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Kava Botany mr.sanpedro's Baby Kava Plants

mr.sanpedro

mr.sanpedro

Kava Curious
Hi @ all. My Piper methysticum plants are rotten after 2 Months. I think it was a fungus. The Plants begin to rotten from roots, then the stem and at last the leafs. I can't do anything for the plants. Now I found a nursery in the UK. In the autumn I want to order... growing Kava in Europe isn't easy...
 
Kavajack

Kavajack

Kava Design Connoisseur
Roaddog said:
wow @mr.sanpedro , I must say that is an interesting grow. May I offer a little advice. I may start by saying I own an organic farm. I have also used grow lights, for many projects. LEDs, in the spectrum you have, will work, but notice there are far more red elements than blue. Well the light you use, would be great in a plant that is in its fruiting stage. Such at Tomatoes, or peppers. But your goal is to vegetate. So I would simply add some compact florescence. Maybe a couple 80 watts. 30 watts is not much at all. Actually with one of these, you could do even better. But I know they are not cheap They are called T5 grow lights here is a link to one. , Now I realize this light may be a bit much. Also I see your point, by keeping them in a tote, to try to build up humidity. But, those plant also need plenty of air exchange. I would drill holes in the sides of the totes, so they can breath. Otherwise they will build up too much Oxygen, and not have enough CO2 to feed off of, if that makes sense? Actually I thing I would be using one of these, especially after they get larger http://www.amazon.com/Reflective-Mylar-Hydroponics-Plant-Growing/dp/B00E6CZPJO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409013549&sr=8-1&keywords=grow tent , although again prices may be an issue. If you notice on the grow tent, it has vent holes at the bottom. It would still require a vent fan, to cool the light you use. but you could put the vent fan on a timer. Also you could put a small humidifier, in there to keep humidity high. Please don't think I'm picking your grow apart, far be it. Its an impressive little thing. I just wanted to show you the high tech equipment, for such a grow. Which you already may know. What you have will work for a while. (y) I am curious, about 2 things. Do you also have your set up in front of a window, and using outside light in conjunction, with the grow Light? My next question, would have to do with your user name. Are you into San Pedro cactus? the fastest growing cactus in the world. I just wanted to show you some images, of some, I was cloning. I got all this started off one clipping. I thought maybe you would dig the pic. Much love. Roaddog....
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Really really cool!, I was thinking of growing them myself here in a glasshouse, but all those lights and stuff look way to complicated, best of luck with your Kava! You certainly seem to be doing a good job. Very impressive.
 
mr.sanpedro

mr.sanpedro

Kava Curious
Hi guys, I have new cuttings since last week. Only noble strains from Hawaii.
-Mahakea
-Moi
-Spotted Hiwa

The first week they were in sphagnum moss and since yesterday, they are in Bonsai soil. They are in a small greenhouse. I will update my grow with these strains. I must say, at the moment they grow really fast.
 

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Delicate Drunk

Kava Curious
Hi Mr. Sanpedro, I had good luck growing Hawaiian kava in Seattle. I used a mixture of 50% perlite and 50% vermiculite and grew them in a hydroponic solution indoors. They got pretty big and never rotted. Even the long dark winter didn't seem to phase them. I had them growing for about a year, but then tried to harvest them, which I knew was way too soon, but I did it anyways.
I am not sure if the hydroponic system is ideal for growing lots of roots or not, I just know that the plants were healthy and happy. Also, this mixture was really good for getting the cuttings to sprout. I had almost 100% success rate for that.
My hydroponic system was really simple, with no pumps or anything. It was just the pots with holes in the sides and bottom, sitting in the solution a couple inches deep. I would change the solution once a week.
 
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Delicate Drunk

Kava Curious
The taste was normal, but the root was very immature and small. I am not sure that hydroponics is the best method, but only that the plant seem to be happy, which was more than I had hoped for given that was I trying to grow kava in a such an unlikely place. Early on I gave some of the younger plants to an indoor plant nursery in Seattle, whose owner has a kava farm in Fiji. They transplanted the plants into regular dirt and after a month or so they all died. In Waipio valley, where I took the cuttings from, the plants were growing in extremely wet conditions, basically like a swamp, but somehow the roots didn't rot. So I was hoping that the perlite and vermiculite mixture would allow lots of water contact, but also lots of aeration, which I suppose was part of my success. It may also be that the inherent sterility of the mixture discouraged root rot and stuff like that.
Sorry I don't have any pictures of the plants. This was about 17 years ago.
 
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Bradley666

Bradley666

Kava Enthusiast
looking good! (y) :)
I have been wanting to grow out a few noble kava plants since I started with kava lol..but regardless of where I looked, there nowhere to be found!
I have found a few google searches for 2day kava, but not noble..bouncingbear botanicals sells a few different kava plants, but they have been out of stock for a year it seems lol..
I also sent messages to 3-4 vendors that also had kava plants listed for sale, and I emailed them and didn't hear back from any of them! :(
So for the time being I guess I will have to settle just buying dried kava root ::awesomesmiles:: lol...
I do have a backround in a, growing per say lmao...
I have grown out a few different cultivars over the years, I have a nice grow tent,with a nice set up all around, and a nice LED light that would be perfect for kava growing I think as it has a little more blue in the spectrum then most LED'S ect...fans are a must with any leafy' plant I would say, not only for the C02 but to help sturdy and strengthen the trunk/stem of the plants, Im sure we all know this stuff lol...just brings back memories haha!
I am by no means an expert, just a curious mind looking to venture into new waters? hmmm....
Cannabis is one of the things I got good at growing on a very small scale, I started with a computer tower gutted and fitted with 2-40 watt cfl bubls, computer fans for intake/outtake of air ect...it worked amazingly well for short/mini/ AUTO' plants....after few years of building on ideas, getting my feet wet, and learning...
I eventually took a good portion of a tax refund and bought some good quality growing equipment,but still small scale ect...I stopped messing with photo period plants and
eventually just used "automatic" strains, that are already feminized :) Been a few years and many memories and I am not able to use the tent at the moment in my life,
but would certainly use it for something like growing legal plants such as kava ect ect..
At the moment my green thumb has been seeking out and growing carnivorous plants! I find them fascinating! Sure they don't grow as fast as some other plants,
but there beautiful and fun to watch none the less, At the moment I use a window sill and then when sun goes down I move them to a table where I have a 55 watt CFL bulb over them, it's not much but its enough to supply them with what they need after then sun goes down :)
I have 7 different cultivars of venus flytraps, a nice smaller sized tropical pitcher plant and 1 sundew...all have cool attributes going for them lol...
Right now is the peak of the growing, even though this summer has been my very first time growing them, everything is working out great!
I have a little log for the plants under "off topic" room...entitled carnivorous plants :) will be updating new pics soon!::awesomesmiles::;)(y)
 
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Deleted User01

Very nice pictures and plants. Are you growing those inside? Just protect them in the winter. I lost my Moi in the winter and it was in a non heated greenhouse. It was sick as a child so I wasn't surprised.
 
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Deleted User01

That's awesome. I need to add a cooling system to my Greenhouse for the summer and I could really get the seedlings moving forward. It gets to 100 degrees here but we are going to have cold front that puts us in the low 90s. Just that 8-10 degree drop will do wonders for all my plants and flowers.
What else do you grow in that greenhouse (that you can talk about). ;)
 
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Deleted User01

Very nice @mr.sanpedro. I love gardening. I have 2 veggie gardens and I just finished putting a layer of grass on them to help shield the roots from the sun. I'm trying to be organic and green and waste nothing. I make my own organic fertilizer to my specs as well. But it's mostly outdoors. We have 2 small greenhouses and 1 bigger one and all our potted plants go in their to overwinter. We have tons of elephant ears. Still no heating though but it works pretty good for us. I wish I had a chilled greenhouse for the summer. I do have an indoor growing operation where I start all my flowers (Zinnias, Marigolds, etc). Then I replant them but they ain't liking this 100 degree heat. We did get a cool front today so I'm getting back in gear. It is down to low 90s.
 
mr.sanpedro

mr.sanpedro

Kava Curious
I have a few other plants on my balcony: tomatillo, zea mais japonica, tomarillo, small peach trees, peanut Pumpkins, tomatoes, absinthe. Worm earth works really good as a fertilizer and its organic!
 
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Deleted User01

I need to get some tomatillo. I have serrano, habanero, chile de arbol, tobasco, 5 types of tomatoes, some squash and cukes. Oh, and I think someone is trying to get me to plant some regular jalapeno as well. Oh, we also have Chile Pequin or Petin. We likes ourselves some peppers. :hungry: I'm doing a winter garden this year with carrots and lettuce and a few other things. First time doing a winter garden so we'll see. I did all my veggie plants from seed and I gave a ton of seedlings away to the neighbors. In fact, I have some left for the taking. I have too much shade in my back yard because of the oak trees otherwise I would have them growing around the fence as well.
 
mr.sanpedro

mr.sanpedro

Kava Curious
New pics. The reason of different grow Stadiums is the quality of the stem cuttings and the strain. Some grow better than the other. The largest plant is a hiwa Spotted. Other hiwas are not so large. The smallest plants are the moi's. But moi is a small chemotype.
 

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