You might not know it, or when you hear the word turmeric, the first thing that comes to mind is a food seasoning. But actually, there is a turmeric plant that is very easy to care for and in return you get a beautiful plant. Want to know more about her?
If you have a turmeric plant at home, you have seen it in stores or on the Internet and now you want to have it at homeit’s the care you need to provide to move forward.
Contents
Turmeric plant: important care
In case you didn’t know, the turmeric plant It is characterized by a more or less branched rhizome.. The leaves of this one are very elongated but the most beautiful are the flowers, which grow in spikes and turn from yellow to orange depending on the variety of turmeric.
It is a plant whose the activity takes place in spring and summer, remaining lethargic in autumn and winter. In fact, it is recommended that when the time comes, the rhizomes are removed and stored in a place where the temperature does not drop below 17 ° C to avoid damage, and in the spring, with the first shoots, it is replanted .
Location
The truth is that one of the needs of the turmeric plant is light. It should be exposed to a lot of light, but be careful, because it doesn’t have to be direct light. In fact, it is possible that there will be too much and end up burning it. This therefore leaves us the possibility of putting it outside or also inside. In other words, you can have it in a pot inside the house or planted in the garden in a bright place but not in direct sunlight.
What does it depend on? Besides what you want, the temperature you have also influences, which we will tell you about below.
Temperature
From what we have said before, you will know that one of the concerns of the turmeric plant to take into account is that don’t suffer from the cold as this is when you are lethargic and can get sicker.
The turmeric plant does not tolerate cold well, nor frost, of course. It is not recommended for the temperature to drop below 17 degrees.
At the other extreme, although it can withstand heat, when the thermometer exceeds 35ºC the plant begins to harm it, even become paralyzed and stop growing or being damaged.
Substrate
After seeing the above, you may have realized that the plant can be outdoors or indoors. In both cases, it needs good ground for it to develop properly.
For this, the best mixture, whether you have it in the garden or in a pot, is the mixture of mulch, peat and sand. Additionally, slightly more drainage could be added, such as perlite or akadama, as this oxygenates the roots better and avoids serious waterlogging problems.
Watering and humidity
Without a doubt, one of the most important turmeric plant care is watering. It is a plant that needs slightly moist soil.but not flooded, because if it is like that, it is more dangerous for you to lose it.
However, keep in mind that You only need to water in spring and summer. In autumn, it is necessary to start suspending the waterings because it does not need it (it goes to rest). But as soon as the first shoots come out, you have to get to work.
Perhaps at this stage irrigation is not as important as humidity. As a good tropical plant, average humidity prevails before watering. What does it mean? Well, you will have to water less if you control the humidity of the plant well.
Subscriber
This part is very important and it is that, As soon as the first shoots appear in the spring, it is advisable to fertilize it every two weeks.. If it’s small, or it’s the first year you’ve had it, unless where you buy it is told otherwise, it’s best to take it out once a month because you don’t know how it will react and because there are so many changes (from one place to another) in the subscriber that can damage the installation.
The best fertilizer for this plant is liquid, which you mix with the irrigation water. Add a little less than the manufacturer’s recommended dose. And if it is also rich in nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, copper, iron, magnesium… so much the better.
Cut
With the turmeric plant you will no longer have to worry about this treatment because it is a plant that cannot be pruned. At most, you will only have to remove the parts that dry out or appear dead, weak, diseased, etc.
Plagues and diseases
Among the pests and diseases that you should keep in mind that affect the turmeric plant, are the aphidswhich can be of different colors (and can be fixed with plant insecticides), red spider and mites (both of these can fix it by increasing the humidity of the plant and using a chemical (or natural)).
Related to diseases, most of them are related to lack or excess of humidity and irrigation.
Multiplication
The way to reproduce the turmeric plant is quite simple since it is based on the division of its rhizomes.
To do this, it is necessary to wait until spring, when it is transplanted or planted, and observe whether there are additional rhizomes. If so, using a clean, sanitized knife, you can very carefully divide it into portions. Of course, make sure they have roots and at least 2-3 leaves so they can grow.
Cut wounds are better treated. You can use fungicide products, sulfur or even cinnamon, which helps protect it from diseases and other problems.
As you can see, caring for the turmeric plant is not complicated at all. Perhaps where more emphasis needs to be placed is mostly on irrigation and humidity, but once she has adapted to the climate and seasons for a year, she is more easy to move on and not die. Do you have any doubts about this? Ask us and we’ll help you solve it.