saffron - Crocus Sativus

[12540dumont]

Happy New Year, you all.

Do any of you grow this? I'm thinking of putting in a 50 foot bed in late Summer. I pulling out the strawberries, and I believe this would bed would be perfect for crocus.

I would rather purchase or trade from someone here on HG.

Love to hear of any experience growing this.

[raymondo]

I grow some in a pot, just for fun really. They appear in autumn and flower almost immediately, if they flower. So far, I have lifted the bulbs when the tops die down late spring and stored them inside until they start to sprout again in autumn. They multiply rapidly in the pot. Not sure how the professional growers do it. I think they leave them in the ground and divide every few years.

[ferdzy]

I did put a few in once. They were promptly eaten by squirrels. All crocuses (croci?) are squirrel food, but apparently the autumn flowering ones are gourmet squirrel food, for foodie squirrels. Got any squirrels?

[steev]

Squirrel stuffed with saffron rice and baked; sublime! The only hard part is getting the little beggars to eat the rice.

[12540dumont]

Squirrels are just rats in trees. This is why I have no walnuts. Just before xmas eve I gathered my nuts (no Dar no). However, I forgot the basket on the back table. Today I saw the derned squirrels taking the nuts out of the basket and running off with them.

Err!

[steev]

While back, I read an article somewhere about folks (in Kentucky, I think) eating a fair amount of squirrel. The focus of the article was the popularity of squirrel heads, for the brains, and the emerging possibility of the existence of a "mad squirrel" prion disease. I never quite got settled on whether this was real or a put-on. I guess I put it in the "ferret-legging" file. Anybody got a clue?

I'm sure those "thieving" squirrels were just reclaiming what you'd "stolen" from "their" trees.

[templeton]

Holly,
I've been trying with saffron for a decade or so now. There is a bit on the net about it, sorry, no links.
Here, saffron bulbs available in nurseries are expensive - $2-$3 each, and small, maybe 1cm across. These are baby daughter bulbs.
I did finally get some big bulbs, about 3 cm across.

So, early autumn plant the big bulbs nice and deep - 10 cm or so, tho some sources suggest deeper. The leaves will emerge fairly quickly, and so will the flower buds. On some plants the flowers emerge first, closely followed by the thin leaves. My guess is they don't like competition, since the leaves are so fine.
After putting on growth the mother bulb is used up, and a number of daughter bulbs perhaps 6 or 7 form around where it was. The number of bulbs is influenced by planting depth, the deeper the planting the more flowers and less daughter bulbs formed. The bulbs slowly rise through the soil profile year on year, thus for commercial flower production the fields are replanted every 4-5 years, - replanting at depth to increase the flower production.

My bulbs have declined in size since i got my first commercial quality bulbs - obviously I'm not doing something right. I get lots of small daughters, and a few flowers. The little bulbs don't flower very much.
A few years ago I put in a permanent bed, to see if my annual lifting was the problem. Results not yet in.

The real trick to quality saffron, once you get them to flower, is the drying process. There was some great research done in Tasmania on this a few years ago. This was funded by the emerging saffron industry there, so they were light on detail, wanting to maintain commercial advantage. But the research was conducted by a PhD student who I presume was required to publish, so with a bit reading between the lines you could extract some good info.
There are two desirable bits to saffron in culinary use - color and aroma/flavour. Some of the saffron quality testing rates saffron on color intensity alone, but for me it's the aroma bits that I want. There is a bit of complex biochemistry going on in the flavor department, but my interp of the research is that a number of the flavor components arise from the heating process itself. The Tassie research indicated that wet heat at around 80C for 20 minutes or so maximised the conversion of the flavor precursors to the desirable flavor components. This is then followed by a short period of dry heat at 80C - 90C to fix the saffron for storage. I've tried this with trays of water in the oven, and a meat thermometer to monitor heat, but I can't get the same quality as good commercial material. Could be my material, could be my process.

There are a number of traditional techniques for drying saffron, from solar/air drying, to ovens to charcoal heaters, used in Spain, I think. The charcoal produced the best. It's a bit counter intuitive - normally drying herbs and stuff I would aim for low temperature drying to preserve the aromatics, but the research indicated above points to why this isn't the case with saffron.
I'll try and dig out the links - changed computers and browsers a few times so it might not be there
Hope you are a better bulb grower than me
T

[templeton]

Found 'em
Tassie research
Effect of Drying Temperature and Air Flow on the Production and Retention of Secondary Metabolites in Saffron, MATTHEW J. GREGORY,*,† ROBERT C. MENARY,† AND NOEL W. DAVIES

Spanish stuff on flower initiation in the bulbs
Temperature effects on flower formation in saffron (Crocus sativus L., R.V. Molina, M. Valero1, Y. Navarro1, J.L. Guardiola, A. Garcı´a-Luis


Kiwi overview
New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food Research Ltd A Crown Research Institute, Growing saffron - the world’s most expensive spice

and a nice powerpoint from Iran
Ministry of Science, Researches and Technology,Khorasan Science and Technology Park,Production technology and processing of Saffron (Crocus sativus L.)in Iran,A. Mollafilabi,Researcher- Khorasan Research Center for Technology Development

Not sure how to get these to you, the first two are journal articles which you might not have access to. Can email if you like.

The tassie research has great info on processing, but is a bit obtuse. They found a number of conversion pathways in the drying process. And that there was heaps of unconverted picrocrocin even using the best drying method which gave 25 times more goodies compared to the worst process.
I read about the wet heat process somewhere, I think it was kept under wraps for commercial reasons. I seem to recall that this led to maximum conversion of the picrocrocin. I'll keep searching for it.

EDIT:
found this link - teasing reference to the humidity factor ecite.utas.edu.au/73715

EDIT2
found some of it here - www.boobookhill.com/Tassie%20Saffron%20Info.pdf
Nice bibliography, too.

[12540dumont]

Thanks Templeton!

I read that they are quite resistant to drought, so I was thinking that they might be a good semi-permanent plant for the strawberry bed.


I'm interested in them as they are reported to help with macular degeneration.


The Australian clinical trial
The Australian human study was conducted by Sydney University Professor of Neurology Jonathan Stone. Both this study and the Italian research were similar in scope and dosage. And both conducted a more humane approach to double blind placebo studies with a non-toxic remedy than normally.

The study involved 25 macular degeneration sufferers. Instead of depriving a placebo group from a product that could do something for their ailment, the study switched placebo subjects with saffron subjects half-way through the trial unbeknownst to all involved. The daily dosage was 20 mg of saffron.

The whole study was six months long, so each side of the 25 double blind subjects had three months of improved vision with three months of impaired vision. All 25 were tested for neuron electrical conductivity in the macula and retina, and 23 showed significant improvement. Those 23 also reported they could see much better.

Visual improvement began after only two weeks on saffron. When the saffron group was put onto placebos, they complained that their improved eyesight had begun diminishing again. Conversely, those on placebos for the first half of the trial began seeing better after three months of no improvement.

Professor Stone projects that after a year or more ingesting only 20 mg (milligrams) of saffron daily, vision improvements should stabilize without requiring more saffron dosing.

Stone doesn't know exactly how or why, but he became aware that saffron influences the neuron's genetic code to restore its capacity for healing and protecting neuron cells. Neurons are responsible for transmitting electrical signals or impulses throughout the nervous system.

Professor Stone is looking forward to completing animal studies with saffron for other neurological issues like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Then those would go into human clinical trials also.

His results, combined with the Italian study, impressed Professor Stone enough to create his own line of saffron capsules for the market. He qualified it as a safe nutraceutical that shouldn't require any more testing for FDA approval.

Don't mention that it cures macular degeneration and you'll stay out of trouble, mate. Just say it supports eye health (wink).


Both of my paternal aunts have Macular degeneration. This worries me. So, I think I'll be starting on Saffron.

[templeton]

20 mg/day = 7 grams a year. should be do-able. With 150 flowers yielding one gram dried (wikipedia), you are looking at 1000 flowers for a year's supply per person. Some of my corms produced 3-4 flowers and pictures indicate that under proper conditions you could get a lot more from each bunch of corms, so a few hundred plants should be sufficient.
T

[templeton]

Holly,
I could send you some daughter bulbs, but not sure they would last the extra 6 months in storage before you could plant them. They get a bit twitchy round early autumn, and start shooting all over the place, so would be totally out of sync with your seasons.
T

[bunkie]

Holly, Nichols has saffron, but you may have to wait till fall...

www.nicholsgardennursery.com/store/product-info.php?Saffron_Crocus_Bulbs-pid1268.html

[templeton]

check the mail in a week or so, Holly.

[richardw]

Out of curiosity does saffron produce seed?

[blackox]

I was going to try Saffron this year, but was a little late on ordering them. White Flower Farms sell them.

My guess is that they would produce some kind of seed, but I do not know this through experience.