How To Grow Turmeric, Grow Your Own Turmeric Part1, Vegetable Gardening

How To Grow Turmeric, Grow Your Own Turmeric Part1, Growing Turmeric, Growing Turmeric In The UK, Vegetable Gardening

I have wanted to grow Turmeric for quite a while but have never managed to actually source the rhizomes in the U.K. I finally took the plunge and ordered some supposedly fresh Turmeric root (rhizome) over the Internet from an Indonesian supplier!! Got to love internet purchases.

To go with the lack of availability of Turmeric rhizomes there is also a lack of information on how to actually grow the plant in the U.K.
It seems that the only people growing Turmeric are the ones on YouTube who are based in hotter more tropical countries such as Australia, Indonesia and India.

So where to start?

Turmeric rhizomes are the knobbly finger like pieces, a bit like singular sections of Ginger. They are not a root as they actually produce a fibrous root from the rhizome that anchors the plant, as well as allowing for the take up of water and nutrients. From the rhizome, the Turmeric shoots are also formed.

Having received the Turmeric rhizomes in the post, and opened the packaging, it was apparent that the rhizomes were not as fresh as described as they looked dehydrated.
I treated the Turmeric rhizomes the same as I do Ginger and allowed them to soak in fresh water for a few hours.
Once I removed the rhizomes from the water, and out of curiosity, I weighed them to see if they had taken up much moisture. It turns out that they had gained about 10% in total weight.

Whilst the Turmeric rhizomes were soaking in water I got the soil mixture ready.
I used a mixture of multi-purpose compost with Perlite added to it to give a perlite content of roughly 40% by volume.
Perlite is a volcanic product that absorbs moisture, allowing the water to be slowly released back into the compost as needed, and it provides great drainage to the mixture.

Mix the compost and Perlite together.
I then filled a large seed tray with the compost /perlite mix, firmed it down slightly, and gave it a light watering.
The tray and compost mixture was allowed to stand for about 30 minutes to allow any excess water to drain out.

Taking the Turmeric rhizomes lay them out onto the surface of the compost, in the seed tray. Make sure to space the rhizome sections so that they are not touching each other.

Place the filled tray into a heated propagator and wait. And wait. And wait.
After 2 and a half months of waiting, and nearly giving up, the rhizomes started to produce shoots.

Success!!

This video was first started in March as dried rhizomes and after 2 and a half months, taking us to the middle of May, the rhizomes are finally showing some small signs of shoot development and growth.

If you like what you have seen then please subscribe to my channel.