Growing curry leaf plants.

Most of my friends, that cook Indian look for these leaves, want to have a plant ans most often do not know how to get it. There are many that have had success in propagating and do sell them. I had bought one earlier too. So this time I decided to experiment, just to understand how easy or difficult it is. Owning a plant i had done a bit of research in taking care of one. However for propagating, it took me a while to get all the info i need and use it in my experiment. The plant i have is in a pot over 3 years old and this summer is the first time it flowered. I decided that i would try and see how far i can go, after all there were a lot of ifs and buts. If the flowers give seeds, if they ripen and if they germinate. I was skeptical as to how many seeds the flowers would yield but almost all got pollinated and i got quite a few as you can see.

So while i waited all summer from April to Aug for the berries to mature and turn purple, looks like my plant had set out just to test my patience and one fine day i did not water the plant and with the temps over a 110 deg i almost lost my plant, the leaves dried and curled and that time the berries were a sun kissed yellow-pale-green and the stems almost dried. The plant is still a twig today recovering. Well, i rescued my plant by watering but since the berries are to be sown wet i had to remove them from the plant before they dried up as their stalks were browned by the heat. Being disappointed, i did not take any pictures.

I took the harvested berries and carefully peeled each one of them by hand. This took a long time. While i could not do all of them at one time, i put them in a moist paper towel and completed the task later the same day. The insides of the berries were still a bright green like the leaves. The seeds were very fragile so if you do this handle with care. There is a thin film that you can remove if you chose to, it does not really matter.i planted some with the thin paper like skin over the seed and below the covering. Also while peeling your finger tips may feel like sap got on them. The same feeling like when you work with a jackfruit.

I then planted 3-4 each in each cup that i had poked holes below for drainage in the hope that at least one would germinate. I was very sceptical that it would sprout due to the fact that they were half ripe.I put all of these cups next to a window sill that gets about 4 hours of sunlight. The temps were over a 110 here in phoenix so they enjoyed the sunlight indoors instead of being cooked outdoors. That was the first day. Aug 5th

This is what i saw on the third day, Aug 8th sign of roots springing up in only 3 days, there was hope!.

The 5th day was more developed and by the 10th day most of them had popped. As days went by the shoots came up, since this is a dicot i was expecting the first leaves to come up to be different like they are for beans but i really got true leaves almost in the very beginning.Very Surprising. I also observed that one seed could get you as many as 3 plants with the joined 5 cotyledons.
Well, now i had more than i needed with almost a 100% germination. My germination experiment a success, now i had more than i needed. Since we have Indians all over these are usually in high demand I'm sure i can distribute them to enough colleagues at the office and friends. The plants now over about 18 days old and growing rapidly as you can see below. I either had to thin it or transplant them to a bigger space, i decided to transplant.

So i got transparent from 8oz disposable cups this time to the 16 oz ones. The reason, first i can see the roots so that i know when they need to move and if i give to someone they can take it home in the cup holders in the car, instead of it tipping soil dropping and staining the upholstery. So i poked holes in them by a hot nail, filled it with soil and watered it and let it sit overnight. Why? the reason being that Potting soil does not wet consistently. Now for a transplant 101 - I now watered the glasses that had the multiple plants, then held the soil at the base of the plants turned it upside down, gave a little push and out the soil came just like a cupcake. I then separated it carefully and planted each in their own cup.

A couple of days later too the plants seem well adjusted.

Now its day 18 and time to harden them as they have a 3-4 true leaves. The challenge, how to i harden them as i go to work and increasing an hour or two of sunlight is not an option. So after work i put them out, overnight and before i go for work put them back in. Overnight temps are a good 88 to 86 degrees so no worries there.
The weather cooperated and i kept them in the the corner of my patio taking the cool 99 degrees and cloudy skies for today and they did good.

Another week and i think these babies are ready to go to their new homes. More on my updates as they develop. ........


PS: These pictures are taken on my mobile so the picture quality is not that excellent