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....
Great start! I look forward to seeing your sachet, along with reading the rest of the blog. Keep up the good work,
ReplyDelete-The Elusive J
Thank you, J!
DeleteAha. The linen cupboard vetiver sachet home-made variety. I'm very impressed - when will we be able to transmit smells digitally?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Catherine, and yeah, it would be wonderful to have olfactory file transfer, wouldn't it? Come on out, you boffins, we need an invention!
ReplyDeleteSo 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.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the freshly harvested vetiver roots must smell fantastic.
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!
ReplyDelete