Vetiver Multiplication, a word of advice.

The conduction of the vetiver nursery, makes arise some necessities: the first is to obtain good quality live material free from weeds and runners, the second is to have compact plants, easy to cut and uniform all the way through.

Vetiver grows through basal buds, its growth starts from the formation of the gems around the outer ring of the planted material.

Planting vetiver material,  the main concern will have to regard the dimensions of the live material: when the number of tillers is too great, problems will arise in a second moment. Especially if the planting operation is conducted in the winter time.

The live material will pass its energy to the root system favouring the formation of a deep root system that will give indipendance to the plant in the dry season.

After that, it will die.

This energy, also, will give in the spring time a new breed of basal buds around the outer ring of the material planted in the first place.

Within a couple of years, the dead material at the center of the plant will rot and if the live material was too big in the first place, the plant will be empty at its center and runners will colonize it. In the long run other essences will shade the plant and this will die.

Therefore: it is a good rule of thumb not to transplant direcly big clumps but always divide them in 3-5 tiller propagations which will grow well even if transplanted in the winter time, avoiding then to have an empty plant like the one in the picture above.