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faulkner_leena

Curry Leaf Plant

11 years ago

I have curry leaf plant for 2-3 yrs now. The same curry leaf plant grow some flowers which then turn to green fruits. What do I do with those fruits? Some friends suggested I pluck the fruits now & dry them so that I can grow more curry leaf plant. But when can I do that? Need help as I am clueless & I wanna do it before fall & before I bring my plant indoors. This is the pic of the fruit.

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  • 11 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Allow the seed to ripen on the plant. It will turn a deep purple color. The fruits are edible but taste very strongly of curry leaf - some people find the concentrated flavor unpleasant.

    Pick the fruits when they are ripe. Do not attempt to dry them, curry leaf seed is very fragile and must be fresh to get reliable germination. If you try to dry the seed and save it, it won't germinate. They need to be cleaned - the seed itself will look like a large green pea.

    Plant in individual cells of a seeding pak about an inch deep and germinate with bottom heat in a sunny south facing window. You don't HAVE to provide bottom heat but it does need warmth - you can't do this in an unheated garage, for instance. About 80F worked best for me. Without bottom heat in a 70+ home, it will take longer. Be patient. I removed my flats from the heat mat after just a couple of weeks because I thought germination was done and the rest were dead - but eventually all but 2 or 3 that I had physically damaged by accident did germinate. Several spawned clones, separate plants from the mother plant, over time.

    When they get about 4" high (assuming they are in 1.5" to 2" cells to start with) transplant into 4" pots. I went straight from 4" pots to 10" pots on the next up-plant.

    I use a potting medium consisting of peat, small bark, and GrowStone. Almost any bagged general purpose potting medium will do, but they do better in this mix. You can use pumice instead of Growstone if you can get it affordably.

    I'm about to put at least a dozen of my 20 or 30 plants on craig's list as it is getting to be time to bring them in and I simply don't have the space for all of them now that they're in bigger pots. Besides, who needs 30 curry leaf plants? LOL!

    If you're doing this indoors, you need plant lights - and I don't mean those little things they sell as plant lights that really aren't. You need 4' fluorescent fixtures with a minumum of 2 bulbs each, minimum of 4 bulbs total until the plants are 4" to 5" tall. After that you will need even more light than that. I get buy with 4 fluorescents in a VERY sunny window facing almost due south that gets strong light all winter.

    The little seedlings will live through the winter on just the 4 bulbs (they need to be the right sort of bulb, 2750 lumens 6500k, you can get these in a box of 10 or 12 at Home Despot or Lowes much more cheaply than buying in pairs. These are for T8 fixtures. Get the narrowest fixtures you can find so you can get as many bulbs as possible over the plants.

    Those wire shelves you see at Home Despot, Lowes, Costco, Sams, etc are great for plants and you can very easily hang the fixtures on them. I prefer the shelves at least 6' tall and 24" deep x 48" long, but 18" deep will do if you don't have too many plants. I use only 4 of the shelves they provide to give room to hang the lights. Hang the lights 2" above the plants and move them up (by shortening the chain or cable you used to hang them) as the plants grow. Use a fan pointed at the shelves to keep air moving.

    You can get more light in the same space if you use T5 fixtures and bulbs, but they cost a lot more. They also generate more heat, so watch the plants carefully to make sure the leaves don't get crisped. I've had leaves touching the bulbs of a T8 fixture without taking damage, but that won't be the case with T5 bulbs.

    Come spring, when temps outdoors are over 50F at night, you can pot them up and set them outside in a partially shaded location and they will thrive. I set mine out to get morning sun and be shaded from the harsh desert afternoon sun and they have grown like gangbusters.

    Hope that helps.

    faulkner_leena thanked Pyewacket
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