An Easy Route to a Spicy Harvest

Charles Darwin was baffled by flowers.

In his pioneering book “On The Origin of Species”, Charles Darwin writes about how populations evolve gradually based on natural selection. Twenty years after writing the seminal book, what still perplexed him most was the origin of flowers. Until the middle of the Cretaceous period, fossil records show the forests were green with cycads, ginkgoes, conifers, and ferns. Flowering plants (also called as angiosperms) were non-existent. But sometime in the middle of the Cretaceous period, there was a sudden boom of angiosperms. It seemingly contradicted his theory that evolution was gradual. Darwin called it the “abominable mystery.”

In 1881 he speculated that Angiosperms must have evolved in some remote corner of the world and a catastrophic event must have triggered them to spread them abruptly. But there isn’t any record of such an event. What caused the world to transform from a muted green into a colorful one remains a mystery.

Evolution allows for all sorts of possibilities and eventually explores all its choices at its disposal. For example, would it not be strange for a plant to have stems underground? Surprisingly there are plants of such nature, and we know them as rhizomes. Two popular rhizomes which are part of our daily life are Ginger and Turmeric. Both belong to the family of Zingiberaceae. They have nodes from which leaves shoot above the soil and adventitious roots that grow beneath. They have an inflorescence that appears around six to eight months. Both ginger and turmeric are used as a cooking spice and also as medicine. Turmeric holds a great significance in Indian culture. It is considered auspicious and sacred.

Ginger and turmeric are some of the low maintenance plants to grow. Both take nearly ten months to mature and harvest. They are usually planted in spring and harvested in late winter. Planting them in the ground allows them to spread in a wide area. As urban gardeners with limited spaces, we can grow them in pots and still harvest a bounty.

The rules for growing ginger and turmeric are more or less the same. Let’s see how to go about it.

How to choose: You can use the ginger and turmeric that you buy from your grocery store.

Select a rhizome that is big with visible eyes.

The eyes pop out of the turmeric.

That's nearly a kg of turmeric we harvest every year from a single big pot.

I wash them free of soil, pat dry, slice and cut them into small pieces and dry them in sun. They shrink and turn hard in a week's time.

The same thing holds good for ginger. Wash, pat dry, slice and dry.

The dry ginger pieces are smaller than turmeric.

Blend them in a mixie. Sieve to make sure the powder is all of the same size. Store it in an air tight container.

How to plant: Since the stems run horizontally and not deep, you need a pot with a wide area. A rectangular potter two feet in length or a round pot with a wide mouth is ideal. Soil medium can be fresh compost mixed with a powdery soil. Plant the rhizomes with their eyes pointing up, two to four inches deep and six inches apart. Making sure the eyes are not exposed. Spray water and ensure that it’s completely absorbed. It takes nearly six to eight weeks for the leaves to appear. Until then keep the soil moist but do not overwater. Watering on alternate days is sufficient.

Here is a tested way to make sure that the leaves spring up; cover the pot with a sheet of newspaper or cloth. It keeps the soil moist and also adds some humidity. Uncover while watering and cover it back. Once the shoots appear, the covers are no longer needed. Until the next few months, water when the soil is dry.

How much sunshine: The rhizomes like full sun when planted in the ground. If it is grown in a pot, place it in partial sun. Nothing makes the plants happy like rain. During monsoon allow the plant to get drenched in the rain. Ensure the water drains and doesn’t stagnate in the pot.

Nine months later the leaves start to dry, an indication that the rhizomes are ready to harvest. Use a spade to pull out the rhizomes and wash the mud away in running water. For the next cycle, reuse the pot with renewed soil.

How to store: Turmeric and ginger can be cut into thin slices and sun-dried until they dry and shrink in size. Grind them in a mixie to a powder and store them in airtight containers. They have a long shelf life and stay aromatic for more than a year.

Happy Gardening

Until Next Time

Cheers From,

Mango Flowers This article first appeared in Deccan Herald on 31st January 2021

A rain Check For Your Precious plants

The rainy season can be a tricky time for potted plants. Here are some solutions.

I love watching trees when I walk or drive. The localities of Bangalore have trees that have stood for many decades. While I’m outside, I mentally make a note of all the trees and plants that I pass by. When I spot a new plant or tree, I try to find their name. I also keep a note on the changes they’ve undergone with seasons every time I go back to the street or locality. Mahogany, Teak, Sausage, Yellow and Pink Tabebuia, Camel Foot, African Tulip, Avenue tree, Raintree, Neem, Copper Pod etc. are some of the trees I commonly find in Bangalore.

Climbing Rose

I also admire houses with colorful gardens. In the locality where I live, there is a house that has a Climbing Rose which spans two floors. During one of my walks, I noticed that their compound potter-box had a new arrival, a vine with four-petaled fragrant flowers. It tugged me with a whiff of its fragrance, and I fell in love with it. Unable to contain my enthusiasm, I bravely knocked on their door and found that it was called the Sweet Autumn Clematis. The lady of the house who answered the door told me that she got it from her friend’s nursery.

Sweet Autumn Clematis

The fragrant flowers of Clematis bloom late in summer and go on until October. One has to buy it in summer to enjoy the flowers. A good practice for gardeners is to visit nurseries every season to discover new plants to grow. That weekend when I drove to the Lalbagh nursery, I found this vine and brought it home. I repotted it and placed it in a partial shade for a few months. It basked in the early morning sun and dappled sunlight all afternoon. It bloomed gorgeously, and I was giddy with its fragrance until I moved it to a spot with more sunshine in winter. Plants express their health and wealth through leaves. They smile in shades of tender pink, brown and green. They voice their despair in shades of yellow, grey and black. It is a language that gardeners learn over time.

More sunshine also means more rain. The year turned and the pandemic shocked us. In all the uncertainty around me I forgot to move it back to its original spot. The summer waned, and the rainy season began. Plants on the ground do not suffer much of water stagnation because the earth absorbs it over time. Plants grown in pots turn limp when water stagnates. One reason could be that the drainage holes in the pots are clogged. With lack of sufficient sunlight during the rainy season, water does not transpire from the leaf surface; therefore turning them yellow. It is a screaming sign that something is not well. This is what happened to the vine too. It started to turn yellow. It had fewer buds than the previous year. I realized that it had absorbed more water than it could handle and moved it back to its original spot. I loosened the soil, unclogged the drain holes, and allowed it to recover.

Here are some tips to prepare your plants for the rainy season.

--Unclog drain holes if the plants are in a pot. Move sensitive plants to a shade until the rain stops.

--Stake the thin stemmed ones to withstand the fury of rain.

--Rake the soil regularly. It allows air to circulate in the inner layers and dry them. It also allows the water to permeate and drain quickly from the pot or seep into the ground. Be careful not to hurt the roots though.

--Move the plants to a bigger pot if the roots have outgrown and are visible on the surface and outside the drain hole. Doing it during an interlude of rainy days is beneficial for the roots to regain their strength.

As rain fades and winter sets in, it is the time to grow greens and sow some seeds too. Vegetables such as carrot radish, cauliflower, and cabbage take nearly three months to harvest. Winter is the right time to start, for the pleasant sun and the cool weather help in maximizing growth. Greens like coriander, methi, mustard, spinach, and amaranthus grow well in partial sunlight and cool weather. Amaranthus requires at least six hours of sunshine for a good yield. It is also the time to grow bulbs of Grape Hyacinth, Allium Sphaerocephalon and Ranunculus.

In my next column, I will share with you on how to grow and harvest turmeric and ginger.

Until then,

Cheers from Chinese Honeysuckle This column appeared first in Deccan Herald, 20th Dec 2020

A gentle flutter in your balcony

To watch caterpillars grow, molt, pupate and butterflies emerge and take flight, is a rewarding experience your garden can easily provide you.

A Lime butterfly on a Lemon plant.

My first encounter with an army of caterpillars was many years back when I had just ventured into gardening. A dozen caterpillars were happily munching away the leaves of the Curry Leaf plant to their hearts content. It was a young plant, and I was worried that it would get destroyed. In an impulse, I snipped the branches and threw them away. A few weeks later, I saw a bright green caterpillar on the Crepe Jasmine plant. It too was devouring leaf after leaf, and its droppings covered the ground. It froze the moment I touched the branch, its haunting blue eyes stared back at me and vanished into the wrinkle of its head. The guilt of throwing away the caterpillars from the Curry Leaf was already tormenting me. I decided to leave them alone and learn more about it.

A Very Hungry Oleander Hawk Moth Caterpillar

A few days later the skin of the caterpillar starts changing to brown.

Internet informed me that the caterpillar was called an Oleander Hawk Moth and it prefers the Oleander or the Crepe Jasmine to lay its egg. The caterpillars feed on the leaves, and when it was time to pupate, the skin turns into a combination of black and orangish brown. It then reaches the ground and starts to pupate among the dry leaves. I kept observing the caterpillar for the next few days until it changed colour. I was at peace that I didn’t break the branch away.

In the final stages of being a caterpillar.

A stunning Oleander Hawk Moth resting on the ground, freshly emerged from its pupa.

The next time I saw a green caterpillar on the Curry Leaf plant, I left it alone. I knew from experience that the leaves would spring back to life in a matter of days.

Most butterflies are attracted to colorful flowers. However surprisingly some prefer overripe and rotting fruits, bird droppings, animal dung, or even dead animals. But for a caterpillar to grow and satiate its voracious hunger, butterflies lay their eggs on specific plants called food plants or host plants.

A baron butterfly absorbing nutrients from a Guava fruit half eaten by birds.

In order to attract butterflies I also needed grow food plants. I started with Ixora, Pentas, Lantana, Hamelia Patens, Marigold, Cosmos, Periwinkles, Porcelain flower etc. These are sunlight requiring plants. The butterflies not only feed on the nectar they also bask on them to receive sunlight.

The crowning moment of growing a garden happened when I watched three butterflies emerge out of their pupa on consecutive days: the male and female of the Common Mormon Swallowtail and a Common Rose. Watch a lime butterfly emerge from its chrysalis.

A Lime plant in the backyard regularly hosts the Common Mormon caterpillars. But the Common Rose required the plant of genus Aristolochia for its larvae to feed. A retired professor, whom I had met serendipitously during one of my walks, gave me the seed pods of the Aristolochia Grandiflora vine to me.

Aristolachia Grandiflora

Aristolochia Grandiflora is a perennial vine that spreads across compound walls and fences. The duck or pelican shaped flower stink, and so do its seeds. Growing a vine is a bit tricky. As you already know, not all seeds turn into plants, and after a series of trial and error, a sapling showed up. Four months later the vine outgrew the small trellis, and quick enough a couple of Common Rose Caterpillars appeared on the vine. I was thrilled. At first, there were about eight of them. Over the days the numbers dwindled, and only one of them reached the pupal stage. I love how a caterpillar looks like a zombie the day before it starts building the pupa.

A spiky Common Rose butterfly caterpillar clinging to the black metal trellis.

The next morning I found a pink pupa, suspended by a silk girdle. As the days drew near for the butterfly to emerge, the pupa started turning transparent. Nineteen days later, on a sunny morning, the colourful Common Rose flew out.

Comparison of two butterflies.

It is a rewarding experience, to watch caterpillars grow, molt, pupate, before the butterflies emerge and take flight. In the last few years, apart from growing food plants like Lime, Curry leaf, and Crepe Jasmine, I’ve also grown Passiflora, Kalanchoe, Ginger Lilies, and Custard plant which are the host butterflies such as Tawny Coaster, Red Pierrot, Grass Demon, and Tailed Jay. Bamboos attract skippers and browns. The Common Baron hosts on the mango tree while it feeds on the ripe fruits of Guava. We have now seen nearly eighty varieties of butterflies flutter through the garden.

A garden is not just a collection of plants. It is an ecosystem which also attracts birds, bees, wasps, insects, and moths. The choice of the plants depends on the choice of colours you see and the sounds you want to hear.

Until Next time

Cheers from Hydrangeas This article first appeared in Deccan Herald on 22 November 2020. Pictures added here are mine.