Young kava grows best in partial shade with lots of mulch... basically a forest environment. Once they grow older though, more sun is beneficial so normally one thins out the shade trees as the kava grows. By the third year they won't mind full sun and can thrive in such conditions so long as there is sufficient rainfall and low wind.
one thing for sure, the kava needs to be spaced out
Yup in Eua the traditional way to grow in a new lot is to burn the trees first to kill it, then plant kalo and Kava together for the first year. The Kalo helps keep weeds away from the young plants. The dead trees provide the partial shade. Older Kava fields will look wide open with a few old dead trees remaining as they were burned a longer time ago. With such little land on these islands it is an issue to think about....you can never grow enough Kava but at the same time you want to protect native rainforests that house native animals like the Koki Parrot.
To put that in perspective, that is roughly the same size as the near-Earth asteroid 1036 Ganymed
Haha ya screw finding an asteroid filled with diamonds, how about one filled with hundreds of new Kava cultivars
Can anyone guess what is the predominant kavalactone in the picture above, you can use the picture below for a guide.Yes! New cultivars that are 99% kavalactone content:
