Turmeric has long been an indispensable spice in many dishes. In particular, turmeric is also an ingredient to create a specific color to make the dish more attractive.
Turmeric is also used as a spice in many dishes with healing effects related to stomach, digestion, and flatulence. Therefore, turmeric and turmeric starch are always favored by many people around the world.
Whether you are a commercial gardener or just an avid gardener, growing turmeric hydroponically is a wise choice.
Growing turmeric by the hydroponic method will help you save area, nutrient sources, problems with pests, and bad effects on the environment and yield many times more effective.
How to grow turmeric hydroponically? All information on both planting and care will be detailed in this article. Let’s explore with us!
Why Should You Grow Turmeric Hydroponically?
Growing turmeric by hydroponic method brings many great benefits, especially for better yield and quality of turmeric.
According to the traditional method, you can harvest about 1.2 to 1.5 kg of turmeric per plant. However, when you grow turmeric hydroponically, each turmeric plant will yield from 1.6 to 2kg.
In particular, turmeric grown hydroponically contains more than 5% curcumin with the traditional method being only 2-3% and 5% essential oil. These are the main ingredients that make up the color and spicy flavor of turmeric.
Turmeric is very suitable to be grown hydroponically because in the soil there is a high risk of pathogens that greatly affect the growth and yield of turmeric when mature.
Moreover, turmeric grown by the hydroponic method will be harvested faster than the traditional method due to its growth rate and development in the most favorable conditions.
When turmeric is grown hydroponically, you can control pest problems, so turmeric plants that don’t have to use pesticides will yield the freshest and best quality turmeric.
How To Grow Turmeric Hydroponically?
Before starting the hydroponic process of growing turmeric, you need to learn about some important characteristics of the turmeric plant to find the right hydroponic model as well as to plan the source of nutrients, the amount of light, and so on.
1. General Characteristics Of Turmeric
- Turmeric has a height of 60 to 90 cm, with 7 to 12 elliptical leaves with sizes ranging from 30 to 40 centimeters
- The average lifespan of a turmeric plant is three years until turmeric can be obtained
- Turmeric is a warm-weather perennial herb
- The suitable environment for growing turmeric is humid and diverse tropical
- The tubers will grow from the roots and grow in large bunches
- The leaves and stems of the turmeric plant are also commonly used in folk remedies
2. How To Grow Turmeric By Hydroponics Method
- You can grow turmeric hydroponically by propagating them from the stem of the mother plant. Select healthy mother plants, tubers with many sprouts, and at least two or more sprouts for easy seedling growth.
- You need to stimulate the seedlings to grow by soaking the rhizomes in water for about a day in warm weather conditions.
- Proceed to cut the rhizome into pieces from 5 to 15 cm, weighing from 5 to 7 grams.
- Place small segments of rhizomes into your hydroponic system. You should carefully place them in each position so that the sprouts are facing up.
- Your hydroponic system should be built with vertical supports to support the turmeric as it grows and to save space.
- You can add coconut mulch to young plants when they are young to easily absorb nutrients and facilitate root development and growth.
- If you plant in small quantities, you can water every 2 weeks depending on the climate. If you are growing turmeric in bulk for commercial purposes, you should install a drip irrigation system to ensure an adequate water supply for each turmeric plant.
Some Standard Conditions When Growing Turmeric By The Hydroponic Method
Light: Using light to stimulate rhizome growth as well as avoid dormancy of turmeric, you should adjust the light for about 11 hours a day. You can use LEDs for lighting with 400-700nm photosynthetic active radiation (PAR spectrum).
Temperature: Turmeric loves warm temperatures, so you’ll need to keep the indoor temperature between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit or about 26 to 32 degrees Celsius. Temperatures below standard will cause the plant to slow to develop and has not reached its maximum growth rate.
Humidity: Turmeric prefers a humid environment from 70 to 90%, so you make sure to maintain the humidity for turmeric plants because if the humidity is lower, they will easily encounter problems of premature leaf aging, yellowing, and burning leaves leads to failure to develop.
EC and pH: The ideal EC range for growing turmeric hydroponically is 2.2 to 2.6. Meanwhile, the pH also needs to be maintained at 5.7 to 5.8 to stabilize nutrients as well as the absorption capacity of turmeric. You should use RO water in your hydroponic system to ensure better dissolution of nutrients from the fertilizer.
Distance: The best distance in each space when growing hydroponic turmeric is from 30-35 cm. If you want to increase the number while maintaining the distance, you can plant in a zig-zag pattern.
Nutrients: Macronutrients include nitrogen (170-180 mg/L), Phosphorus (110-120 mg/L), Potassium (200 -240 mg/L). The micronutrients include Calcium (220-230 mg/L), Magnesium (40-55 mg/L), Iron (4-6 mg/L), Manganese 3 mg/L, Zinc 0.25 mg/L. L, Boron 0.70 mg/L, Copper 0.07 mg/L, Molybdate 0.06 mg/L.
Pests: Pests and diseases can be easily developed during the propagation stage by fungi. As the plant matures, it can suffer from problems such as borers, mites, thrips, and whiteflies. You can treat them by applying 0.5-1.0% neem oil (organic) every 14 days.
Read more: Growing Basil Hydroponically – Everything You Need To Know
Time To Harvest Hydroponic Turmeric
The harvesting time of hydroponic turmeric depends on the variety you choose. You can check information about variety and time to harvest. Usually, the harvesting time is from at least 7 months and up to 9 months.
However, growing turmeric hydroponically will save you more time because the growth rate of hydroponic turmeric is faster than the traditional method. At the same time, turmeric also has ideal conditions, so it will reach a more mature size faster.
Signs to harvest when turmeric stems begin to age, leaves and twigs wilt, and inspect the turmeric for firmness, the taste will be spicy and golden yellow.
You should let the stems and leaves wither for a few days and then proceed to harvest turmeric
Turmeric will contain a lot of moisture up to 75% so the actual yield of turmeric will be about 25%, so you need to take measures to preserve it to avoid loss.
Conclusion
Growing turmeric by the hydroponic method is becoming a new and innovative growing trend that offers many times higher yields than traditional methods.
Before starting to grow turmeric hydroponically, you need to learn the basic characteristics of turmeric as well as the standards of light, moisture, pH, macronutrient groups, micronutrients, etc. distance between turmeric and common pests.
Let’s start growing turmeric hydroponically to increase productivity as well as harvest turmeric with a superior quality compared to traditional farming.