Topic: Growing Fenugreek

[George]

How many days old are these George? Did you plant the seeds directly into the compost or get them to sprout first. Only reason I ask is that I've just started some today (on wet tissue) and I was wondering whether to plant them tomorrow or leave them to shoot first.

Great minds think alike. I started just like you and kept the tissue moist as much as possible, all the time. Before that, I'd soaked the seeds in water for 24 hours. The seedlings in the above photo are less than a week out of the packet.

Then, when the seeds had 1"+ sprouts, including some with first signs of the green leaves, I gently planted then in soil. Keep moist again and keep out of direct sun. When planting out, the sprout goes down and the original seed is at the top, just below soil level. The seed pod 'turns into' the first leaves. That's as far as I've got. More news as it comes...

Regards
George

[Cory Ander]

Gawd, I just chucked my fenugreek seeds (from my spice supplies) in some soil, stuck them outside, and watered them occasionally

However, they didn't get past the sprouting stage, of about 1 inch long, and a couple of small leaves, before they died.  Hence my earlier question. 

Maybe it's not surprising then?!  :-[

There was a beautiful waft of fenugreek though!  ;D

Did you use fenugreek seeds specifically for growing George?  Or did you also use seeds from you spice supplies (as mine were)?

I also chucked some fennel seeds, in the soil, which is growing and flowering now.

That's a really interesting last post George.  I never knew it was so involved.  I will be very keen to see it written up,as a complete procedure, should you grow them successfully.  I will certainly try and replicate it.   

[Cory Ander]

They make you have an body smell of curry
It was really strong
It's not like garlic, it is more like curry powder

That's also very interesting Haldi.  For me, it's also another indicator of a decent BIR curry.  The smell of curry comes out of your pores for the next few days!  I've always thought it was mostly garlic.  Maybe it's fenugreek?  I've never really been able to replicate it.  Which suggests I'm missing something!

Sorry, I'm going off topic somewhat!   :

[George]

Cory

>I just chucked my fenugreek seeds (from my spice supplies)
>in some soil, stuck them outside, and watered them
>occasionally

That's what I tried 2 years ago, sowing fenugreek seeds as so-called green manure. They sort of pump nitrogen into the soil for whatever you want to grow next. I thought the plants would also be useful for cooking. Well, amongst weeds, either nothing came up or I didn't identify/smell anything which I could say was fenugreek. i.e. failure. Then  David at curryhouse.co.uk reported that all his plants outside were eaten by slugs. This time I want to keep an eye on things inside!

>they didn't get past the sprouting stage,
>of about 1 inch long, and a couple of small
>leaves, before they died. 

I have reasonable success with most plants, so I look forward to seeing how these plants develop. Perhaps strong sunshine killed them whilst still too small, where you are.

>There was a beautiful waft of fenugreek though!

The seeds had this but when I tried eating a few sprouts and residual seeds (about to turn into leaves) as these seeds were sold for, they tasted of 'nothing'. I assume the strong smell will return with the leaves and seeds once the plants have grown a bit. 

>Did you use fenugreek seeds specifically
>for growing George? 

Yes, these were sold as for growing salad sprouts. But I'm confident they will grow to full plants. I can't see how the seed producers could 'stop it'.

>Or did you also use seeds from you
>spice supplies (as mine were)?

No, I've never tried that. They might have been 'treated', irradiated or something but I would have thought that once they get as far as in my photo, that bodes well.

>I will be very keen to see it written up,
>as a complete procedure, should you grow
>them successfully. 

I will update this thread whenever there's a 'development' worthy of a new photo, whatever happens.

I'm still not confident that the fresh leaves will be as good for cooking as the dried ones but we'll have to see.

Regards
George

[George]

If anyone is having difficulty finding fenugreek seeds for growing, I have more than enough in my one packet. I could always send you a few seeds by Royal Mail if it would help. You should get 100% germination using the method I set out above, so you don't need many seeds - and therefore plants ' to get an idea of whether fresh fenugreek, home grown, is worth the effort.

My plants continue to develop but they're still at the 'two leaves' stage.

Regards
George

[SnS]

George how is the fenugreek experiment going?

Mine have now popped their heads and each have two green leaves. Is this going to be it?

SnS  ;D

[George]

George how is the fenugreek experiment going?
Mine have now popped their heads and each have two green leaves. Is this going to be it?

My plants still look healthy but perhaps the roots are developing more than anything you can see. As I said before, one needs to be patient. The two leaves are now more 'pronounced' and the overall height of the plants ranges from 1" to 2". But that's all, so there's not been much change really.

Regards
George

[kaled0070]

Hi Folks,
 Here's my attempt, they've been on the go now for about 5/6 weeks and appear to be doing fine, approx 4-5 inches high and growing into plants for sure .
We've had a little sun up here in N.E Scotland (at last) and thats maybe given them a boost.


All mine seem to have followed the same growth pattern; from the centre of the two leaves the stalk grows and forms 1 round leaf then continues upwards and branches off occasionally to form "nodes?" of 3 leaves each like a clover.
I'm unsure as to when they are ready for picking/drying, I guess not for a while yet.

[SnS]

We've had a little sun up here in N.E Scotland (at last) and thats maybe given them a boost.

Now we know you're making it up. 

Looking good. I expect with more sunshine they will sprout more dense nodes/leaves.

SnS  ;D

[George]

Does anyone know what a half decent, fully grown fenugreek plant looks like, in terms of rough height, density, etc? I know my attempts at growing corriander have produced pathetic specimens compared to the dense bunches of corriander you can buy from asian grocers.

Regards
George