Turmeric log 2: ON THE MOVE

After more than 5 months of nurturing and mothering over 90 of these wee puppies in a glasshouse, the time has come. No more Mr nice guy. These bad boys are off to the box...The garden box!!! 



The small shoots from 4 weeks ago have taken off, and a lot of them are ready to leave the comforts of their glasshouse and face the elements.
With the weather settling down and the rise in temperature I have been able to gradually introduce the bigger plants to the outdoors. Over the next week these will be planted out into a garden box that was prepared 4 or 5 months ago.

The garden box.
Due to turmeric needing good drainage with organic rich soil, and the ground I have to work with is solid clay with very little topsoil, a garden box was needed. Last year, large pots did the job, but this year I have 3x the amount to plant out so a garden box will make for easy management.
While waiting to plant the turmeric I made use of the box by planting garlic around the perimeter and a few asparagus. I also thought I'd put a sad looking watermelon in the middle of the box with the intention of replanting it, but it's gone crazy. So I've decided to plant the turmeric in amongst it, and call it a ground cover. 

                                  Still enough room for 70-80 plants as the garlic comes out.

Turmeric thrives on a high Nitrogen organic soil. So in the box went a good cover of lime on the clay base followed by a mix of dry leaves and twigs and green vegetation to help with aeration. It was then topped up with alternating layers of horse manure, blood and bone, top soil, Nitrophoska, fish frames and mushroom compost. Topped off with a sprinkle of good old chook shit. 
Turmeric loves it, as it is high in Nitrogen and still supplies the plant with a good amount of Phosphorus and potassium, which helps as they prefer an NPK of 15-15-15. Another thing that helps is they can handle a soil with a fairly wide ranged PH level of 4.7-7.5. Unlike my flamin' goji berry plants, but that's a story for another day. Maybe next week, when I'll be raving on about the benefits of turmeric and  how to take it.
 


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