Turmeric log 1: SIGNS OF LIFE

In the previous blog I have photos of the first five turmeric just starting out. They were taken on the 20th of January 2020.

Now here's the catch. Apparently these things need a good 10 months of warm, frost free climate. So, Houston  we had a problem. They had been planted, late November, in a fairly frost free area thanks to a coastal sea breeze. This meant they only had 6-7 months of growing, but still provided me with a good crop to harvest and experiment with. As well as more than 3 times as many rhizomes, which are already on there way. Unfortunately, because of there shorter than natural growing time, they didn't get the chance to show off there awesome flowers. 

The smaller rhizomes (fingers) where harvested, and the rest put back into stock to increase next years harvest. These where stored in sawdust in a dark dry space for 2 months before planting.

Turmeric fingers blanched and ready for dehydrating. Most were ground into a powder but some were kept as a finger that can be grated into your cooking or, ya smoothies, ya tea, ya coffee, or ya milk, ya biscuits, ya bread, ya pet food, ya sauces, or ya bloody marinades, ya 8am cocktail, ya 10pm nachos, or Jeeze you could probably bath in it, it's that good for you. 

If so I recommend filling your bath with fresh goats milk (approximately 23 milking goats are needed, but 17 will produce enough for a small bath.) and 100grms of turmeric per 10 kilo of body weight.

So, 'WHAT I LEARNT' from the last grow is, to get the full potential out of these plants they need good free draining soil, with plenty of organic matter. A warm, humid, tropical type environment, and somebody silly enough to spend 10 months trying to convince the plants that they're actually in Fiji.

So, "WHAT I DID" this time around is potted my 91 rhizomes (that's 91. not 90) 2 months after the last crop died off from frost. This should give me my 10 months growing and hopefully some flowers. To help things along, all the rhizomes were potted in the first week of August and placed in a glasshouse. And on the 12th of November...!!Bang!!..

                                                         .....SIGNS OF LIFE.

Next week, (don't quote me on that, it is xmas) I'll catch you up on where we're at now with the turmeric, there next home, and maybe a bit of an intro. into my top secret goji mission. (maybe). Until then, relax, fish and have a great xmas. 

P.S  I would appreciate any feedback from anyone trying the turmeric & goat milk bath recipe. Cheers.