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HoneyBerry
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1216
- Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:10 pm
- Location: Zone 8A Western Washington State
Re: cardamom
Interesting. So I looked it up and found that you can tell if it is real cardamom by the leaves. Apparently, Alpina Nutans has glossy fragrant leaves and True Cardamom does not and both are great plants with medicinal uses.
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pepperhead212
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 2887
- Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:52 pm
- Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b
Imafan,
I don't know much about growing cardamom, though I did look into black cardamom a few years ago. I knew I wouldn't be able to grow it around here, but thought I may be able to at least get some leaves, which are aromatic, and are wrapped around some foods before grilling, in northern Thailand. The trees get to 5 meters, and require a much longer growing season than I have, and I gave up on the idea, since I couldn't find seeds anywhere. I was surprised that it is related to green cardamom (both in the ginger family), though a lot of its flavor comes from the drying method, giving it that smoky flavor. The pods are probably too large to air-dry, and rot, like thick fleshed peppers, and eons ago they probably began drying over fire, as with chipotles, and several other chiles, giving us these wonderful smoky spices.
I don't know much about growing cardamom, though I did look into black cardamom a few years ago. I knew I wouldn't be able to grow it around here, but thought I may be able to at least get some leaves, which are aromatic, and are wrapped around some foods before grilling, in northern Thailand. The trees get to 5 meters, and require a much longer growing season than I have, and I gave up on the idea, since I couldn't find seeds anywhere. I was surprised that it is related to green cardamom (both in the ginger family), though a lot of its flavor comes from the drying method, giving it that smoky flavor. The pods are probably too large to air-dry, and rot, like thick fleshed peppers, and eons ago they probably began drying over fire, as with chipotles, and several other chiles, giving us these wonderful smoky spices.
The cardamom I have I got as a gift that was in a 2 inch pot that was maybe three inches tall. Since I keep it in a gallon can and never allow it to get bigger than three feet, I do not expect it to bloom. The leaves of the one I have are very fragrant and they are glossy. The site I read said that true cardomom should not have fragrant leaves. I looked around and different sites showed flowers that did not look like eletaria cardamom but was being sold as eletaria. The flowers and pods were how we identified that the one we had originally in the garden was the wrong one.
Maybe you moved it too quickly especially if you have that much heat, the window without a filtering curtain could have magnified the sun. Cardamom is an understory plant so it usually is not grown out in the open. Maybe artificial light would have bee better. I don't use manure in containers. If you put too much it will burn and kill the plant as will too much water. Plants like to be kept evenly moist but not soggy.