Saffron

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Dirt Diver

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Saffron
« on: October 01, 2010, 20:12 »
Hi

I bought Saffron bulbs for the first time this year, and they are just coming through.  Has anyone ever grown them.  Mine have just come through but should I be protecting them.
Any other info would be appreciated. :D :D

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Yorkie

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2010, 20:15 »
According to this cultivation info from the RHS shop, I don't think they need protection.

But I'm no expert so wouldn't swear to it.
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days all attack me at once...

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Pip Judgeford

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2010, 08:29 »
Moderator: would it be possible to shift this thread from cooking to growing please?

What a crazy & cool crop!

I've been growing saffron for 5 years now. If your corms are large enough to flower, they will do so really soon: within 2-3 weeks of the tuft of leaves coming up.  Then they grow long leaves that lie around like very untidy chives.  My plants are dying off now, which means early April for you.

Protection: two things spring to mind.  Always pick the flowers early in the day to stop the pollen getting on the style and polluting your saffron crop.  Regular & early picking also stops the mice have a good chew on the flowers.

The second thing is weeds.  Its so easy to pull up a corm when weeding! :mad:  So I now mulch with 2-3 inches of sawdust or bark mulch, which on my 2m x 3.5 m saffron bed saves a heap of work.

We also get a native bird which chews on the new leaves and corms :mad: :mad: :mad: but I dont think that would be a problem for you?  The Pukeko is a swamp hen which lives on grass tillers and the thick bases of sedge leaves etc so saffron is pretty attractive.

I've been keeping a log of corm size, harvest amount/time and how fast the corms bulk up, because there's not much info around for home growers (although there are a ahdnful of commercial growers in NZ)

Good luck and hopefully your corms are big enough to flower very soon.

= Pip

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Dirt Diver

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2010, 10:21 »
Thanks Yorkie - useful info ::)
Pip - Awesome thanks -do you dig up your bulbs each year or can they stay in the ground? :wub: :wub:

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catllar

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2010, 13:31 »
 We have an organic saffron grower about 20 minutes from where I live. Take a look at the site www.safran-bio.fr and  google translate at the top of the page into English if you need it. it'll make you want to rush out and plant more and more!

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Pip Judgeford

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2010, 07:51 »
How many saffron do you have Dirt Diver?  Is lifting going to be a mish?

So far I've left mine in for 2 years before lifting, apart from one season where it was 12 months and a lot of work, so I went back to 2-yearly.  They start to get crowded after a couple of years, and the flower production is supposed to drop, so if you want a reliable crop then you are up for some work.  But hey, no different from planting/harvesting spuds really.

The corm doesnt get bigger and older:  it grow a bunch of corms out of it.  When they grow, little corms dissolve and make one or two new corms and these can give you the size increase within the growin season.  A really big corm will make a cluster of about 5-8 new corms, some big and some smaller.  I havent yet worked out exactly what to do to get lots of big corms, but the better the soil, the better the flowering, so maybe good soil makes large corms makes flowers?

The cool thing about how they grow, with the parent corm dissolving, is that when the leaves have been up about 6 weeks, you can carefully count the individual tufts of leaves where the corm was planted, and this will tell you how many corms that one has become.  So say you plant 20 corms, within 4 weeks of coming up they flower and within about 6 weeks you know your 20 corms are now 53 corms.  I just love that kind of instant reward! :D :D

The flower harvest depends on how well they were grown the year before.  So after you've had your early reward, any watering/weeding/fertilizing you do sets the corms up for the following autumn.  It is worth keeping this in mind if you get tempted to let the saffron look after itself and disappear in a sea of weeds.  The whole regime is quite the opposite to most vegetable gardening where you prepare the soil, weed etc and then get the crop.

I know saffron traditionally grows in poor soil on the side of field, in some pretty inhospitable countries (hot in summer, strong winds) but having got good crops in a vegetable garden bed I now wonder if the traditional approach is because saffron is the only thing that could be grown in poor soil and still get some kind of a yield.  The better soil or fields are used to grow food for the families!

=Pip

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Dirt Diver

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2010, 18:52 »
Pip I planted 40 and I have put them in a raised bed because I was unsure what to do.
At the moment the whole bed is just a lawn of short pointed leaves.
Catllar- interesting web site.

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Pip Judgeford

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2010, 08:00 »
DirtDiver, I'm curious where you got the corms from to start with?  There was a rumour that Cornwall used to grow saffron commercially, started off by a case or two of corms from a sea wreck (have I got that right?)  Anyhow a great story, smack of pirates and smuggling on the high seas!.

Pip

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Dirt Diver

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #8 on: October 05, 2010, 12:36 »
Pip
They were a special offer from Suttons (a large seed firm) just sounded a great idea.
Love growing anything I can cook with :D :D

LOVE the storey, just think what happends when pirates get involved.

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Pip Judgeford

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2010, 08:39 »
Love growing anything I can cook with :D :D

OK DD, what you ya do with manglebeet then eh?  I ordered some seed and got send 2 free packs, one of which was manglebeet.  Sounds like something you feed to cattle and I've no idea what time of year to sow it.  [gauntlet on floor]

Pip

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mike1987

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2010, 12:09 »
just had a quick google and they seem to be good for chicken feed
http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2006/11/mangle-beet-harvest.html

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Dirt Diver

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2010, 14:26 »

OK DD, what you ya do with manglebeet then eh?  I ordered some seed and got send 2 free packs, one of which was manglebeet.  Sounds like something you feed to cattle and I've no idea what time of year to sow it.  [gauntlet on floor]

Pip

Pip Lucky Mike had heard of maglebeet -it's new to me. 

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JayG

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2010, 14:59 »
Despite some mangled spelling not only historically but here today ( ::) ) the mangle beet is otherwise known as the Mangel-Wurzel (itself a corruption of Mangold-Wurzel!).

I'm surprised Aunt Sally hasn't been on to explain it all as of course her OH is called Worzel Gummidge who has interchangeable heads (swede, turnip and Mangel-Wurzel.)

If you are not all by now looking for a length of rope and a suitable rafter here is a link about growing them and then getting rid of them!

http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2006/11/mangle-beet-harvest.html
 
Sow your seeds, plant your plants. What's the difference? A couple of weeks or more when answering possible queries!

One of the best things about being an orang-utan is the fact that you don't lose your good looks as you get older

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mike1987

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2010, 22:37 »
lol the link seems very simaler to the one i posted   :ohmy:
stil doesnt explain how to grow them tho

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JayG

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Re: Saffron
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2010, 22:47 »
lol the link seems very simaler to the one i posted   :ohmy:
stil doesnt explain how to grow them tho

Oops, you're right, sorry!  8)



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