I grow a lot of different kinds of ginger including Turmeric. I'm up in zone 7 so I can't leave it outdoors all year. I quit growing it in the ground when I discovered I had better root production in pots. I usually harvest the roots in the Spring or early Summer when I am busy repotting the plants and setting them in a shady spot in the garden. My plants don't want to go to sleep for Winter when first frost happens here (around the first week of November) so I lift the pots and place them in my greenhouse. They go dormant sometime around February first and wake back up in May. They seem to make a lot of roots while they're asleep. I chop the roots and use them in just about anything and if I have the time I chop them up and dehydrate them and then grind them up in a coffee grinder and store them as a powder.

A lot of gingers have a problem going dormant and then not waking up on a schedule that makes sense to us. I have had roots sit in a pot of dirt for over a year and not sprout, not rot and not do anything no matter what I tried (heat, wet, etc.). Now I eat the non-sprouters and grow the ones that stick to a schedule.

TriangleJohn, You are just the man I need to talk to about curcuma longa! You said you chop the roots and use them in just about anything, could you please elaborate on that? I just bought a bunch of the roots thinking they would be good for my old dog and me too, and planned to plant them in pots also. I live in the Hickory area of NC so I've always paid particular attention to your comments on the citrus forum. I know and raise citrus but I don't know anything about these turmeric roots and have been wondering if spring fever got the best of me in buying these. Do they need to sprout before I plant them? Have you grated them raw on foods to eat? How would you rate them as a health food? I have researched them but it always seem to be somebody in FL or CA so I was THRILLED to find you on this. I'm not sure which forum this is on or if I will get a response since this was an old post but my email address is ankb-2-33@charter.net and my name is Anne Barnaby.

Thank you for any advice you can give me.

Anne

SJN,

Bought some turmeric tubers from indian store last year and put about 6 of them in sandy soil of FL(9A) directly in ground. After waiting for months only 2-3 sprouted up. After they grew about 6 inches, they started dying and so I dug up the whole area to (a) transplant them in pot and (b) find what happened to remaining tubers. The tubers that did no sprout was rotten.. I transplanted couple to a pot and one to a hollow gap of a concrete block..lol (experimenting). Nothing survived.. after a 6-8 months or so, just when I thought everything is gone, the one transplanted into the hollow concrete block sprounted up in this 2015 spring.. Its a healthy looking precious plant, growing good. Its about a foot size now. Will attempt to harvest when the leaves die out.. Feeding it a good composted horse manure...

I'm planning a trip to a Harry's farmer's market in Atlanta this weekend, and fresh turmeric "root" is on my shopping list for stock to plant.

What I've read is that it grows much like ginger, and I've been growing ginger (Zingiber officinale) for several years with reasonable success.

anne33kb

i rate turmeric in the top 3 medicinals on the planet.

there have been hundereds, if not thousands of studies done on it

most with very positive results.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=turmeric

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78

An update: I planted several of the rhizomes in the ground in the front of my veggie garden last year and they overwintered just fine and came back up in the spring. They got a few feet tall this year. They are starting to go dormant again now that it is December.

Journey, good idea on using the concrete block! They do seem to like good drainage. Our soil is really sandy here but I mix in some compost (composted chicken and rabbit manure) to keep it a little moist.

~SJN

Finally, the plant (pic posted above) dried up in this winter. And Today dug up the harvest.. Holy Turmeric!!! ..Smells great..Had about 8 pieces, got 3 for cooking and put others in ground again. Here is the pic of the harvest.

Looks great! I think fresh grated Turmeric tastes much better than the dried powder version.

Kinda like the way fresh regular ginger tubers are much better. They have a little bit of a lemony taste when they are grated. The dried ginger powder you buy in the grocery stores smells like soap!

~Sjn

I grew a few from grocery store tubers last year. The rhizomes were a bit short so they probably needed more time or more room than the pots they were in. This year I'll try growing them in ground.

I'd like to find a couple of different types of turmeric, if anyone would like to swap? I tried some of the swap forums, plus the ginger forum, but no luck. I have a number of plants that might be of interest for a swap, or I would gladly pay postage for a few rhizomes.

If this is possible, please send a private message?

Thanks,

Rick in CT

Here's mine

I had this pot outside and they came up recently. Will eventually place in a larger pot as I love the foliage. This is a really pretty plant.

It does look a lot like its ginger cousin. How does it taste when fresh?

It tastes similar to a carrot so it's good in juice or stew

What are the flowers like?

Like wow!

Keep us posted if you decide to grow this!

I havent got blooms this year yet but I harvested a tuber and have been using shavings from it on Italian salads. Its good that way.

My first tiny Turmeric harvest , it's great. Hoping for much more in fall.

https://youtu.be/qvOmMg9-BX8

THOSE are turmeric flowers? Wow. My turmeric has never flowered at all; it's been in the ground 3-4 years, and I can see it from my office window. I'd have noticed those beauties.

The big plant is in rocky soil (actually, soil-y rock, it's all lava around here), and very hard to dig up, so I've got a couple smaller plants in pots.

Both turmeric and ginger have been very slow to start. I planted tubers in pots 3 months ago, and sprouts have only just appeared as summer is turning the corner into fall.

I'll keep these growing for another 6 weeks, then let them go dormant. Hopefully they'll be better prepared to start growth next spring.

--Rick in CT

For Michele, who directed me to this post on tumeric, here's my ginger from a couple of years ago when I first started it. I have some in the ground and some in this 30 gallon tub. You all might get me to trying some tumeric yet - I love those flowers!

Do you ever chew on a little piece of leaf? It has a distinct ginger flavor--better than a breath mint!

--Rick

I'm guessing these need a long sunny season to flower?

--Rick

Lots of info on youtube:

https://youtu.be/ydu_0ZGN4Rs

I've got turmeric envy....lol

--Rr

Hyn

That ginger looks fantastic. Its so weird, mine was growing and failed again. Not sure whats wrong. It'll sprout roots, send up a shoot and then die. Strange.guess its too late to re-start for the ... 4th time.

But on the other hand, I'm doing super with the turmeric and its my first time. Here's 2 sets started, large ones are 6 weeks and smaller ones are 4 weeks. When I switched pots I already saw the roots getting fat, but I do want to leave one pot designated to get flowers cause they look so beautiful.

"I'm guessing these need a long sunny season to flower?"

Rick, my ginger almost always blooms in late October or some time in November. I bring them in the house, into a heated room in mid October. I also use LED grow lights on a 12 hour a day timer. I'm not sure what sets off the blooms, but the significant red light from the grow lights is supposed to promote blooming.

This is my first year with Turmeric, so I guess I'll find out soon if they bloom at the same time as my ginger.

Ack! Sorry to hear about your ginger! I sometimes loose mine if it gets and stays too wet. They can be finicky. I can only start them in summer. If it's not hot I just have to wait else it'll rot. Mine reliably blooms by the end of summer or early autumn out on the deck but it's not much to see as it's not an ornamental.

Regular store ginger I wouldn't have minded so much, but this appeared to a miniature or dwarf variety I got at the garden show billed as a "windowsill" spice garden. The root was like little BBs lined up and sprouts/blades small and delicate, maybe big as your pinkie.

Since it was designed to be grown in small spaces I thought it was a better choice for me. I spoke to someone at the shop about them so I hope they can re-order for the March show again.

Those flowers posted by Mrredbeard may not be edible turmeric but rather other curcurma varieties, the ornamental ones... hidden gingers, ornamental gingers. Maybe the leaves are edible, not sure, but the rhizomes are different than turmerics. Edible turmeric has a similar flower but not quite as big/dense, usually white with a tinge of lavender... in my experience anyway. I grow both.

Since you grow both, what is the best mix for containers and fertilizers/schedule? My roots didn't get as thick as I'd hoped last year so not a harvest unfortunately.

Here is a pic of mine.