Vetiver Plants - Plant Kits

Efficient system for soil conservation and erosion management

Vetiver is a low cost and efficient plant, used in nearly 100 countries, for soil and water conservation, infrastructure stabilization, pollution control, waste water treatment, mitigation, and prevention of storm damage and many other applications. This plant is the main component to all Vetiver System bioengineering and conservation applications.

The plant is unique. It can be used in the tropics and semi-tropics, and areas that have a Mediterranean type climate where there are hot summers, and winters are temperate. In the United States, Vetiver is adapted to the USDA hardiness zones 9 and above.

This cultivated variety of Chrysopogon zizanioides, with its center of origin in southern India, has hydrophytic characteristics, but thrives under upland non-wetland conditions. The very basis of the Vetiver System is that when Vetiver is planted as a hedgerow across a slope, it forms a very dense barrier that slows down and spreads rainfall runoff.  Pretty simple!!  Then combine this with a very deep and strong root system (average tensile strength 1/6 of mild steel), a wide range of pH tolerance from about pH 3 to pH 11, a high tolerance to most heavy metals, an ability to remove from soil and water large quantities of excess nitrates, phosphates and farm chemicals, and an attribute of sterility and non-invasiveness, we have a plant that, with some modifications to its application, can be used for soil and water conservation, engineered construction site stabilization, pollution control (constructed wetlands), and most other uses where soil and water come together.