The Hawaii 'Awa Council

[Bula Kava House]

@Kavafied the first one in that link looks like a steal (split a kava farm with me?)! Some of the others are $50,000 to $100,000 an acre, which is cheap for Hawaii standards but still a pretty penny. I know one issue with Big Island land is that much of it is too new and doesn't have the soil to grow deep rooting plants like kava. Of course that depends on the area.

 

[Kavafied]

@Kavafied the first one in that link looks like a steal (split a kava farm with me?)! The others are $50,000 to $100,000 an acre, which is cheap for Hawaii standards but still a pretty penny. I know one issue with Big Island land is that much of it is too new and doesn't have the soil to grow deep rooting plants like kava. Of course that depends on the area.

great deal if it is kava farming worthy, it would be sweet to do....(haha sure why not if the ROI is worth it) now to find an army to work that much land and then another army to protect it from theft

 

[Kavafied]

@Kavafied the first one in that link looks like a steal (split a kava farm with me?)! Some of the others are $50,000 to $100,000 an acre, which is cheap for Hawaii standards but still a pretty penny. I know one issue with Big Island land is that much of it is too new and doesn't have the soil to grow deep rooting plants like kava. Of course that depends on the area.

it'll be like the modern day version of oil prospecting...find a lot, but drill for soil depth instead lol

 

[verticity]

Isn't the American Kava Association a supportive organization too? I went into this forum at the AKA website to do a meet and greet but everything was in Chinese. Either that or I need the special decoding glasses that only members get. In reality, the Kava Forums is the number 1 Kava support organization in the world and @Kapmcrunk and his minions do an excellent job of providing support and protecting us from bad kava.

LOL. If you translate that it is some spammer selling fake diplomas and certificates. I laugh because I got a similar spammer on my little forum one time, except mine posted in English. ... my first and only spammer ...

 

[Kavafied]

Anyone?

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

Anyone?

1st pic looks like 3 different cultivars, maybe it's a mutation! The long black parts make me think Hiwa or 'Opihikao.
2nd pic, long green and heavily spotted reminds me of Nene...but there might be others that are similar.

 

[Bula Kava House]

Opihikao?

 

[Bula Kava House]

I don't know how common it is for Hawaiian kava farmers, but in other kava growing regions they'll often put two or three plant starts in the same hole. They may have done that here.

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

Opihikao?

Some people call it 'Spotted Hiwa', judging from the few times I've had it, it's one of my favorite Hawai'ian cultivars.

 

[Bula Kava House]

Some people call it 'Spotted Hiwa', judging from the few times I've had it, it's one of my favorite Hawai'ian cultivars.

Lol, I wasn't asking what Opihikao was, I was saying that it might be Opihikao, but I wasn't sure.

 

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

Anyone?

Those are somatic mutations, he needs to take a cutting and propagate it to see if the mutation holds.
I have a few mutations that I have growing to see if the mutations hold, if they do hold then we might possibly have a new kava. Very exciting. Is that from Puu Ala farms in Honokaa area, if so Zack should know about the mutations.
Aloha.

Chris

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

Lol, I wasn't asking what Opihikao was, I was saying that it might be Opihikao, but I wasn't sure.

Maybe if I wasn't six shells deep on Nangol that would have been clearer to me.

I have spoken to some Hawaiian farmers before that questioned me on if that was really a Hawaiian cultivar.

 

[Alia]

1st pic looks like 3 different cultivars, maybe it's a mutation! The long black parts make me think Hiwa or 'Opihikao.
2nd pic, long green and heavily spotted reminds me of Nene...but there might be others that are similar.

Here is an Opihikao from my yard...it often has the striation and will quickly go all dark with more growth. As Chris said, true mutations will hold their change.
I have only one, for certain, which came from a Nene. It has been featured on the Forums before. The black/green vertical is not uncommon and often shows up from Honokane Iki but none of mine have ever held.

 

[PapaMoi]

So when the article talked about 'microchips', was it referring to embedding them in kava plants to track them if they are stolen?

 

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

So when the article talked about 'microchips', was it referring to embedding them in kava plants to track them if they are stolen?

Yes, that is correct. We got funding for the micro chips and the scanner. Then several people including me would go and hike into the forests and valley's to put the micro chips in the kava and then take the coordinates and description of the kava, this was the fun part. Some of the kava was hrs into the forest and sometimes we would repel down the side of what seemed like a 1000 foot valley wall to get to the kava below.
We also did a press release telling of our new technology and that also helped, the poachers would wonder does this kava plant have a micro chip?
If it did they would run the risk of getting caught and since the value of kava was high and they would take truck loads, hundreds of pounds of kava this brought the value of the stolen product to a high enough point that they could be charged with a higher crime due to the value.
Most poachers did not want to take this chance. Aloha nui loa.

Chris

 

[verticity]

Yes, that is correct. We got funding for the micro chips and the scanner. Then several people including me would go and hike into the forests and valley's to put the micro chips in the kava and then take the coordinates and description of the kava, this was the fun part. Some of the kava was hrs into the forest and sometimes we would repel down the side of what seemed like a 1000 foot valley wall to get to the kava below.
We also did a press release telling of our new technology and that also helped, the poachers would wonder does this kava plant have a micro chip?
If it did they would run the risk of getting caught and since the value of kava was high and they would take truck loads, hundreds of pounds of kava this brought the value of the stolen product to a high enough point that they could be charged with a higher crime due to the value.
Most poachers did not want to take this chance. Aloha nui loa.

Chris

So, wait, did you ever actually get an alert that one of the kava plants had grown legs and you had to go chase it down? Or was it enough that there was a deterrent?

 

[The Kap'n]

sometimes we would repel down the side of what seemed like a 1000 foot valley wall to get to the kava below.

If these are the lengths you go to tag individual plants...I'd hate to see how determined poachers can be.

 

[PapaMoi]

So, wait, did you ever actually get an alert that one of the kava plants had grown legs and you had to go chase it down? Or was it enough that there was a deterrent?

That is the same question I was just asking myself, verticity!

 

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

So, wait, did you ever actually get an alert that one of the kava plants had grown legs and you had to go chase it down? Or was it enough that there was a deterrent?

Thankfully because of the press release and how it stated the sever crime they could be charged with as well as the Hawaiian Kupuna enacting the Kapu system this all seemed to work very well. Aloha.

Chris

 

[PapaMoi]

Chris in the article talking about trekking into the forests for miles to find kava plants reminded me of the story of the land of El Dorado, the City of Gold. It sounds awesome, like hunting for kava treasure.