Vetiver weediness and Eucalyptus
Jacky Foo
>I think adding Vetiver grass with our own hands ill be dangerous ,
>this will propagate as a weed and difficult to control.
Vetiver weediness and Eucalyptus.
Submitted by Dick Grimshaw on Tue, 17/07/2007 - 14:45.
Vetiver grass is not classified as a weed in the Sub-continent. There are two types of vetiver. The northern vetiver Khus Khus - found in north India and Pakistan - this is has fertile seeds, but is still propagated by division, and the south Indian type used by the aromatic oil industry which often has no seeds, and when it does produce seeds that are sterile. In the indus basin there is a grass called "Khans" - this is very invasive and may be mistaken for vetiver grass
On the issue of using Eucalyptus. Research in Australia, see http://www.vetiver.com/ICV4-ppt/BA05-PP.pdf would indicate that compared to vetiver grass Eucalyptus is a very poor user of nitrogen and phosphate. Eucalyptus phosphate use is 15kg/ha/year compared to Vetiver 149 kg/ha /year; and for nitrogen vetiver can utilise 1140 kg/ha compared to 90 kg/ha/year for Eucalyptus. Thus if the object is to remove high levels of N and P from waste water eucalyptus is not high on the list of suitable plants.
Dick Grimshaw
Jacky Foo
+++++++
Type of Vetiver
Submitted by M P Singh on Sat, 21/07/2007 - 13:49.
Dear Liaquat,
I can tell you in the Indian context. When I was in the same
predicament, I consulted several people. I was under heavy pressure,
firstly trying to convince the State of Punjab that Vetiver is a
candidate and the best one at that. I finally contacted Dr. Lavania,
who Dick has already named in his postings. Dr. Lavania Directs the
CIMAC ( Central Innstitute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants) who told
me in no uncertain words that I should only use the South Indian
Variety. All varieties growing above the Ganges are invasive and
profusely seeding. Geographically, your area is not too different from
our Punjab. I would presume that the variety in Islamabad would also
be the same.
Though it is an important plant of our continent, we have failed to go
deep into it. The same happened in the case of neem and several other
things I need not go into.
I was, ofcourse, lucky that Dick and his team, had worked in Punjab on
Vetiver 20 years ago and knew what is where. They have burnt their
fingers with this variety. He was here for several years.
As I write, I am fighting with some of the departments of the
Government who are trying to impose the wrong variety on the project.
You never know that this might become a battle ground for the showdown
between varieties!!!
I am sure, your plans are not limited to the present location. I would
suggest that you follow the simplest model wherever you have existing
pond and village common land ( Shaam Laat).
1) Restructure/dig a pond/ponds for 1-2 day's HRT, keeping the depth
at about 1 1/2 meters. Grow vetiver near the edges and on the slopes
of the pond.
2) Make floats like the one's shown by Jacky Foo's posting taken from
one of the papers by Paul T. You can keep them at about 1.25X1.25
meters. In Australia etc the use larger floats as they lug them around
Mechanically.
3) Take this effluent and leave it to flow in the open tract of land,
which should be planted with Vetiver.
Paul please find time to correct me and overrule me wherever you think
something is amiss.
Your expense will be almost negligible. At least you will know that it
works.
Find out the laws of import of planting material from India and I can
send you the necessary planting material that I am growing for the
Holy Bein and th Buddha Nala Project in Punjab India.
Altenatively, hop across to Amritsar, I will pick you up. You can
visit us and we can have discussions and maybe do online conferencing
withDick and Paul and also others in India.
Regards,
M.P. Singh
Jacky Foo
+++++
Vetiver as Forage: benefit to operator/worker
Submitted by M P Singh on Sun, 22/07/2007 - 05:47.
There was the general impression in India that cattle do not graze
Vetiver. I have not seen cattle grazing the Jungle variet growing in
our area.
But I would like to tell you my experience at the nursery I have put
up. There are a lot of wild animals like deer, barasingha, wild boar
wild goats and also local people's cows. Initially I had not catered
for any fencing. As the greening of the vetiver started, these animals
started coming in. Before they could do any damage, I fenced the
area.
I had instructed the workers to harvest the foliage every few days and
to use the foliage for mulching. I went there today as we have to plan
despatch of the tillers to the project site. I found that despite
several harvests, there was no trace of the foliage anywhere. It
appears, the workers are taking it home and giving it to their cattle.
They report that the cattle have very easily adapted themselves to
vetiver as part of their daily meal.
I was there at the nursery yesterday and went to the place where the
workers were feeding their own domestic cattle. They had mixed it with
hay and the cattle were enjoying it.
With the uptake of neutrients from the sewage in your case, the growth
will be particularly rapid and the harvest will be more frequent.
Moreover, there are other uses of Vetiver as well, like handicrafts
etc. Yesterday, i received this from Dick Grimshaw:
"Thanks to the generosity of the Amberstone Trust and in cooperation
with the Women Weavers of India and the Thai Royal Development
Projects we were able to send two Indian ladies to Thailand for
training in vetiver handicrafts. They are now back in India getting
ready to train others."
Sorghum is no doubt a better material but not a better material for
effluent treatment. If used for this, where will Sorghum store the
harmful ingredients? Hope not in the foliage. Paul and Grimshaw would
be better people to give this input.
So, Vetiver is an effective and self sustaining option.
Regards,
M. P. Singh
Jacky Foo
++++++
Vetiver grass - Vetiveria ziz
Submitted by Dick Grimshaw on Mon, 23/07/2007 - 15:42.
Vetiver grass - Vetiveria zizanioides (south Indian cultivar) is FULLY
TESTED and PROVEN, under climatic conditions similar to yours, at
field scale to remove more nutrients and heavy metals from effluent
than other plants. In addition it will grow and survive where other
plants including trees will not. Vetiver hedgerows grown as a buffer
along river, canal, and drain banks will not only reduce effluent
seepage into such water conveyances but will also stabilize the banks,
provide forage, and materials for thatch, mulch, fuel, and
handicrafts. Additionally because of its massive root system and rapid
growth rate, where water and effluent is present, it sequesters high
amounts of carbon. This plant is a WIN WIN plant.
Vetiver grass does the same thing when designed as a special purpose
constructed wetland - in such cases the design (relating to size) must
match the expected effluent inflows. This is where the Australian
model MEDLI can be very helpful.
It is a fallacy that trees will prevent erosion on stream banks. If
you look closely they do not. If you want to grow trees along side a
river plant them back from the river bank, and grow vetiver grass
between the trees and the riverbank. It is even a greater fallacy to
think that tree roots will reduce the high nutrient loads in effluent.
The Vetiver System is the least cost solution, its cost, relative to
hard solutions, is related to the cost of labor. In Pakistan labor is
low cost, so you can do a lot with $10,000 if you use vetiver grass.
Once you have decided on a design, (Vertiver "reedbed" type flow
through system, large communal vetiver wetland, micro vetiver wetland
at outflow of septic tank, or just stream bank buffer and
stabilization) you need to order good quality plant material
(M.P.Singh can help you here), create a nursery and multiply the
plants. (1ha of irrigated nursery can produce over 400,000 vetiver
slips per year - enough to plant 41km of vetiver hedgerow each year -
this would protect about 10km of river bank - or provide sufficient
plant material for 5 ha of vetiver wetland). I doubt that you will
need such large amounts. Once you have a good supply from your vetiver
nursery you can start working on your effluent control project.
Under your conditions where maintenance is generally not very good I
would choose a plant that is tough, resilient and does the job
effectively. Vetiver (south Indian cultivar will do this) Other plants
suggested such as sorghum, eucalyptus, will not work either in the
short or long term, and your project will fail.
As I have mentioned nearly all the information you require, including
images, can all be found on the Vetiver Network website at http://www.vetiver.org
Dick Grimshaw
Irfan Ullah
As per the situation in Pakistan, the trees and wood are much more valuable commodities for people. It is particularly true for people living in big cities like Islamabad where the need for fodder is felt very rare. If it is a fast growing tree species that can generate some income from timber in say 6-7 years, it may a good incentive for people surrounding the area. Tree species like Poplar, Willow and Eucalypts can do this job very nicely. As compared to Eucalypt, the timber value of Poplar and Willow is much much more. The timber of these tree species is used in sports industry, match manufacturing, furniture, paqcking crates and light paneling. The eucalypt timber is not desirable for most of the people for industrial uses, and find use only for burning as fire wood where it is graded low quality firewood.
Hence, if it is agreeable that efficiency of the system should not be the question at beginning, these types of tree species would be more favourable.
regards
irfan ullah
Dick Grimshaw
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Jacky Foo
++++++
Submitted by Jacky Foo on Tue, 24/07/2007 - 06:49.
Thanks Dick G .....for these useful tips:
>If you want to grow trees along side a river plant
>them back from the river bank, and grow vetiver
>grass between the trees and the riverbank.
>....1ha of irrigated nursery can produce over
>400,000 vetiver slips per year - enough to plant
>41km of vetiver hedgerow each year -
>this would protect about 10km of river bank
>- or provide sufficient plant material for
>5 ha of vetiver wetland.
>.....where maintenance is generally not very good
>I would choose a plant that is tough, resilient
>and does the job effectively. ......
>Other plants suggested such as sorghum, eucalyptus,
>will not work either in the short or long term,
>and your project will fail.
Q: If the tough, resilient south Indian cultivar of Vetiver is not
maintained (just left unattended for years), does it show poor green
growth after a few years ?
Q: is there a stage when Vetiver stops growing ? (if foliage/biomass
is not cut or eaten by animals)
-----
Jacky Foo
http://www.iobbnet.org
Jacky Foo
++++++
sourcing of plants for CWL
Submitted by Hanns Pitot on Tue, 24/07/2007 - 14:50.
Plenty of testing to do, Liaqat... I think four compartments in your
CWL may be way too little... There is another genus that I noticed:
Schoenoplectus (formerly Scirpus) - plants similar to the rushes and
known for weaving mats, etc. They may thus also have commercial
applications. I hope I got it right, since I can't quite decipher my
own handwriting!
What you are writing about canna, Jacky, sounds interesting - was it
in Uganda? If I ever need help with this kind of things, I'll have to
contact you!
I agree with you that looks plays an important part, at least within
residential areas. Ideally you'd make a mix, say papyrus in the
middle, surrounded by cat tail and canna and smaller species like
rushes and vetiver grass on the outside - I wonder how that would be
working!
Just to make sure we got them all:
Grasses: Vetiveria, Phragmites
Typha (cat tail)
Canna
Cyperus papyrus
Schoenopectus (bulrush)
Juncus (rush)
Hanns-André Pitot
Jacky Foo
Source: http://www.iobbnet.org/drupal/node/view/970#comment-3332
++++++++
Vetiver maintenance
Submitted by Dick Grimshaw on Tue, 24/07/2007 - 18:10.
In response to Jacky's questions:
(1) If vetiver is not managed, i.e. cut, it will continue growing for
years, but at a slower pace. The plants will contain more dead leaf
and stem compared to a "managed" plant. In practice, particularly in
low income countries, vetiver is nearly always "managed" even in an
adhoc way. There are plenty of poor people who will willingly cut
vetiver for forage, paper, thatch, mulch etc. Under managed cutting,
and cutting is important if vetiver CWLs are to be efficient, every 4
- 6 weeks, vetiver growth and biomass production will be phenomenal in
the order of 100 tons dry matter per ha/annum. a rather valuable
harvest!! In Fiji there are vetiver hedgerows that are 50 years old
and still growing.
(2)vetiver growth will slow down in winter months if soil temperature
falls below 12ºC, otherwise it will never stop growing, new roots and
leaf material is constantly being produced, this is especially so if
sediment builds up behind the hedgerow, in which case vetiver quickly
produces new growth higher up the plant to keep inline with the soil
build up.
Dick Grimshaw
Jacky Foo
+++++++++
Vetiver v Phragmites
Submitted by Dick Grimshaw on Tue, 24/07/2007 - 18:38.
see these links:
"http://www.vetiver.com/ICV3-Proceedings/TAN%20_wastewater.pdf"
"http://www.vetiver.com/AUS_ekeshire01.pdf"
"http://www.vetiver.com/ICV3-Proceedings/CHN_pigwaste.pdf"
"http://www.vetiver.com/PRVN_wastewater_bul.pdf"
"http://www.vetiver.com/ICV3-Proceedings/AUS_indus_wastewater.pdf"
Dick Grimshaw
Jacky Foo
++++++++
constructed wetland: maintenance
Submitted by Jacky Foo on Wed, 25/07/2007 - 19:08.
To Liaqat Hayat
Q: what are your plans on the maintenance of the CWL ?
Q: who will do it and how will costs be covered ?