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applestar
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Re: Who is growing Turmeric?

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thanrose
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I have a very tiny pot of it. Well actually, just pulled it out of an old bonsai shallow dish and put in a more voluminous pot with my ginger. It's not that either needs such a large pot, but rather that a larger pot is slower to heat up down here. Small pots equal certain death.

Funny thing. I had one shriveled piece of turmeric that I tossed on top of a houseplant's soil, then a few weeks later I broke down and bought a bit more to use, and to grow. The old shriveled one was the first stem to grow.

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applestar
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I'm still trying to figure out turmeric. It started growing in early spring WAY before ginger. Now it is starting to Yellow and it seems WAY early for it to be doing that.... :| But otherwise, I think these are growing well.

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...maybe I should uppot before winter? Or could it wait until it is dormant.... or :!: I just noticed this pot can be filled up with more mix -- now should I just put compost on top? Or compost and sand mix?

imafan26
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Turmeric should be blooming around now. Yellowing is a sign of it getting ready to go dormant or too much water in the pot. The roots can block the drain and make a pool in the pot.

FinnMcOwl
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Oh wow, I love seeing the pictures and the progress! This is really inspiring, I might have to give turmeric a go! I've heard people use it for tea along with cooking, which is exactly what I'm after right now, glad I found this thread! :)

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applestar
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I *meant* to uppot the turmeric because the pot had cracked, but I forgot. Well, look what they have been doing this summer :roll:

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MaLiorzh
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I've just bought some fresh Turmeric root in my local Asian supermarket labelled Curcuma domestica which I believe is the same as Curcuma longa. Perhaps it's a little late to plant now but I couldn't resist.

This French site that sells the plant - for 24 Euros a pop! Ouch! - claims they can resist down to -10°C during the winter: https://www.graines-baumaux.fr/224444-c ... longa.html

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applestar
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I am SO THRILLED!!!

Tonight’s forecasted low is 40°F and I was going through my annual, last minute frenzy to bring cold sensitive container plants inside or move them at least to the somewhat more moderate brick patio from their various summer vacation spots.

I had left the turmeric until the last possible minute as the sun went down, because the roots had cracked the pot — in Three as it turned out. After NOT finding a suitable pot to transplant them in, I gave up and just plopped the very solid broken pot-shaped rootball/mass in an available plastic pot to bring inside the house, and when I put it down by the porch light, I realized — it HAD BLOOMED!


Here, imafan has been posting that HER turmeric are blooming, and I was wishing mine would bloom ...someday... and, unbeknownst to me, it had quietly bloomed and the flowers are already past their prime.

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— so striking yet dainty - pure white with blushes of pink and magenta and maroon throats.

imafan26
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xTurmeric leaves are a paler green than ginger. That is normal. The leaves are wider and the plant can get taller. I have mine planted in the sun. Although, while the gingers like a lot of water, they do not like to sit in water so they are usually commercially planted in hills. Hilling lets the rhizomes grow bigger. Ginger and turmeric are harvested in the rainy season here and I usually keep the rhizomes in a bucket with a little bit of sand or sphagnum moss just to keep them damp in the lanai so they are out of the rain. If the ground gets flooded, the roots can rot. Turmeric can usually be planted out by January if the the soil is hilled and well drained. I keep the ginger in the pots longer since they don't sprout until about April. Sometimes I wait until the leaves start growing before I put them back in the buckets. Only 1 or 2 pieces per bucket. I put ginger in a tree pot to give them more room but they still only grow laterally. I was told to put less soil int the pot and plant the rhizomes on their side and fill the pot as the root grows or use a shallow wide pot instead. Gingers don't need a lot of fertilizer. They do like compost, but since it holds a lot of water, and I have clay soil which also holds a lot of water, I have to make sure the pot drains and dries well.

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applestar
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I felt like adding a little turmeric to my evening tea — :D
...I sliced a few slivers for the tea, then wrapped the rest in nearly dry paper towel and put in the butter compartment to used up in next few days. This usually works for ginger.

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...ginger rhizomes look like the lower photo right now, and I can also harvest pieces from these as needed

imafan26
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You can harvest ginger and turmeric anytime as long as the roots are big enough. There are usually roots that are harvestable after 5 months of good growth. No matter when you plant, the ginger and turmeric will still go down between September and November when the days get shorter. Turmeric usually regrows faster sometimes it is sprouting in a couple of months after the tops die. Turmeric roots grow vertically in layers of fans. The flowers usually come out in September and last a couple of weeks before they start browning. Ginger flowers at the base of the plant. It is a small brown flower that you will smell before you see. The leaves dry a couple of months after. This year the ginger came up late in May but still bloomed in November.

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applestar
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I spotted my turmeric blooming yesterday. I noticed this before when trying to take their photos, but there is something odd about turmeric blossoms in the way they reflect light or something. I tried pushing the exposure up and down in the basically point-and-shoot iPhone camera app, but this was the best I could get —

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...if I have the opportunity, I will try taking a picture with another camera app that gives you more control over white balance, exposure, aperture, etc.



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