About 7 Months back, we planted some pieces of grocery bought ginger and turmeric rhizomes. Let’s take a quick recap of that step by step process which is common for both ginger and turmeric.
- Choose your rhizomes – they must be free of wrinkles and with visible eyes.
- Cut into multiple pieces – each piece must have atleast 2 eyes.
- Soak in water for about 12 hours.
- Plant them in a well draining soil containing at least 50% compost like decomposed cowdung or vermicompost. You can use garden soil or coco coir or a mix of both.
- You can first plant in smaller containers or directly plant in larger containers of atleast 12 inch size.
- Plant them 1 to 2 inches deep with eyes facing upwards or sidewards. Best time to plant is spring or summer so that you can harvest in fall months.
- Water thoroughly and then keep in bright indirect sunlight until you get first set of leaves.
- Rooting and shooting should start within a week, you can keep in direct sunlight of atleast 4 to 6 hours.
- After a month, if you have grown in smaller containers, transplant each plant into a larger container of atleast 12 inches.
- Fertilize once a month With one or Two Handfuls Of Compost and water thoroughly twice a week or more depending on your climatic conditions.
Now Let’s look into harvesting:
Ginger and Turmeric can be harvested any time after 6 to 8 months or when you see the plant starts to dieback and leaves turning yellow and dry.
You need to stop watering a week before harvesting. Then just loosen the soil in the container by tapping it or if you have grown in a poly bag, you can loosen the soil by tapping and patting. That’s it. Remove the dirt and air dry the rhizomes before storing.
When plants and animals die, their molecules become available in soil for use by other organisms like bacteria and fungi. This product is the final break-down constituents of the natural decay or decomposition of plant and animal materials through the biological activities of micro-organisms. This product is commercially available in powdered form as well as liquid form for horticultural use.
How does this work on plants? It chelates the complex nutrient compounds in the soil to convert them to simple forms suitable for plant absorption. This reduces the fertilizer usage by upto 30% and increases flowering and fruiting by up to 70%. So, this is not a fertilizer, but a bio-catalyst and bio-stimulant for the plant. This is an excellent natural and organic way to provide plants and soil with a concentrated dose of essential nutrients, amino acids, vitamins and trace elements.
Before I reveal you the name of this product, let’s quickly know some of the functions or benefits of this powder.
- Improves Soil Structure by providing more space for root growth and beneficial microbial activity. They bind to soil molecules and improve soil structure, and this is especially noticeable in high-clay and compacted soils.
- Reduces Soil Toxins: They don’t just make nutrients easily available for absorption, but also chelate harmful toxins in the soil, preventing them from entering the plant.
- Increases Water Retention in soil by reducing water evaporation by upto 30%.
- Improved Microbial Activity in the soil and chelation of complex nutrient forms to simple forms for better uptake by the roots makes the plant grow healthier with little fertilizer application and increases flowering and fruiting.
Having said that, let’s know what this is called and how to use it properly for best results.
This is called Humus which consists of three components–humic acids, fulvic acids, and humin.
This is available as powdered form and also liquid form. The Liquid is a concentrated humic acid and needs to be diluted with water before applying on plants. Humic acid is easily available at your local garden store or you can even order online.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Now, Let’s learn how to use it. This is particularly beneficial if your plant has nutritional deficiencies due to poor absorption of nutrients from the soil, which manifests as various leaf yellowing patterns.
So, How to use this? Three Methods to use this:
- Soil Application: The Dosage is 1 teaspoon per litre of water. Mix it well and water 1 cup, that’s about 250 ml of it per plant. If you are using liquid humic acid, add 3 ml of it per litre of water. You should see results within 1 – 2 weeks.
- Foliar Spray: You can add one teaspoon of this per gallon of water and spray on the plants. 1 gallon = 3.78 litres. Please check the usage instructions on the product label and use accordingly. If you are using liquid humic acid, add 1 ml per litre of water for foliar spray.
- Compost Tea: You can add 1 teaspoon per gallon to your compost tea while brewing. This will certainly help in better absorption of nutrients. For beginners, Compost tea is made by adding compost like decomposed cowdung or vermicompost into water and allowing it to brew for 5 to 7 days and then you dilute this further like in 1:10 ratio and water your plants.