Vetiver Grass – Plant Propagation

A culm is the stem or stalk of a grass. The vetiver culm is solid, stiff, and hard; it has prominent nodes with lateral buds that can form roots and shoots when exposed to moist conditions. Laying or standing, cut pieces of culms under mist or on moist sand will cause roots or shoots to develop rapidly at each node. Le Van Du, Agro-Forestry University, Ho Chi Minh City, developed the following four-step method of propagating vetiver from cuttings:

• Prepare vetiver cuttings.
• Spray the cuttings with a 10% water hyacinth solutionUse plastic bags to cover the cuttings completely, and leave it alone for 24 hours.
• Dip in clay mud or manure slurry, and plant in a good bed.

Photo 2: Bare root slips ready for planting out (left); being dipped in clay mud or manure slurry (cow tea) (right).

3.2.1 Preparing vetiver cutting

Photo 3: Old tillers (left) and young tillers (right).

Vetiver culms:

Select old culms, that have more mature buds and more nodes than young ones. Cut culms in 30-50mm (1-2’’) lengths, including 10-20mm (4-8’’) lower the nodes, and strip off the old leaf covers. Expect new shoots to emerge about one week after planting.

Vetiver tillers:

• Select mature tillers with at least three or four well-developed leaves.
• Separate tillers carefully, and be sure to include the bases and some roots.

Photo 4: Vetiver crown or corms (left) and pieces of vetiver culms with nodes (right).

Vetiver crown or corms:

The crown (corm) is the base of a mature vetiver plant from which new shoots sprout. Use only the top part of the mature crown.

3.2.2 Preparing water hyacinth solution

Water Hyacinth solution contains many hormones and growth regulators, including gibberellic acid and many Indol-Acetic compounds (IAA). To prepare rooting hormone from Water Hyacinth:

• Remove Water Hyacinth plants from lakes or canals.
• Put plants into 20 litre plastic bag, and tie it closed.
• Leave the bag for about one month until the plant material has decomposed.
• Discard the solid parts and keep only the solution.
• Strain the solution and maintain in a cool place until use.

Photo 5: Spraying cuttings with 10% water hyacinth solution (left) and cover cuttings completely with plastic bags, and leave them for 24 hours (right).

3.2.3 Treatment and planting

3.2.4 Advantages of using bare root slips and culm slips

Advantages:

• Efficient, economic, and a quick way to prepare the planting material.
• Small volume results in lower transportation cost.
• Easy to plant by hand.
• Large numbers can be mechanically planted in large areas.

Disadvantages:

1. Vulnerable to drying and extreme temperatures.
2. Limited on-site storage time.
3. Requires planting in moist soil.
4. Needs frequent irrigation in the first few weeks.
5. Recommended for good nursery sites with easy access to irrigation.

Photo 6: Plant with manure, in a good nursery bed.

3.3 Bud multiplication or micro propagation

Dr. Le Van Be of Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam has developed a very practical and simple method to multiply buds (Lê Van Bé et al, 2006). His protocol consists of four micro-propagation stages, all in liquid medium:

• Inducing lateral bud development.
• Multiplying new shoots.
• Promoting root development on new shoots.
• Promoting growth in shade house or glasshouse.

3.4 Tissue culture

Tissue culture is another way to propagate vetiver planting materials in quantity, using special tissues (root tip, young flower inflorescence, nodal bud tissues) of the vetiver plant. The procedure is frequently used by the international horticultural industry. Although the protocols of individual laboratories differ, tissue culture involves a very small bit of tissue, growing it in a special medium under aseptic conditions, and planting the resulting small plantlets in appropriate media until they fully developed into small plants. More details are found in Truong (2006).

4. PREPARING PLANTING MATERIAL

To increase the establishment rate under hostile conditions, when the plantlets produced by the Upper methods are mature enough or bare root slips are ready, they can be prepared for planting out by:

• polybags or tubestock.
• planting strip.

4.1 Polybags or tube stock

Plantlets and bare root slips are planted in small pots or small plastic bags containing half soil and half potting mix and maintained in the containers for three to six weeks, depending on the temperature. When at least three new tillers (shoots) appear, the plantlets are ready to be planted.