Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Vetiver Harvest

First (very small) Vetiver Harvest!

My little 8" bundle of vetiver plants from Alberto at Agriflora Tropicals is now about 4 feet tall and 6 months old! The poor plants were becoming quite rootbound, so I felt it was time to divvy then up, put some in the garden to grow freely, and the others in a bigger pot with fresh soil. I didn't want to kill any part of the plant in order to harvest the fragrant roots, and the roots are too young yet, anyway. Or so I thought.

But there were so many roots at the bottom of the pot that I had to trim them off while repotting, so I rinsed them and dried them. Young though they are, they smell fabulous! Real vetiver, hard to beat that in the summer heat. I'll be making a sachet out of these....

6 comments:

  1. Great start! I look forward to seeing your sachet, along with reading the rest of the blog. Keep up the good work,
    -The Elusive J

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  2. Aha. The linen cupboard vetiver sachet home-made variety. I'm very impressed - when will we be able to transmit smells digitally?

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  3. Thanks, Catherine, and yeah, it would be wonderful to have olfactory file transfer, wouldn't it? Come on out, you boffins, we need an invention!

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  4. So cool that you're growing vetiver and harvesting it! I'm going to have to look into the hardiness of Chrysopogon and Cymbopogon and think about getting a patch of them going. I'd especially like to grow African bluegrass, which is distantly related to vetiver.

    I'm sure the freshly harvested vetiver roots must smell fantastic.

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  5. Yes, fresh vetiver is different, it's got a sharp, herbal top, and fresh dirt notes floating over the vetiver scent we're used to. Only lasts a couple hours, but yum!

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