I'm quite envious of your tree, as I cook with these leaves almost daily, yet can't grow the trees, as winter frosts kill them.

It's fairly easy to propagate from the suckers, and this link explains it very well...

Propagating from Suckers

Thanks shaxhome! I‘ve been lucky with this tree. It’s survived quite a few Chicago winters. I’m hoping to be able to share these trees with friends who like to cook with the leaves. Anyway, I appreciate the link!

“It’s survived quite a few Chicago winters.” I’m assuming you mean indoors? Can you tell us how you care for it? I’d love to grow one but our house is rather gloomy in winter.

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

I’m not sure I’m that qualified to advise, but I’m happy to share my experience.

This tree was a gift from a friend 7 years ago. It was a sapling/sucker from her tree. She told me the parent plant seemed to survive better indoors than any of the other curry trees she’d had. So, it’s possible this tree is just genetically hardy.

For soil, I’ve used well-drained soil. I buy general, commercial potting soil, which also includes some miracle gro fertilizer. I then add worm castings as an organic fertilizer. And then I add additional pearlite to assist with drainage and to help avoid compaction of the soil. My impression is that compaction is a bigger concern when the pot is large and there’s a lot of soil

For lighting, I did not get much light in my old apartment. A building was blocking my only window. My plant did not grow much in this window, so I purchased a 300-watt-equivalent LED bulb with a color temperature of 5000K. It was kind of expensive and VERY BRIGHT, but it worked. My tree started to grow quite well. After I moved to a new apartment with more sunlight, I placed my tree in an east facing window without the LED light. It got direct sunlight for a few hours a day. In the winter, I placed the LED light next to the tree. I don’t know if it was necessary at this point to use the LED light, and despite having the light, my tree did lose quite a few leaves in the winter. When spring arrived, I trimmed back the bare branches and new branches grew quite rapidly during the spring and summer. The tree even blossomed with one cluster of flowers!

And finally, water. When the tree is small, it’s a bit easier to water, but when the tree is large, I think the way you water the tree can have a big impact on whether it survives the winter. I never water my tree without checking the soil. When the tree was small, I’d put my finger in the soil before watering it. If the soil was dry for a couple inches, I’d thoroughly water the plant. Now that the tree is large, I use a water meter to check the top half of the pot. I have a large pot now, and if I only checked the top few inches of the soil, it’s not enough to be sure the roots aren’t water-logged. I push the water meter all the way into the pot. If the meter shows that the soil is still very wet in the bottom half of the pot (which is where most of the roots are for my tree), I won’t add water. If it’s barely moist halfway down, I’ll add plenty of water to make sure the whole thing gets moist. My pot has holes in the bottom to allow excess water to leak out. I check the soil weekly, but I often only water once every couple weeks. Sometimes more, sometimes less. It depends on how active the plant is and how dry the air is in my apartment.

I don’t really add much fertilizer because I’ve changed my pot fairly often, and the fresh soil had fertilizer in it. I do have a 20-20-20 fertilizer that I add to the water in very small doses when the tree is very actively growing, but this summer I was quite lazy with this, and I rarely did it. I don’t know that it’s even necessary.

And one final thing is I have never put my tree outside. I know of families in Chicago who move their trees outside in the summer, and they didn’t seem to have any problems. It’s probably good for the tree to experience wind and fresh air, but I never wanted to risk introducing any pests to the soil or to the plant directly. I also didn’t want the tree to be stressed when I brought it back into my apartment where the air is dryer and more stagnant than it is outside.

I hope you found that helpful. I’m by no means an expert, but I hope some of the things I’ve tried will work for you.

Very helpful, thanks.