• About the Crop
• Processing & Value Addition

Crop Management

• Climate & Soil
• Varieties
• Production of quality planting materials


• Cultivation Practices
• Plant Protection
• Harvesting & Storage
• Organic Farming

Production of quality planting materials

Planting materials from rhizome

Rhizomes for seed purpose are generally stored by heaping in well-ventilated rooms and covered with turmeric leaves.  The seed rhizomes can also be stored in pits with saw dust, sand, leaves of Glycosmis pentaphylla (panal), Stychnos nux-vomica (kanjiram) etc.  The pits are to be covered with wooden planks with one or two openings for aeration.  The rhizomes are to be dipped in quinalphos (0.075%) solution for 15 minutes if scale infestations are observed and in mancozeb (0.3%) to avoid storage losses due to fungi.

It is a nine month crop sown in July and harvested in April. Whole or split mother rhizomes are used for planting and well developed healthy and disease free rhizomes are to be selected. For sowing both the mother-rhizomes, the fingers are used. The fingers are cut into pieces each 4-5 cm long, and the mother rhizomes are planted as such or split into two; each having at least one sound bud. The seed is sometimes sprouted under moist straw before sowing.

Small pits are made with a hand hoe in the beds in rows with a spacing of 25 cm x 30 cm and covered with soil or dry powdered cattle manure. The optimum spacing in furrows and ridges is between 45-60 cm between the rows and 25 cm between the plants.  A seed rate of 2,500 kg of rhizomes is required for planting one hectare of turmeric.

Rapid Multiplication Through 'Tissue Culture'

• The preferred method of propagation of turmeric is through pieces of rhizome. But this is a slow process since rhizome has a dormancy period. It only sprouts during the monsoon, and only 5 to 6 plants can be obtained from rhizome in a year.