Season and method of planting

• Plant during April-May with the receipt of pre-monsoon showers.
• The land is prepared with the receipt of early monsoon showers. The soil is brought to a fine tilth by giving about four deep ploughings.
• Hydrated lime @ 400 kg/ha has to be applied for laterite soils and thoroughly ploughed.
• Take small pits in the beds in rows with a spacing of 25cm x 25cm.
• Planting is also done by forming ridges and furrows.
• Plant finger rhizomes flat with buds facing upwards and cover with soil or dry powdered cattle manure.

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.
• 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.

Seed material

• Whole or split mother rhizomes are used for planting and well developed healthy and disease-free rhizomes are to be selected.
• Seeds can be soaked in copper oxychloride solution and stored in shaded pits covered with manure and mud.