I read somewhere that it take 2 years to produce the tubers. I agree with Glenn, replant & patience.

Craig

My concern is I've watched multiple youtube videos of people digging up their turmeric, and there are clearly no such bulbs on long roots on any of those. I thought maybe I got the wrong kind of root due to a mixup at the asian grocery where I originally bought it.

Its hard to tell from photos but turmeric is usually bright orange. Yours look a little paler although still orange. Could just be the lighting. The inside should be the color of a deep orange sweet potato and it will stain your fingers orange when you cut it up etc. The photo here shows the color..It could be immature rhizomes...scroll down to see the root photo on this blog. I can't get it to blow up on my phone..kinda looks like there may be little rhizomes towards the bottom of some roots. They don't appear as roundish as yours.

http://ediblesouthflorida.ediblecommunities.com/recipes/rooting-turmeric-and-ginger

Another thought some ginger type relatives have these round food storage balls coming off the roots. I dont remember seeing these on my turmeric. I have only been growing turmeric a few years though. I know Dichorisandra thyrsiflora/blue ginger (not a true ginger) has these 'storage systems' on their roots. See this blog photo growerjim.blogspot.com/2013/09/dichorisandra-thyrsiflora-blue-ginger.html?m=1

Some peacock gingers/kaemferia roots have round storage looking clusters around the roots..I haven't seen all the different kinds of peacock ginger roots so can't really say for sure.

Did you happen to get any flowers from your ginger root? That might help narrow it down?

It looks like turmeric, rub a fresh cut on your skin and see if it turns orange, that's how I tell if I dug up my turmeric or a ginger I have that looks very close. The turmeric will turn my skin orange and that ginger doesn't. Also my turmeric does make those little balls that is what I replant or plant in other places so I have more.

Ok, I'm glad to hear someone else has turmeric with those root bulbs. The roots are definitely orange and quite willing to stain me, the knife, and anything else. Strangely the root bulbs are not orange inside.

I'm still confused why I can't find any pictures online showing these on turmeric (they do look exactly like the blue ginger picture from @sultry_Jasmine_night) Are there multiple varieties of turmeric? Or could this not be "true" turmeric?

There are different types of turmeric and it is in the ginger family.

Ok I went out and dug a clump of mine up..I DID find tiny round pieces coming off the roots. They did not come up with the original clump of rhizomes but I saw tiny roots still in the ground so I followed them about a foot deeper. So up came these tiny little balls on the end of the root. So when you see people's dug up clumps the tiny deeper ones prob just didnt come up but broke off ..plants defense so it can keep multiplying maybe?..lol

The tiny balls..you can barely see the one on the left bottom

So this is a good reference thread if anyone else has this question because there isn't many, if any good photos showing turmeric with these tiny ball like babies lol.

I got curious about my turmeric roots, I have them growing in the same patch for many years, never took them out to replant, I do get pretty flowers every year...

This is one of the growing areas

And I took one root out and did not see any little balls, did not go too deep either

Eric, to be absolutely sure if I was you I would buy another turmeric root, they usually have them at the Oriental store and they are inexpensive. Grow it and compare, I am very careful especially if I am going to use it as a food.

Silvia

If you bought it from a store, it's turmeric. There are different varieties of turmeric, but and Asian grocery would not sell fake turmeric. Turmeric spreads by putting out those little bulbs. They take two years to become tubers. If you leave them in the ground for a few years, you'll end up with a huge clump of it that will flower.

Eric, I live about an hour and a half north of you and was surprised to find these tubers when I dug up my turmeric today. Yes, there are different varieties of turmeric. I've seen white, and this one is bright yellow. I was happy to find your post.

Mine are still completely green and they're even growing new leaves

Up here in 9a, all the gingers are starting to fade already.

i was excited to find someone who had these tubers at the end of their tumeric roots. i searched the internet for information on this to no avail until i stumbled on this. first year of growing my tumeric from tubers the plant had flowers and i harvested them after the plant died down and i got orange rhizomes. I planted these and this time the plants did not flower and the rhizomes colour ranges from yellowish to orange and i have lots of tubers at the end of the roots. could this be because they did not flower.

i am going to try and plant them as someone suggested and see what happens

it's probably white turmeric, Curcuma Zedoaria, which has many more health benefits than the yellow variety. look it up. mine has plenty of those little bulbs on long roots, though mine also have tons of tubers. i got some starters from friend at farmers market. many gingers and other tuber edible bulbs purchased in stores have been treated so they don't grow. order tubers online from a farmer or i'll send you some

My recent harvest has a ton of these extra tagalongs. Some are quite long, four or five inches in length and thicker than the finger rhizomes. I decided to separate them and dehydrate them and grind them separately to compare to the flavor of the mothers and fingers. Well… they are sticky, starchy, white, flavorless… basically a sticky potato. I dont think im going to process them because they are flavorless goo raw and I don’t think dehydration will help the flavor; might make a good hashbrown though. Has anyone eaten them and lived to tell the tale?

This is the first year I had those little white bulbs, also. My boston ferns produce exactly the same bulbs, so I assume they are to help store water and nutrients. I replanted some

of them with the bulbs attached.

The round bulbs are for storage, but they can grow into new plants

http://misssmartyplants.com/planting-curcuma-bulbs/

I tried yo pist a photo, but it doesnt go through. The attachments on my white bulbs are considerably smalker than the ones in that photo.

I’m glad you started this post. I dug up my turmeric today grown in a container and found a giant root with lots of small bulbs attached and was stumped as I didn’t know what it was. I know the root is 100% turmeric! I’m planting all the bulbous things to see what happens. Any commentary from others will be super helpful!

I wonder if it might be more than one plant?

This was my first harvest and I also found these bulbs. I cut them in half, they look like turmeric, and I took a bite… it was horrible lol. I have learned that they are call starch root. Here is an article that might be interesting if you want to use them in the kitchen.

https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/VC-9.pdf

I didn't see anything in that article about using starch roots in the kitchen...?

Thank you for the pdf document which i found very informative. Thank you for solving the mystery of the tag along starch root. I am looking forward to processing it into the starch powder as directed.