A look-see at Vetiver Grass in Malaysia

1.4

1.4 EFFECT OF CULTIVAR* AND BAG SIZES ON GROWTH

The cultivar used in all the earlier trials was collected from Taiping. Since then, we have made other collections. Those cultivars with enough materials for study and especially for destructive sampling come from Parit Buntar, India, Sabak Bernam, Sabah and Raub. A trial was set up to study the different growth rates of these cultivars and how they are influenced by bag sizes.

At 15 weeks, harvesting was carried out with 10 plants per treatment. Only the 4 smaller of the bag sizes were harvested then as the larger bag sizes of 6" x 13", 7" x 15" and 8" x 12" are considered too large for practical use. There is a decrease in the number of tillers and top dry weight production from the largest bag to the smallest bag. The results are summarised in Table 2. The Indian cultivar is the best performer. It is 30% better than Taiping cultivar in the top dry weight, 13% higher in the root dry weight (Table 3). Overall it was performing 33% better in dry matter production when compared with Taiping cultivar. In the case of Parit Buntar cultivar it was 17% better for the tops.

The topping of the materials for all 7 bag sizes at 40 weeks, suggests that there is not much difference in dry matter production between those raised in 5" x 7" polybags and those in the larger polybags nor with the smaller bag of 4" x 6". But the 3" x 5" polybag produced better tops (Table 4). The Indian cultivar is 69% better and Parit Buntar 23% better than the Taiping cultivar (Table 3).

This is a preliminary trial. Even so, there are clear indications that cultivars like India and Parit Buntar may perform better than Taiping cultivar.

Table 2 EFFECTS OF CULTIVAR AND BAG SIZES (INCH) ON DRY WEIGHT (G) OF TOPS OF VETIVER HEDGEROW AT 15 WEEKS AFTER PLANTING

Cultivar
Tillers count
Mean dry weight (g)

Mean per bag
Tops
Roots
Total

3x5
4x6
5x7
6x9
Mean
3x5
4x6
5x7
6x9
Mean
3x5
4x6
5x7
6x9
Mean
3x5
4x6
5x7
6x9
Mean

India
7.0
8.4
9.6
10.2
8.8
15.3
22.4
25.6
27.4
22.7a
5.1
5.1
7.0
7.1
6.1a
20.4
27.6
32.6
34.5
28.8a

Parit Buntar
5.0
3.8
5.4
6.8
5.3
13.4
13.5
21.5
27.9
19.1b
3.0
2.7
4.1
7.9
4.4b
16.3
16.2
25.7
35.8
23.5b

Taiping
6.4
8.6
7.4
7.4
7.5
12.3
16.5
18.3
18.0
16.3 cd
± 0.79
3.0 5.6
6.1
7.0
5.4a
± 0.24
15.3
22.1
24.4
25.0
21.7b
± 0.96

Sabah
5.4
5.8
8.8
9.6
7.4
11.0
12.0
21.5
27.2
17.9 bc
(2.2)
2.7
3.5
5.8
6.3
4.6 b
(0.7)
13.7
15.5
27.3
33.5
22.5 b
(2.7)

Sabak Bernam
5.8
6.6
7.2
9.2
7.2
10.7
14.6
22.9
23.3
17.9 bc
1.9
2.7
4.3
5.6
3.6 c
12.6
17.3
27.2
29.0
21.5 bc

Raub
6.0
5.6
7.0
7.2
6.5
10.9
11.8
19.3
20.1
15.5d
2.1
2.7
3.5
5.1
3.3 c
13.0
14.5
22.8
25.2
18.9 c

d
c
b
a
d
c
b
a
d
c
b
a

Mean
5.9
6.5
7.6
8.4
12.3
15.2
21.5
24.0
3.0
3.7
5.1
6.5
15.2
18.9
26.7
30.5

± 0.20
(0.6)
± 0.78
(2.2)

Means with same subscript alphabet are not significantly different at P<0.05

TABLE 3 EFFECT OF CULTIVAR ON DRY WEIGHTS OF VETIVER HEDGEROWS

Destructive sampling expressed as percentage of V. ex Taiping Cultivar

	15 weeks (Mean over 4 bag sizes)			40 weeks Tops mean
Cultivar	%Total tillers	% Dry weight		%dry weight
	per bag	Tops	Roots	Total	4 bag sizes	7 bag sizes
India	117	139*	113	133*	157*	169*
Parit Buntar	71	117*	81	108	109	123*
Taiping	100	100	100	100	100	100
Sabah	99	110	85	104	38	46
Sabak Bernam	96	110	67	99	45	52
Raub	87	95	61	87	39	46

Significantly highr than V. ex Taiping cultivar

TABLE 4 EFFECT OF CULTIVAR AND BAG SIZES ON DRY WEIGHT (G) OF TOPS OF VETIVER HEDGEROW AT 40 WEEKS AFTER PLANTING

Bag sizes (inch)	India	Parit Buntar	Taiping	Sabah	Sabah Bernam	Raub	Mean
8 x 12	120.4#	85.3	56.3	35.1	34.1	30.7	60.3 a
7 x 15	97.7	76.9	63.7	27.9	34.6	29.3	55.0 ab
6 x 13	87.3	73.1	45.7	30.7	33.6	30.0	50.1 b
6 x 9	86.4	64.1	40.6	27.5	33.5	30.1	47.0 b	± 3.93
5 x 7	111.5	78.2	56.0	19.6	29.3	22.5	52.8 ab	(11.4)
4 x 6	82.9	48.6	56.8	18.7	19.2	17.6	44.0 bc
3 x 5	62.7	48.1	45.8	17.8	17.2	15.9	34.6 c
Mean	a	b	c	d	d	d
	92.7	67.8	55.0	25.3	28.8	25.2	49.1
			± 3.64	(10.5)

Notes: 1. Cutback at 20 cm height

# One sample only because the rest were used for further multiplication of this promising cultivar. However, statistical analysis excluding this bag size also gave similar result.

Means with same subscript alphabet are not significantly different a P<0.05