Vol 3. – Apr 2025

Having worked in Thailand for 23 years, I was always inspired by how the former King of Thailand transformed vast stretches of wasteland into green belts using vetiver. That story stayed with me. Later, when Mr. P. N. Subramanian explained the many benefits of vetiver in detail, it reignited my interest, and I decided to give it a try myself.

I agreed to a project proposed by a supplier, which involved growing vetiver in pipes — a minimum of 100 pipes. The cost offered on 9th March 2024 was Rs. 30,000, which was supposed to cover everything: 100 pipes each 6 feet long and 4.5 inches in diameter, 100 kg of cocopeat, 50 kg of enhanced compost, 1.5 liters of enzyme, 100 vetiver slips, and project supervision during installation. However, what I received were 100 pipes that were only 5 feet long and 4 inches in diameter, along with the promised materials, but no supervision was provided. I had to do the entire installation myself, following only the supplier’s instructions. Including training, travel, and labor, my total cost came to around Rs. 45,000.

The supplier had promised a yield of 2.5 to 3 kg per pipe within three months. According to them, harvesting 250 kg and selling it at a minimum price of Rs. 160 per kg would help recover the investment quickly. Motivated by this, I went ahead and planted the vetiver slips in two batches — the first batch of 17 slips on 24th June 2024 and the second batch of 83 slips on 25th July 2024. Some slips were dried when they arrived, which delayed the process as I had to reorder and replant.

I finally harvested the mature vetiver on 12th April 2025, almost 9 to 10 months after planting. It became clear to me that the three-month timeline initially promised would never have been enough. Harvesting was extremely labor-intensive work. Out of the 100 pipes, I harvested 98, as two of the slips had dried off. From all the pipes combined, I managed to get just around 5 to 6 kilograms of vetiver roots — a result far lower than the 250 kg initially projected.

To understand the yield issue better, I weighed 940 grams of harvested roots and tried to estimate how much could realistically fit inside a 4-inch diameter, 5-foot-long pipe. Even stuffing half of that amount into one pipe would be a tight fit, leaving no room for the red soil, cocopeat, and compost mixture needed for growth. My logical conclusion is that a fully grown vetiver plant in such a pipe would yield only around 40 to 60 grams, and achieving even 100 grams would be a major success.

Another point worth noting is that the harvested roots had only a very mild vetiver fragrance. As someone pointed out in our group discussions, such roots might be suited for handicrafts rather than products where a strong aroma is essential. This could make it harder to find buyers expecting strongly scented roots.

Today, what I am left with is about 6 kilograms of vetiver roots, approximately 900 slips of vetiver that I now plan to plant around my land, 100 unused pipes, and a loss of about Rs. 45,000 — not including the hard work and time my family and I invested.

Despite the outcome, I remain positive. I plan to use the vetiver to enhance the fertility of my land instead of chasing commercial returns. Sometimes, the journey teaches more than the destination, and I am grateful for the lessons learned.

A couple of weeks ago, we harvested vetiver grown in about 100 pipes on our land. Each grow bag yielded about 3 kilograms of roots — in total, just around 5 to 6 kilograms. Initially, we were promised yields of 250 to 300 kilograms, but that didn’t materialize.

When you actually look at it, trying to fit enough vetiver roots into two 50-kilogram capacity grow bags to get even 3 kilograms of harvest feels like pushing the limits. Achieving 8 kilograms would be even more unrealistic — more of a pipe dream, quite literally.

This experience really highlighted for us the practical challenges of growing vetiver in confined spaces like pipes, compared to open field cultivation.

India Vetiver Foundation’s Recommendation – P. N. Subramanian
For anyone considering growing vetiver in pipes or grow bags, we strongly recommend starting with a small pilot project. Use 10 to 20 bags and purchase all inputs directly from the market. Carefully monitor and study the outcomes — including root development, yield, and overall plant health — before scaling up. This approach will give you a realistic understanding of the process, costs, and expected returns.