Not Every Vetiver Job Needs a Hedge
A new quick-reference sheet on choosing the right layout — and a request for corrections A farmer has a patch of low, wet ground where only rice will grow. He plants a contour hedge across it, because a hedge is…
Water First — Think Water, Then Erosion
The Vetiver and Water foundation note — and why the order matters Ask most people what vetiver does and they will say it stops erosion. That is true, and it is the wrong place to start. Everything a vetiver hedge…
The Hedge that Builds Itself
A reader’s guide to the Vetiver Hedge Mechanisms standard, for members who do not build slopes for a living Our design standard guide Vetiver Hedge Mechanisms now runs to a hundred pages and eighteen annexes, and parts of it are…
NEWSLETTER (NL2026-07): A Harder Look – Vetiver Design Standards – Guides – Updates and Revisions
The following standards and guides have been corrected and updated: D4 – VGT – Microbial Root Dips for Vetiver Establishment v3 D5 – VGT – Vetiver and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF): Soil Health, Water, and Nutrient Transfer v3 D6- VGT…
One Grass, Three Jobs: A Trilogy on Vetiver’s Living Functions
For most of its working life, vetiver has been valued as an “engineer”. It holds slopes, slows runoff, traps sediment, drains waterlogged ground, and treats decontaminated water and land . That reputation is deserved and thoroughly documented. But the same…
Vetiver Against Stem Borers: One Simple Rule Decides Where It Travels
Vetiver Against Stem Borers: One Simple Rule Decides Where It Travels In the paddy fields of Zhejiang, China, a quiet revolution in rice pest management has been running for more than a decade. Farmers plant rows of vetiver grass along…
Reading the Land from Space – A Compendium on Satellite Imagery and Field Evidence for the Vetiver System
Reading the Land from Space — A Compendium on Satellite Imagery and Field Evidence for the Vetiver System Guide to the seven documents, and the order to read them This compendium brings together what a land-restoration program can and cannot…
NEWSLETTER (NL2026-06): Attention: wine industry, Vetiver’s shifting climatic range, Hedging Bets: Sequestration vs. Storage Reality
On hikes that passed through wine-producing regions in Europe, scenes like those pictured below prompted thinking about how the Vetiver System could benefit vineyard owners around the world. Wine grapes want slopes – for drainage, for sun, for the cool…
NEWSLETTER (NL2026-05): The $3 Revolution: Proving What Vetiver + AMF Can Really Do at Scale
This might be the most important post I write this year, and I'm going to be direct about why: We have something potentially extraordinary in our hands—a Vetiver- Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) partnership that research suggests could deliver 70-85% nematode...
FIVE STUDIES. 1,300 FARMERS. THE QUESTIONS NOBODY ASKED
THE VETIVER ADOPTION PARADOX Understanding Why Farmers Don’t Use What They Know Works Part of the Global Farmer Demonstration Program series Introduction This post builds on our recent article Become a Farmer-Researcher: Six Vetiver System Models to Transform Your Farm,…