Kava FAQ How much does one cultivar vary from same vendor?

[kasa_balavu]

@Krunky I love kava and I love growing kava, but being a vendor of kava grown by others doesn't interest me all that much.
I'd become a vendor if I could get back into farming, but unfortunately I'm no longer located in a part of Fiji were kava can feasibly be grown on a commercial scale.

A downside (for me) of becoming a vendor is that I'd no longer be able to call out vendors who behave badly. That's against the rules here and in any case my arguments wouldn't carry as much weight seeing as I'd be "attacking a competitor".

In any case with KavaTime, KWK, BKH, Squanch and others having great connections with kava growers, there's no shortage of good Fijian available

 

[Groggy]

@Krunky I love kava and I love growing kava, but being a vendor of kava grown by others doesn't interest me all that much.
I'd become a vendor if I could get back into farming, but unfortunately I'm no longer located in a part of Fiji were kava can feasibly be grown on a commercial scale.

A downside (for me) of becoming a vendor is that I'd no longer be able to call out vendors who behave badly. That's against the rules here and in any case my arguments wouldn't carry as much weight seeing as I'd be "attacking a competitor".

In any case with KavaTime, KWK, BKH, Squanch and others having great connections with kava growers, there's no shortage of good Fijian available

I respect that and know where you are coming from, I had once or twice considered selling kava but would also lose the privilege to contribute to our great little corner of the internet here in the way that i do. I admire that through disagreements and/or differences of opinion, we tend to be a unique group of people with a shared common love and the ability to have intelligent discussions despite these occasional differing view points.

 

[Groggy]

This is a very enlightening thread! I wish I could be Joe the farmer!

You can do the next best thing and know Joe the vendor, aka Squanch.

 

[Iahi Gusak]

<<Kava from all other vendors is almost certainly a blend of multiple cultivars. This being the case, variation is inevitable.>>
Yes variation is inevitable, but stating that ALL other vendors... (caps mine) is a very wide net to cast because every company I've ever been involved with has only sold kava by the cultivar, which is tested and determined. The chemotype is a fingerprint comma and you can't get a particular fingerprint from a different cultivar. If a vendor gets the chemotype done on their kava Supply, then they know what cultivar they are selling conclusively. ( and not all vendors do their tests through the AKA)

 

[recentreturn]

<<Kava from all other vendors is almost certainly a blend of multiple cultivars. This being the case, variation is inevitable.>>
Yes variation is inevitable, but stating that ALL other vendors... (caps mine) is a very wide net to cast because every company I've ever been involved with has only sold kava by the cultivar, which is tested and determined. The chemotype is a fingerprint comma and you can't get a particular fingerprint from a different cultivar. If a vendor gets the chemotype done on their kava Supply, then they know what cultivar they are selling conclusively. ( and not all vendors do their tests through the AKA)

This is an old thread, so I'm not sure if its customary to jump on this bandwagon, however...
I am no expert, but based on what I have seen on the GHK website, I don't believe it is true that chemotype is like a fingerprint. Chris used to post the date of harvest, cultivar, and chemotype for various harvests. Within a single cultivar there was definite variance in chemotype. I think your point is accurate that there ARE indeed vendors who sell single cultivars. But I do not think chemotype is a sure way to determine cultivar. I think that usually requires an inspection of the plant as it is growing. Perhaps there is some expensive way to do a DNA test for it, but I don't know about that.
...unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by chemotype as fingerprint coma...
...unless the lawena/waka ratio causes the variability...

 

[kasa_balavu]

stating that ALL other vendors... (caps mine) is a very wide net to cast because every company I've ever been involved with has only sold kava by the cultivar, which is tested and determined.

There is no way to test for cultivar.

The chemotype is a fingerprint comma and you can't get a particular fingerprint from a different cultivar. If a vendor gets the chemotype done on their kava Supply, then they know what cultivar they are selling conclusively.

I'm sorry but this is not true at all.

 

[kastom_lif]

There is no way to test for cultivar.


I'm sorry but this is not true at all.

Agreed. Chemotype can vary by how the plant is grown, its age and the part of the roots you're testing.

Kava growers can identify their kava by how it looks. That's shown in the "morphotype code" above. Zymotype analysis doesn't provide a reliable fingerprint, either.

Quoting from "Kava the Pacific Elixir"...

Zymotypes: A second objective of the kava cultivar survey was to determine whether isozymes could be used to characterize and differentiate cultivars (see Lebot, Aradhya, and Manshardt 1991). Isozymes are proteins synthesized by genes; isozyme polymorphism, or dissimilarity between individuals, serves as a measure of genetic diversity. The survey was designed to determine whether kava morphotypes from different Pacific islands correspond to different isozyme genotypes (zymotypes). The isozyme technique has proved suitable for identifying duplicates in germplasm collections, for ascertaining the genetic fingerprints of cultivars, and for clarifying phylogenetic relationships. The use of isozymic markers can elucidate the evolutionary dynamics that have led to the development of existing kava clones. Isozyme analysis provides an assessment of the degree of genetic diversity within and between P. methysticum and P. wichmannii and helps to trace the human dispersal of clones.

More than 300 leaf samples were electrophoresed and their zymograms analyzed. We found that the specimens of P. wichmannii could be grouped into only seven different zymotypes and P. methysticum cultivars into just three. Significantly, one zymotype includes individuals from both botanical taxa.

A more plausible hypothesis to account for low levels of isozyme variability in P. methysticum is that this taxon consists of sterile clones resulting from human selection of somatic mutants rather than from sexual reproduction, which would have produced a greater diversity of zymotypes. If this hypothesis is valid, then only a few genes are responsible for the morphological and chemical variation in kava. Probably none of these genes are linked with loci that control isozyme markers. Moreover, the domestication of kava was relatively recent and occurred, as we suggest, in Northern Vanuatu.