Has anyone ever grown tumeric?

[prairiegarden]

I have several tumeric sprouts appearing and I'm wondering if the plants need any particular sort of care, soil etc. The first shoot is about 4 inches tall and looking as though a leaf is forming. I got a bunch of the rhizomes and if they all sprout they'll have to be moved into separate pots, so wondering about the soil they prefer. Probably should think about that before, but wasn't sure they'd do anything. 

[richardw]

I'm growing turmeric but inside my hothouse and during summer as well, it wont like winter, am i right that you are not in sub-tropical USA?

[khoomeizhi]

i've grown it accidentally when some sprouted in my compost pile. there a few local growers who grow it in hoop-houses. without a lot of supplemental light/heat, they go dormant in the fall.

[prairiegarden]

I'm in the Canadian Prairies so had no fantasies about growing it outside. It's under lights in the house. It's sort of interesting, I got way more bits than I expected so there are duplicates in every pot; so far only one has come up in each of 5 pots. They say plants communicate with each other, I have images of them discussing who will stay dormant and who will sprout : "after you", "no no I insist" "you go" lol I need a life .

[richardw]

Now thats a worry, hope my turmeric plants are not planing some kind of tunnelhouse take over.... just when you thought it was safe to....

[prairiegarden]

Three more sprouts have appeared and they also are the only ones in their pot. The first is unfurling its first leaf. Thinking I maybe should dig the extras that haven't sprouted out of all the pots , it might be easier now than later. It will be interesting to see if any of them are doing anything at all, it's just so strange how one plant per pot has shown signs of life when each pot had at least three chunks of rhizome, and one had about 6 smaller chunks but each bit had at least one eye. Thats one of the pots with one sprout.

[taihaku]

I grew it a few years back - fairly big plant for not much produce in my case (indoors in my conservatory with the peppers). If I did it again I reckon I'd overwinter each year and then plant it out in a very rich compost to try and maximise growth. One thing I would say is it seems surprisingly cold tolerant. Mine never really stopped even in the low single digits.

[prairiegarden]

Hoping I can unload some of them in a month or two, now about 15 plants have shown up ( now they started it seems a new one or two each day!) which is a whole lot more than I need, taking way more space than can be happily spared, will soon have to put a new shelf with lights just for them. Still, if nothing else I can always dry it and use it knowing that it's the real stuff. There are so many horror stories coming out almost daily about herbal stuff being sold that has little or sometimes actually none of the ingredient listed in it, and the fresh stuff is not available at all around here.

[richardw]

Thats worth knowing that its surprisingly cold tolerant taihaku starting off individual segments in pots and keeping them in the tunnelhouse till the last frosts might be the way to go maybe?

[richardw]

Oct 3, 2016 3:35:05 GMT -5 prairiegarden said:

and the fresh stuff is not available at all around here.

I do wonder if its worth growing it really as fresh organic tumeric from Fiji is quite cheap to buy

[prairiegarden]

This stuff is growing like gangbusters now. I have about 20 plants going, dug out any that hadn't sprouted and using some fresh, the rest for drying. If the plants don't get too huge, will plant some outside next spring and see how they do. One of the health food stores in town is considering taking some of the plants which would be a great help, ended up with way more than I need. Good thing I like it.

Learned that to get max health benefits from it, it should be used with black pepper. Supposedly the combination makes the tumeric about 2000 times (?!) more bio available.

[josh]

It likes a rich soil to develop nice orange tubers, they will be pale if poor clay soil, it also likes lots of sun and can rot out when dormant unless in a sunny dryish patch.
It is quite a tough plant and I have just left the same patches for years with no problem.
So I'd suggest if growing in pots a free draining yet rich mix and pump it until the summer or after its had full size leaves a couple of months then start backing off on water n let the tubers develop.

[prairiegarden]

Thank you. That's helpful information.

[prairiegardens]

Ok all my turmeric is in trouble and I don't know why. They all started to develop yellow rims to the leaf, which gradually increased until the whole leaf is yellow or tan and looks decidedly dead. I've enough that I've tried every combination of more or less water, more or less light, more or less fertilizer. I've pulled up a few and the tubers are forming , everything looks fine. Could it be that about 68 degrees not warm enough, or that there is some particular element they are all missing? This DID start to show up about the same time the temperature outside started to drop, and the house does get cool sometimes, but....they were doing so well! What to do now? Are they possibly just going dormant?

[khoomeizhi]

sounds like dormancy to me..