In garden stores you can often get specimens of various turmeric varieties whose spiked inflorescences are about to bloom or have even already bloomed. It is also relatively easy to grow the plants yourself from the rhizomatous tubers.
How can I plant a turmeric bulb correctly?
To plant a turmeric tuber, place the tuber flat on moist substrate, press it lightly or mix potting soil with 30% gravel. Plant the tuber in February at 22-24°C and place the plant outdoors from May.
The best time to plant the tubers
Nowadays, different types of turmeric are often available almost all year round as potted plants in various specialist garden and house plant shops. In fact, for a culture on the windowsill, it is almost irrelevant what time of year the tubers are planted in the ground. However, it is always the case that the above-ground parts of the plants wilt long after flowering and eventually die. This is completely normal when growing turmeric, as the plant retreats into its rhizomatous survival organ during the period of dormancy. If you want to plant your turmeric plant outdoors as a pot plant, you should grow the tubers indoors in spring. To do this, the tubers are put into the ground around February and placed in a place that is around 22 to 24 degrees Celsius. The frost-sensitive plants can usually be placed outside from May onwards.
How to plant turmeric tubers correctly
It is important for he althy sprouting of the tubers that they do not become rotten due to waterlogging. There are different possible ways to do this:
- a very shallow planting on the substrate surface
- very economical watering
- the use of drainage material in the plant substrate
Some gardeners just place their turmeric tubers on the moistened soil and press them lightly. The tubers are only planted deeper when green shoots have already appeared on them. However, it has also proven useful to mix the potting soil used (€10.00 on Amazon) with a proportion of around 30% gravel. This means the tubers are sufficiently ventilated and excess moisture can drain away easily.
Overwintering turmeric properly
An important point in caring for turmeric is overwintering it properly. The tubers of the heat-loving plants should be dug up outdoors as soon as temperatures drop well below 10 degrees Celsius. Then the rhizome tubers are overwintered in a dark room and at about 15 degrees Celsius in one of the following ways:
- “naked” and dry
- hit in sand
- in a pot with relatively dry soil
Tip
As a rule, turmeric tubers grown in pots are dug up in the fall in order to be divided due to their size and sometimes partially used as a spice. Tubers that have overwintered in pots should also be dug up and repotted in spring at the latest.
