when planting season begins again in November.

 

[Charismah]

Wow. That's a big difference. A little ingenuity goes a long way. Cool pic.

 

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

A snake!
(in Hawaii?!? - upper left corner)
`'"~

It does look like a snake but it is actually an Ohia tree branch from when I cleared the land for planting. Aloha.

Chris

 

[kastom_lif]

It sure does take equipment to make lots of compost. Wood chippers are expensive and burn lots of fuel. Stuff like mac nut husks or sugar cane bagasse are great cause they're already shredded into small pieces, and locally available.

As for biochar, I add charcoal into cooking compost heaps when it's available. In my climate, the challenges are preventing standing water when it's wet, and keeping moisture in the soil in the late summer and early fall when it's dry and hot. Trenching, burying rotten logs, and then covering with compost and soil builds nice raised beds. They keep plant roots from rotting in the rainy season, and the rotting wood deeper down acts like a sponge to hold moisture in the dry season. The decomposing wood doesn't seem to draw down nitrogen on the surface as long as you bury it at least a foot or two. Plus, fungal action in the wood pulls nutrients up from deeper down to feed the soil.

Burying unburnt wood probably doesn't build long lasting tera preta like charcoal can. However, burying wood sinks carbon directly without needing to burn charcoal. I think as long as there's sustainable biomass available, biochar is not 100% necessary.

If you look at where tera preta was created historically, in the Amazon, it was done on thin, nutrient-poor rainforest soils. Clearing land for planting there produces tons of dead wood, yet once the soil is bare it degrades very fast... perhaps SO fast that it cannot produce enough biomass to re-bury more wood after the initial unburned wood breaks down. So in that case, converting the wood into charcoal can protect the cleared land more permanently. Maybe. I'm not totally sure

tl;dr- No burn da nessies. Try bury um!

 

[kastom_lif]

I've started a small experiment. Here in Alabama, invasive privet bush loves to take over the edges between forests and open areas. I recently chainsawed out a bunch of it and hauled the cuttings off for composting/burning.

That left a strip where the privet monoculture used to choke out everything else. Maybe 50 feet wide, between forest and field.

So here's the experiment: along one half, I will burn the residue into charcoal, drag harrow it into the soil, till, and plant a cool season cover crop of clover and brassica.

On the other half of fhe strip that had privet, I will not burn anything. Only the privet stumps will get spot treatments of concentrated herbicide (because they are f**kers) and everything else growing will be spared. For this section I will not till or harrow. I'll also leave an unburnt layer of residue as mulch. Otherwise, same application of daikon and crimson clover seeds, at the same date in the early fall.

This is more of a test of traditonal swidden+till vs. no-till chop'n'drop. It's not a direct comparison of biochar vs. sinking unburnt carbon. But it may show something relevant. Who knows.

Anyway, I'm out here watching privet stumps smouldering, with a bowl of kava.

 

[Omai]

A guy down the street from me (central Florida) has a piece of property located in town. One cannot even see his house because of the dense and verdant vegetation.
Everything he plants is edible or useful: bananas, moringa, chaya, opuntia, mulberry, papaya, bamboo, etc.
He always has huge mounds of decaying vegetative matter that move around constantly (he hires a handful of helpers who turn/move it with shovels).
One day, he explained to me that composting and biochar were the secrets of his success - so, another thumbs-up for composting and biochar!
~
Was just kidding about the kavaconda in your pic Chris... but the twisted shape of the branch did look like a snake!
Thanks for explaining that it was an Ohia tree - I have looked it up, and now know the story behind the name (there are many versions but a condensed one follows):
A handsome warrior named Ohia and the lovely Lehua were in love.
One day, the goddess Pele approached Ohia and attempted to woo him away from Lehua.
Ohia refused her and the scorned Pele flared-up and smote him with fiery lava.
Ohia was transformed into a twisted tree.
The gods (or little people of the forest - depends on the version), took pity on the couple and Lehua became a red flower upon the tree.
The lovers, Ohia and Lehua, would be together forever...

Gotta love this stuff!
Compost, Biochar, and our relationship with Nature...
`'"~

 

[Zaphod]

Maybe this is a silly question but....is faster young growing kava "better". Certainly if your main goal is volume of root it is better, but what provides the most potent and good drinking kava at the 3-5year mark?

 

[Alia]

Yes heavy equipment helps a lot. see the new pictures. I have thought about trying bio char but I have not tried it yet. Have you tried it?
Aloha.

Chris
View attachment 9440 View attachment 9441 View attachment 9442

I used to use bio-char all the time in propagating 'awa and it did make a very positive difference-- faster, healthier rooting and shoot growth.
BEI* ran out for awhile and I stopped using but will begin again! Thanks for reminding me. *BEI is Brewer Environmental- a farm supply company.

 

[The Kap'n]

Yes heavy equipment helps a lot. see the new pictures. I have thought about trying bio char but I have not tried it yet. Have you tried it?
Aloha.

Chris

Look at that heavy equipment!

A few weeks ago we had a 2014 Cat stolen off of our property. 200 Hours of running time with an air conditioned cab. Let me know if you see any super good deals on them. It might be ours. Seriously though, it's probably in Mexico by now. The audacity of some people is just amazing.

 

[kasa_balavu]

Maybe this is a silly question but....is faster young growing kava "better". Certainly if your main goal is volume of root it is better, but what provides the most potent and good drinking kava at the 3-5year mark?

Growing a vigorous plant with good root volume is the goal for most of the life of the plant. In the final few months before harvest, one can try and increase kavalactone content with fertilizer (after 3-5yrs, the soil is pretty exhausted of minerals and nutrients) and by ensuring they get full sun (if they were in shade). IIRC that's based on research by Hawaiian 'ava farmers including the two participating in this very thread

I used to use bio-char all the time in propagating 'awa and it did make a very positive difference-- faster, healthier rooting and shoot growth.
BEI* ran out for awhile and I stopped using but will begin again! Thanks for reminding me. *BEI is Brewer Environmental- a farm supply company.

Awesome! Good to her that biochar works with kava.

 

[kasa_balavu]

Look at that heavy equipment!

A few weeks ago we had a 2014 Cat stolen off of our property. 200 Hours of running time with an air conditioned cab. Let me know if you see any super good deals on them. It might be ours. Seriously though, it's probably in Mexico by now. The audacity of some people is just amazing.

Bugger! Sorry to hear that Kapm. Hope you manage to recover it.