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Want to grow a HUGE turmeric harvest without needing a huge garden? 🌱 In this video, I’ll show you 5 simple tips to grow a ton of turmeric in just 3 square feet of garden space!
From choosing healthy turmeric rhizomes and preparing the soil to watering, feeding, and knowing when to harvest, these practical tips will help you get the most out of a small garden bed.
🌿 In this video:
• How to plant turmeric correctly
• The best soil conditions for turmeric
• Proper spacing for a bigger harvest
• Watering and feeding tips
• When and how to harvest turmeric
Whether you’re growing turmeric for the first time or trying to increase your harvest, these simple techniques can help you grow more in less space.
#Turmeric #Gardening #GrowTurmeric #VegetableGardening #GardeningTips #OrganicGardening #GrowYourOwnFood
Want to grow a HUGE turmeric harvest without needing a huge garden? 🌱 In this video, I’ll show you 5 simple tips to grow a ton of turmeric in just 3 square feet of garden space!
From choosing healthy turmeric rhizomes and preparing the soil to watering, feeding, and knowing when to harvest, these practical tips will help you get the most out of a small garden bed.
🌿 In this video:
• How to plant turmeric correctly
• The best soil conditions for turmeric
• Proper spacing for a bigger harvest
• Watering and feeding tips
• When and how to harvest turmeric
Whether you’re growing turmeric for the first time or trying to increase your harvest, these simple techniques can help you grow more in less space.
#Turmeric #Gardening #GrowTurmeric #VegetableGardening #GardeningTips #OrganicGardening #GrowYourOwnFood
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is a spice that folks pay dear for at the store, a little jar of bright golden powder,
00:06and they never once think that they could grow a whole year's worth of it, and more,
00:11in a patch of ground no bigger than a small tabletop.
00:15I am speaking of turmeric, that deep golden root that colors and flavors so much good cooking the world over.
00:23It looks exotic and difficult, something that surely only grows in far-off tropical lands
00:29and so most folks never try it.
00:31But I am here to tell you it is one of the hardiest, most forgiving, most generous things you can
00:38grow,
00:38and from one small root you can build up, over a few years, a whole standing supply that keeps giving
00:45back.
00:46So today I am going to show you how to grow a great abundance of turmeric in a tiny corner
00:52of your garden.
00:53My name is Elias Yoder, and I farm here in Lancaster County, in Pennsylvania,
00:59and I will tell you plainly right at the start, turmeric is a cousin to ginger,
01:04grown near exactly the same way, from a piece of the fresh root,
01:08and if you have watched me on the growing of ginger, you already know the most of it.
01:13It is a warm country plant at heart, and I will be honest with you about that too,
01:18for it matters a great deal to how you grow it, and I will come to it.
01:22I keep a pot of it myself, brought in by the kitchen window through our hard winters,
01:28and there is a small wonder in it I have never quite gotten over.
01:32A neighbor gave me a knob of the fresh root years ago, and told me to try,
01:38and I near did not believe a thing so golden and exotic would grow for a plain Pennsylvania farmer.
01:44But grow it did, and every time I grate a bit of my own bright root into my wife's cooking,
01:50I think what a marvel it is, a tropical treasure raised in a cold northern kitchen,
01:56and I am glad I did not let the doubting stop me.
02:00But warm land or cold, in the ground or in a pot,
02:04there is a way for near anyone to grow this golden root.
02:08Before I go on, I will say this once and then leave it be.
02:11I gathered the whole of it, all these old ways of growing your own food, into a book.
02:18You can find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:21The book is the long version.
02:23If you want it, it is there.
02:24I will not mention it again.
02:26Now let me tell you first what turmeric even is,
02:30for a good many folks have only ever seen the powder in a jar,
02:33and never the plant nor the root.
02:36What you grow and what you eat is the rhizome,
02:39which is a fancy word for a fat, knobby, underground root,
02:43much like a piece of ginger to look at,
02:45only when you snap it open, it is a brilliant, deep orange gold inside,
02:50so bright it will stain your hands and your board,
02:53and near anything it touches,
02:55which is why it has been prized for hundreds of years,
02:59not only as a spice for cooking, but as a dye for cloth.
03:03It is one of the most beloved flavorings in all the world,
03:06the golden heart of a good curry,
03:09and the fresh root grated into your cooking
03:11is finer by far than any dusty jar from the store.
03:16That alone is reason enough to grow it.
03:18So let me give you my five plain tips for growing a great deal of it.
03:23The first tip is the planting,
03:25and here is the good news to start,
03:27for turmeric is a wonderfully hardy and forgiving crop.
03:31You can near abuse the thing,
03:33and it will still find a way to grow for you.
03:35But if you want not just a plant or two,
03:38but a great abundance of it,
03:40there are a few things to get right,
03:42and they all begin, as so many things do, with the soil.
03:47Turmeric is a hungry plant,
03:48a heavy feeder,
03:50and it loves rich ground above all.
03:52So before you plant,
03:54you work your soil deep,
03:55and full of good, rich compost,
03:57and old, rotted manure,
03:59all it can hold.
04:01Grown in poor, thin ground,
04:03turmeric will get by,
04:05miserly,
04:06giving you a little.
04:07But give it a bed rich and deep with compost,
04:10and I tell you it will love you back tenfold,
04:13growing you great fat clumps of root.
04:16So feed that ground well first.
04:18And the ground must be loose and crumbly,
04:21and above all, free draining.
04:23Well worked, so it is not hard and packed,
04:26for two reasons.
04:27In hard, compacted ground,
04:29that swelling root cannot spread and grow fat as it wants to,
04:33is cramped and stunted.
04:36And worse, in heavy, wet ground,
04:38it will simply rot.
04:40So dig it deep and loose and open.
04:43For your planting stock,
04:45you use pieces of the fresh root,
04:47the same you would buy to eat.
04:49Cut into chunks about two or three inches,
04:52each with a bud or two on it.
04:54Smaller pieces will grow too,
04:56but here is the rule.
04:57The bigger the piece you plant,
04:59the more stored food it carries,
05:01and the stronger it comes up.
05:03So plant good, sound chunks.
05:06Bury each piece just an inch or two under the surface,
05:10and set them about six inches apart,
05:12though do not fret over the spacing over much,
05:15for turmeric grows perfectly well crowded
05:18and does not mind close company.
05:21Then feed the bed again
05:22with a good few handfuls of rich,
05:25rotted manure worked in.
05:27And last, cover the whole planting over
05:30with a few inches of mulch,
05:32straw, or leaves,
05:33or the dried back stems
05:35of last year's turmeric itself,
05:37to keep the weeds from crowding
05:39the tender new shoots as they push up.
05:41Rich soil, loose and draining,
05:45good big pieces,
05:46and a blanket of mulch.
05:48That is the planting.
05:50The second tip is the watering,
05:52and to understand it,
05:53you must understand where turmeric comes from.
05:56It is a child of the hot, wet,
05:58tropical lands of the Far East,
06:00and it loves exactly that,
06:02heat and moisture together.
06:04Now that does not mean
06:06you cannot grow it in a cooler place,
06:08only that you must give it
06:10the warmest, sunniest spot you have
06:12and grow it through the hottest part of your year.
06:15And you must water it well and regular,
06:18for it is thirsty,
06:19especially if you grow it in a pot,
06:21for pots dry out fast in the heat.
06:24But here, and hear me close,
06:27is the one real balance
06:28you must strike with turmeric,
06:30the thing that catches folks out.
06:32It wants plenty of water,
06:34but it must have free draining ground,
06:37and those two can fight each other.
06:39For if your soil is heavy
06:41and holds the water like a bog,
06:43and you water it plenty as it wants,
06:45that root will sit in the wet
06:47and rot away to nothing under the ground.
06:50So the free draining comes first, always.
06:54Get your soil loose and draining right,
06:56so the water runs through and never stands,
06:59and then you can water it as generous as it likes,
07:03even every day in the heat,
07:04and it drinks deep and grows fat and never rots.
07:09Free draining first, then water freely.
07:12Get that balance and turmeric asks little else.
07:16The third tip is about the growing area
07:18and about patience,
07:20and this is where I must be honest with you
07:22about how much you can truly expect
07:24and how soon.
07:26To grow a great abundance of turmeric,
07:29a real standing supply,
07:31you do need a fair bit of room,
07:33a small bed rather than one little pot,
07:36in a good central sunny spot
07:38where the sun reaches the plants most of the day,
07:41and no tree nor tall crop shades them out.
07:44And here is the honest truth
07:46that the fine pictures never tell you.
07:49You do not grow a great heap of turmeric
07:52in your first year.
07:53It builds up over several years.
07:55A whole bed of it most often starts
07:58from just one plant,
07:59one small root,
08:01that you grow and then divide and replant,
08:04and grow and divide again,
08:06year on year,
08:07until after three or four years
08:09you have built yourself
08:10a fine standing patch of it.
08:12And that is the very heart
08:14of how you keep it going,
08:15and the most self-reliant thing about the crop.
08:18So mark it.
08:20Each year you take only what you need
08:22from your harvest for eating and preserving,
08:24and the rest you put right back into the ground
08:27to grow next year's crop bigger than the last.
08:30Take what you need,
08:32replant the rest,
08:33and your stock grows and grows.
08:36You buy your turmeric one time,
08:39one root,
08:40and from then on your own garden
08:42supplies both your table and your seed,
08:45forever,
08:45each year's crop planting the next.
08:48There is no finer bargain
08:50in all of gardening than that.
08:52The fourth tip is on the resting
08:54and moving of the ground,
08:56what the old books call crop rotation.
08:59Now you may have heard it said,
09:01you must move a crop to fresh ground
09:03every single year.
09:04And for some things that is wise,
09:07but with turmeric,
09:08I have found you need not be so strict.
09:10Every couple of seasons,
09:13every few years,
09:14is plenty to keep the soil from wearing out
09:16and to keep the pests and troubles
09:18from building up in one spot.
09:21So grow your turmeric happily
09:23in the same bed a few years running,
09:26and only when you notice it start to flag,
09:29the growth gone slow,
09:30or the roots troubled,
09:32or a worm getting at them,
09:33then you shift it to a fresh bed
09:36and give it a clean start,
09:38and that will set it right.
09:39A patient,
09:41once in a few years move,
09:43not a yearly upheaval.
09:45That suits turmeric fine.
09:47And the fifth tip is the harvest,
09:49and there is a right time
09:51and a right way,
09:52and getting it wrong costs you.
09:55The great rule is this,
09:56you let the plant die back fully
09:59before you dig it.
10:00Do not be impatient
10:02and dig it while it is still green and growing,
10:04for it is exactly when the plant
10:06is dying back
10:07at the end of its season
10:09that it pulls all its strength and goodness
10:12down out of the leaves
10:14and packs it into the root underground,
10:16storing itself up for its rest.
10:19So a root dug after the plant
10:21has died right back
10:22is a richer, more mature,
10:25better-tasting root,
10:26and one that will keep far longer on the shelf
10:29than one dug too soon.
10:31Wait for the die back,
10:33but do get it dug
10:34before the new season starts up again
10:36in the spring,
10:37or it will begin shooting up new growth
10:39and you will be digging through fresh,
10:42green shoots.
10:43So, after the die back
10:45and before the new spring,
10:47you take a garden fork
10:49and you carefully lift the whole clump,
10:51easing it up gently,
10:53and it comes out in a great knobby cluster
10:55that with a little shaking and pulling
10:57breaks apart in your hands.
11:00And here you will see the root
11:02has two sorts of parts
11:03and this is worth knowing.
11:05There is the central,
11:07older, roundish part in the middle,
11:10what some call the mother,
11:11with the roots coming off it,
11:13and there are the newer,
11:15plumper finger parts
11:16growing off of that.
11:17Now here is the old,
11:19wise way
11:20to divide the harvest.
11:22Those finger parts
11:23are the finest eating,
11:25the richest and most flavorful,
11:27so those you keep for your table.
11:29And that central mother part,
11:32which is a touch less fine to eat,
11:34that is your seed.
11:36That is what you set aside
11:37to replant for next year's crop.
11:40You can eat it too if you like,
11:42but the wise gardener
11:43keeps it back for planting.
11:45Eat the fingers,
11:47replant the mother.
11:48What you mean to use soon
11:50will keep fresh
11:51a good few weeks in a cool place,
11:53and you can preserve the rest
11:55by drying and grinding
11:57your own golden powder,
11:59far finer than any store jar,
12:01or by pickling.
12:02And the pieces you are keeping back
12:04for seed to plant next season,
12:06you store simplest of all
12:08by keeping them in a box or a bag
12:11with a little soil or mulch over them,
12:13cool and dark,
12:15where they rest quiet
12:16until you are ready
12:17to plant them out again
12:18come the warm weather.
12:20And so the circle closes
12:22and begins again.
12:24Now let me give you
12:25the honest word I promised
12:27on the warm and the cold country,
12:29for it governs everything.
12:32Turmeric wants a long,
12:33warm, frost-free season,
12:35a good many months of heat,
12:37to grow a fine crop,
12:39for it is tropical to its bones
12:41and it is slow,
12:42taking most of a year to mature.
12:45So if you live in the warm south,
12:47or anywhere the winters are gentle
12:49and the summers long and hot,
12:51turmeric is easy.
12:53Plant it in the ground
12:54and it will thrive and multiply
12:56and build you that fine standing bed
12:59over the years.
13:01But if you live up my way,
13:03in the cold country
13:04where the frost comes hard
13:05and the season is short,
13:07you cannot leave it in the ground,
13:09for the frost will kill it.
13:11So there you grow it
13:12in a good big pot,
13:14set out in the hottest,
13:15sunniest spot through the summer,
13:17and then,
13:18before the first frost,
13:20you bring that pot indoors
13:21to a warm,
13:22bright place
13:23to carry it through the winter
13:24and set it back out
13:26when the warmth returns.
13:27It is slower going
13:29and more trouble
13:30in the cold country.
13:31I will not pretend otherwise,
13:33but it can be done,
13:35a pot at a time,
13:36and there is a real joy
13:38in growing a tropical golden spice
13:41of your own
13:41in a cold northern land.
13:44Let me say a plain word
13:46about who profits
13:48from you not knowing all this,
13:50and it is no dark scheme.
13:53Turmeric is dear at the store,
13:55that little jar of powder,
13:57and folks buy it again and again,
13:59and there is no money at all
14:02in a man learning
14:03that one root,
14:04planted once
14:05and divided year on year,
14:07would give him
14:08all the turmeric
14:09he could ever want
14:10forever for nothing,
14:13and finer and fresher
14:14than any jar besides.
14:17Nobody earns a wage
14:19teaching you
14:20that a spice you think of
14:22as exotic and store-bought
14:24will grow you
14:25a whole bed of itself
14:27off a single knob of root.
14:29There is no jar to sell in that,
14:32so it goes untaught,
14:34and folks pay dear by the ounce
14:37for what they could grow
14:38by the armful.
14:40It is not hidden,
14:41it is only never taught,
14:44for your own turmeric bed
14:45is the store's steady loss.
14:48The money runs toward the jar
14:51on the shelf
14:51and away from the root
14:53in your own ground,
14:54and it always has.
14:57So there is the whole of it.
14:59Plant good big pieces
15:01of fresh root
15:02in rich, loose,
15:04free-draining soil
15:05full of compost,
15:07and mulch them over.
15:09Water it freely
15:10once you have got
15:11the draining right,
15:12for it loves heat and moisture,
15:15but rots in a bog.
15:17Give it a sunny bed
15:19and patience
15:20and build your stock up
15:22over a few years,
15:24taking what you need
15:25and replanting the rest.
15:27Move it to fresh ground
15:29only every few years
15:31when it asks.
15:32Let the plant die right back
15:34before you dig.
15:36Then keep the fine fingers to eat
15:39and the mother root
15:40to replant.
15:41And if you are in the cold country,
15:44grow it in a pot
15:45you can carry in
15:46from the frost.
15:48Do those things
15:49and you will grow
15:50a golden treasure
15:52in a tiny corner
15:54of your garden
15:54that most folks
15:56never dreamed
15:57they could grow at all.
15:59Tell me down in the comments
16:01what county you garden in
16:03and whether you have
16:04ever tried turmeric
16:05or its cousin ginger
16:07and how it did for you,
16:09for I would dearly love
16:11to know
16:11how many of you
16:13are growing
16:13these golden roots.
16:15And if you are
16:16in a warm land
16:17where it grows easy,
16:19tell us how big a bed
16:21you have built up
16:22and over how many years,
16:24for that is just
16:25the encouragement
16:26a cold country grower
16:28with one lonely pot
16:30most wants to hear.
16:32Next time out here,
16:34I want to show you
16:35how to build
16:36a proper compost pile
16:37the old way,
16:39layer upon layer,
16:41so that you can make
16:42the deep, rich compost
16:44that a hungry crop
16:45like turmeric
16:46must have
16:47to grow those
16:48great golden clumps.
16:50For as I told you,
16:52this is a heavy feeder
16:53that loves rich ground
16:55above all,
16:56and that pile
16:58is how you feed it
16:59for nothing.
17:00It is the foundation
17:02under all of it,
17:03and it is past time
17:05I showed you.
17:05But for now,
17:07remember this.
17:09The things we think of
17:11as exotic
17:11and beyond us,
17:13that we pay dear for
17:15in little jars,
17:16are so often
17:17just plants,
17:19ordinary living plants,
17:21that will grow
17:22for anyone
17:23willing to give them
17:24a warm spot
17:26and a little patience.
17:27There is a quiet freedom
17:29in growing your own
17:31golden spice
17:32in a corner of the yard.
17:34It is not the size
17:36of your ground
17:37that limits you,
17:38but only the smallness
17:40of what you believe
17:41you can grow.
17:43The people who built
17:44this country
17:45with their hands
17:46knew that,
17:47and we are only
17:48just starting
17:49to remember it.
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