Curry leaf plant is also known as Murraya koenigii, which is native to India. It used to prepare delicious south Indian food. Curry leaves have a great aroma, which will always be a special ingredient for your food.
Growing Curry leaves without seeds which means from the stem is one of the ways to propagate curry leaves plant, which includes a selection of stem, preparation, proper soil, watering, Fertilizing, winter dormacy. If you take care of all these there are more chances your stem will grow as a plant.
I faced many problems when I am growing from Curry leaf stem, stem rot, not roots, and many others. So I followed these procedures/ steps which works out for me every time. Growing from seed has more success rate compared to growing curry leaf from the stem.
Finally, here are the steps I followed to grow curry leaves plant from the stem.
1. Selection of Stem For Growing Curry Leaves Plant
The stem taken for the growth of the new curry plant should be flexible and make sure the stem is semi-hard. If you take Hard stem and not flexible roots won’t be germinated according to my experience.
Make sure the branch or stem taken should be the thickness of pencil with the diameter of 5 mm and the stem as to be at least 5 inches long which contains around four to five sets of the leaf.
Take a good height stem to grow well (at least 5 inches).
2. Preparing Stem
To prepare the stem for insertion the stem is taken to be cut directly which is above the highest bud and make sure the lowest bud is cut slantly.
The lower set of the leaves as to be removed completely, leaving four to five sets of leaves which are in the upper set of the stem.
Before putting in soil dip the stem in rooting hormone for better growth of roots.
3. Preparation Of Soil Or Dirt
Take a small pot with the rooting mixture which contains the mixture of peat or pertile and sand.
You have to insert the pencil into the soil reaching up to 1 inch above the base level. Later remove the pencil.
Use well-drainable acidic soil, potting mix, or cocopeat for the selection of soil for the container.
This will surely help the germinated small plant to grow well.
Use cocopeat instead of soil for small plants to grow better.
4. Dip In Rooting Hormone For Better Root Growth
To get better results for the fastest growth using the stem is to place the curry leaf stem cuttings into the rooting hormone powder.
This rooting hormone powder helps in the stimulation of the growth to the root and helps in natural growth as the rooting hormone contains synthetic auxins.
5. Exposure to Sunlight
Keep it in shade and give only 3-4 hours of sunlight exposure for better growth.
You can keep this in the greenhouse for the better growth.
If you cannot give enough sunlight you can give artificial light as an alternative.
6. Watering
The watering process as to be done before placing the curry leaf cutting into the soil.
Once the curry leaf cutting is placed into the soil then there is no need of watering it again.
The water is to be completely dried before watering it again. The water supply should be less during the winter season as the plant becomes very dormacy.
If the curry leaf plant is overwatered then it may die.
In the summer season make sure you water the plant every two to three days.
In the spring season watering the plant once a week is more sufficient.
7. Duration To expect New Growth
The pot has to be now placed in the polythene bag or with the help of a zip lock bag and it has been tied properly in the top end.
The curry leaf-cutting starts to develop new buds around ten to twelve days after placing it in a pot and it has to be placed in the shade.
The pot as to be placed in the shade for few weeks until the new growth of the root and stem has to become firm in the soil.
8. Fertilizer For Curry Leaf Plant
Home fertilizers like diluted curd or buttermilk can be used as fertilizers to germinate the seed properly.
Buttermilk is rich in Nitrogen which acts as a major role in the growth of the curry leaf plant.
If the fertilizer is used more often then it may burn the roots of a young plant.
Epsom salt which contains magnesium sulfate can also be used by mixing it with one liter of water when the roots of the plant are dried.
Epsom salt helps in the fastest growth of the curry leaf plant hence it can be given every three months once.
9.Winter Dormacy Affects More For Weak And Newly Germinated Plants
The curry leaves plant affects very badly for winter dormacy, we need to go extra mile for taking care of the curry leaves the plant.
we need to move the curry leaves the plant to indoor if it is freezing or the very cold temperature outside.
The growth rate of the plant will be reduced in this winter dormacy.
It will resume its growth in summer again.
Reduce the watering frequency and quantity in winter
Don’t Fertilize the plant in winter.
Try to keep curry leaves plant near windows to give more sunlight.
Tips:
- Feed Curry leaf plant with a tablespoon of Epsom salt (which contains magnesium)/ baked salt into yogurt or 1 gallon of water twice a month (every 15 days) to improve the plant growth. If you overdose you will burn the plant. (My grandmother taught this.)
- Feed buttermilk to plant during warmer months to improve growth ( when there is no mold).
- cut the seed-bearing part to get new shoots and leaves grow healthily.
Final Thoughts:
Let me know in the comments, Are you able to grow curry leaf plants from Stem? Happy Reading!
