Last edited on 9 Oct 2019. View history
Kava
Kava
How to sow kava: Root division, stem cuttings
Sun requirement for kava: Plant in Partial Sun
Kava is a perennial plant native to the Pacific tropics that is grown for the medicinal and psychoactive properties of its root. It is in the Piper genus of the Piperaceae family and related to black pepper (Piper nigrum). The plant has heart-shaped leaves and multiple stalks that grow to about 2 m tall. Roots can reach depths of 60 cm and must grow for 4-5 years before they have high enough concentrations of kavalactones to be harvested. Native to the tropics, Kava requires year-round temperatures between 21-35° C, 70-100% relative humidity, and abundant rainfall. It is grown as understory crop and benefits from partial shade. Female flowers are rare and do not produce fruit, even when hand-pollinated, so it must be propagated through root division or stem cuttings. Roots can be used fresh or dried to produce drinks and teas with sedative, anesthetic or euphoriant effects. Kava has been used in the traditional medicine of the South Pacific Island for centuries to treat central nervous system and peripheral disorders.
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Kava facts
Lifespan
Height
200cmCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For kava, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 14°C and a shortest growing cycle of 300 days at its best temperature, about 4350 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your kava will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Piper methysticum Forst. f.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Magnoliidae Piperales Piperaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | shrub |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours) |
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