Cardamom is an Asian spice plant that also graces the pans of creative cooks in this country. Some go so far as to grow the healthy herb themselves. Despite not finding its usual tropical environment here, cardamom is surprisingly easy to grow.

The cardamom plant bears beautiful flowers

types of cardamom

With cardamom, a distinction is made between two types of plants. These are:

  • Green cardamom
  • Black cardamom

In a pot or outdoors?

Cardamom is an outdoor plant in its tropical home that can grow up to 3m tall and provides a large harvest. In our latitudes, neither is to be expected. Continuous outdoor cultivation makes little sense anyway due to the harsh winters.

However, nothing stands in the way of purchasing this plant, because it is also content with a pot as a root home. In it, the size of the plant is also more modest. Cardamom can therefore be in inhabited rooms in winter like a houseplant, while it can be placed outside in summer.

Grow cardamom from seed

You can buy a plant and continue growing it at home. Seeds are also available on the market, from which you can easily grow plants yourself.

  1. Soak the seeds in room-warm water overnight.
  2. Fill a pot with seed or herb soil.
  3. Scatter the seeds on top and cover with soil.
  4. Keep the soil evenly moist and at least 22°C warm but not sunny. After about two weeks, the first seedlings will appear.
  5. After about 6-8 weeks you can repot the seedlings into their own pots with loose standard soil.

Plant cardamom from rhizome

If you have a larger plant on hand, you can plant a new plant from a piece of rhizome. Ideally, you can combine this with repotting the mother plant in spring. Humus rich soil and good drainage are important. The pot size can be regularly adjusted to growth in spring.

Provide shadow and light

Cardamom can be bright, but not exposed to direct sunlight. This applies to indoor spaces as well as to outdoor stays. Other key data of care are:

  • provide humid air
  • Fertilize every 2 weeks from April to September
  • keep moist, avoiding waterlogging
  • hibernate at at least 16 degrees Celsius

Category:

Vegetable garden