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elake661

Indian herbs and spices in zone 8

9 years ago

What types of spices can I grow that would be used in Indian cooking in zone 8? Carmdon, safffron and the like? Stuff for a masala blend? Thank you in advance for the advice.

Comments (9)

  • 9 years ago

    Outdoors? Indoors? The only easy ones I can think of outdoors are coriander, and mint. Cumin should be possible if you have a long warm growing season. Saffron is possible but not easy and you need a lot of saffron crocuses to get a tiny amount. Cardamom, curry leaf, ginger and cinnamon need a tropical climate. Ginger could be grown indoors. Curry leaf can be grown in a pot and brought inside in cold weather. However, to get any significant quantity of most spices you need a lot of plants so I don't think it is a very practical idea. Interesting experiment though.

    Can you say where you are located geographically?

  • 9 years ago

    Ginger and turmeric are possible. I'm zone 7, north Georgia, and I start my ginger and turmeric indoors in January/February and transplant some outdoors around Mothers' day. I dig it up and harvest when the leaves/greens die back in the fall, before the first frost/freeze. You can keep it in containers if you want a longer growing season, bringing it indoors when nightly low temps are below 50F.

    Peppercorns can be grown indoors as a house plant. The vines grow fairly well, even in lower light situations. It needs temps over 70F to keep growing. Getting it to flower and produce is challenging, though.

    I'm about to try some cardamom this year. I'm not sure (yet) how much trouble it is.

  • 9 years ago

    I am in Zone 8 in central California. I am learning how to cook Indian food and thought it would be nice to incorporate that into this years garden.

  • 9 years ago

    Name the specific herbs and spices you want to grow.

    Like I said, I'm doing well with ginger and turmeric.

    Actually, I just googled about growing saffron, and if you have (or can create) a very well drained environment, saffron grows in zones 6 to 9. It's a fall flowering crocus, crocus sativus, and apparently bulbs are available in early to mid summer. I may try to establish a bed of that this summer, instead of the green cardamom.

  • 9 years ago

    Ginger is super EASY. But flesh corms, plant shallowly in sandy soil. Keep warm. Not sure they are hardy year round in your zone, but you can always lift the corms in the Autumn before a hard frost. They are also EASY in the house in whatever zone you are in. Chile peppers are also good if we are talking about containerized and in the house or outside in the growing season.

  • 9 years ago

    Chilis, okra in the summer

  • 9 years ago

    I forgot chillis. Yes, they are very easy indoors in a sunny window and you get a lot of crop from a few plants. I grow about six plants every couple of years and have enough to store for ages.

    For ginger, even if it is easy to grow, if you use as much as I do I'd never be able to grow enough in pots, Especially since you use the rhizome so the plant is destroyed by harvesting.

    Apart from the chillis, for me the fresh herbs like cilantro would be the best thing to grow. They are never as good from the store whereas dried spices are usually pretty good.

  • 9 years ago

    Cilantro is fantastically easy and you'll end up with coriander for your spice mixes, though it does bolt quickly all you need to do is plant a few more seeds every few weeks and you'll have great harvests. I am diving into Thai food this year and cilantro roots are used often in curry pastes. First I grow the cilantro for the leaves and harvest moderately for a few weeks, when it starts to flower I wait until it sets seeds then I cut the stalks with the seeds and let them dry and use them for coriander, then harvest any remaining cilantro stalks before pulling the plant and harvesting the roots. The roots have a fantastic cilantro flavor and are great ground into a paste for curry. or chopped fine and added to dishes to add a cilantro hint but since you can't easily buy cilantro roots in the store I keep them in a ziplock in the freezer for when I want to make more curry paste.

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