How To: Grow Turmeric Root

We've mentioned a couple times here on the blog that we're trying to grow turmeric root, so we thought today would be a good time for the full rundown and updates.

Turmeric is one of those super versatile plants. It's a tropical variety and widely known for its medicinal and health benefits and is traditionally used as a dye in everything from fabric to foods as a yellowing agent. Most commonly, it's known to be used as an ingredient in dishes like curry. It also produces really beautiful and unique looking flowers. After planting the root for a full season, we should be able to dig it back up, cut off new root tubers to replant and use what we want from the larger root for cooking.

We'd originally picked up this little piece of organic turmeric root from the grocery store back in March, thinking we'd try planting it with our other spring plantings, but as life would have it, it ended up hanging out on our windowsill over the spring and summer months. Then low and behold magically in mid August we noticed the root beginning to sprout on it's own:

I'm telling you, plants always find a way to grow, even when outside of their natural element.

It continued growing, so we decided to plant it and see if we'd be able to get it to flower or grow larger root rhizomes. We initially planted it at the same time we planted all of our other rooted cuttings from around the house:

Planting was a simple matter of filling a small container with soil and gently pressing the tuber just beneath the soil, enough to leave the green sprout poking out the top:

After a healthy watering, we just let it be (start humming Beatles song here). Not even a week after planting the tuber, it really took off:

Isn't the spirally nature of the stem interesting? We're not sure if this is more common in tropical plants, but it's fascinating to see the different ways plants generate and grow.

Two weeks after taking the above photo, we arrived home from our week in NYC to discover a giant leaf jetting off the side of the spirally stem:

And now that we're a couple weeks past those last pictures, here's how we're looking right now with two big healthy leaves:

This weekend we'll most likely transfer the plant to a bigger container that we can bring inside. Since turmeric is a tropical plant, we'll need to keep it indoors throughout the cooler season if we want a shot at any chance of keeping it alive.

Mary and I both are excited to see if we'll get it to flower, since they are so unique and tropical looking. How are you preparing for the cooler evenings ahead and have you attempted growing turmeric?