fourmations wrote:
[...]

i would love to grow methi and curry leaves specifically
because they are items I can never get fresh

Tim,
I read up on ginger but never did anything about it,
is it as easy as bunging supermarket ginger ina bucket?

As another poster said, ginger is quite easy and attractive to grow,
but it's hard to get a crop in our temperate conditions -- it's never
done any good for me, at any rate.

Curry leaves are also tropical: I've never seen fresh ones for sale
(and dried ones, as you know, are a waste of space for cooking), but
they must be available somewhere at an appropriate price. But in case
you do find some, I found the following by Ggling:
http://plantcultures.org.uk/plants/c...f_grow_it.html

--
Mike.

Paul Corfield wrote:

hello to another ukrm refugee


Waves 'Ello Paul.

On a Gardeners World special about allotments a couple of years ago
there was an Asian gardener who came from a long line of farmers /
gardeners in Pakistan.

He grew all sorts of amazing things. One of those was coriander. He
lightly "ground" or bruised the seeds between rocks / stones before
planting to break the outer coating. This facilitated germination. The
other thing was that he never watered his plants - he argued this
forced them to put down strong roots by searching for moisture.


It makes sense but I wonder if UK seeds would be hardy enough for that sort
of treatment? Still, worth a try - some with and some without water. Saying
that, it's been slashing down all day here!

Dear old Monty said he was going to try the seed "grounding" technique
as he had struggled to get coriander to grow effectively. I've not
seen any feedback as to whether Monty was any more successful.

As I know next to nothing about gardening and plants you may well wish
to pay more attention to the resident experts than me!

Heh. All contributions welcome

Si

If you look on plottys allotment update there is a picture of some healthy looking coriander. Looks like the leaf crop sort, from what I can see. It may say in his blog archive how he achieved it.

In article .com,
"Mike Lyle" wrote:

fourmations wrote:
[...]

i would love to grow methi and curry leaves specifically
because they are items I can never get fresh

Tim,
I read up on ginger but never did anything about it,
is it as easy as bunging supermarket ginger ina bucket?

As another poster said, ginger is quite easy and attractive to grow,
but it's hard to get a crop in our temperate conditions -- it's never
done any good for me, at any rate.

Curry leaves are also tropical: I've never seen fresh ones for sale
(and dried ones, as you know, are a waste of space for cooking), but
they must be available somewhere at an appropriate price. But in case
you do find some, I found the following by Ggling:
http://plantcultures.org.uk/plants/c...f_grow_it.html

I'm amazed that anyone has had difficulty germinating coriander.
In the past i've tried growing it - and I reckon I got 110% germination
from seed bought as spice in an indian supermarket. I've always
found it a bit difficult to grow on - and have given up because
you can buy big bunches of it for less than a pound in the very
same indian supermarkets.

Fenugreek (methi) is much the same story. You can buy seed from seed
companies and some people use it as green manure. You can buy the seed
much cheaper from indian supermarkets. It germinates Ok but its
always a bit weedy. Maybe with better soil, a polytunnel etc you'd
get a reasonable crop - but again, the big bunches for less than a pound
in the supermarkets beckon.
Mustard seed as a green manure is another supermarket purchase.

I also tried ginger once. Its quite interesting - but it needs a lot
of heat and light. You're certainly not going to get a cost effective
crop with that.

My current project is Caralluma sp. (Edulis? Fimbriata?)
which is a succulent
looking a bit like a stapelia. I found it on sale at 84p /100g
in the AlHalal Supermarket in Bradford. I tried eating it raw
(very unpleasant) and braised (slightly less unpleasant). Its very
bitter - and I think it should be added to dishes in small quantities
(anyone know?). Anyway, the remainder is living in a pot with the
other succulents in the greenhouse. Perhaps it will flower and identify
itself - or maybe it will just die out in the winter.

Following up to John McMillan :

I'm amazed that anyone has had difficulty germinating coriander.
In the past i've tried growing it - and I reckon I got 110% germination
from seed bought as spice in an indian supermarket.

Me too. I seem to get more plants than the seeds I planted. :-)
Just make sure the seed isn't pre-roasted, as some of it is.

I've always
found it a bit difficult to grow on - and have given up because
you can buy big bunches of it for less than a pound in the very
same indian supermarkets.

Never had any trouble. Bung it in the garden somewhere warm and sheltered,
but not direct sun all day, and the seeds come up and grow like mad. I have
quite heavy clay soil. Slugs love it, however.
--
Tim C.

"Tim C." wrote in message
...
Following up to John McMillan :

I'm amazed that anyone has had difficulty germinating coriander.
In the past i've tried growing it - and I reckon I got 110% germination
from seed bought as spice in an indian supermarket.

Me too. I seem to get more plants than the seeds I planted. :-)
Just make sure the seed isn't pre-roasted, as some of it is.

I've always
found it a bit difficult to grow on - and have given up because
you can buy big bunches of it for less than a pound in the very
same indian supermarkets.

Never had any trouble. Bung it in the garden somewhere warm and sheltered,
but not direct sun all day, and the seeds come up and grow like mad. I
have
quite heavy clay soil. Slugs love it, however.
--
Tim C.


hi all

I planted some fenugreek during this thread and its sprouted
any special considerations

rgds
4