Indian cumin and its cultivation in our conditions

If you are fond of homemade bread baking or cooking of smoked products, then you know the main spices that are invariably used for this. Among other, the most frequently used seasonings, caraway seeds have gained their popularity thanks to the unique fragrant spicy aroma and burning bitter taste of its fruits.

Cultivated for our conditions, cumin common leads its ancestry from the countries of southern and southeast Asia. It is believed that the wild ancestor of this two-year-old plant of the umbrella family is Indian caraway, which differs from our earlier maturation period and fruits of smaller size. The aroma characteristic for our culture has also changed (it has coniferous shades for the progenitor), and the Indian caraway taste is more sweet, and the color of its fruits is darker. In India, other names of this plant are used: ayovan or Coptic cumin. In some Indian states, wild planting of caraway seeds can still be encountered, although, for the most part, it is actively cultivated.

Thanks to the warm and humid climate, Indian caraway seeds begin to bloom in early May, outstripping the northern varieties for a month and a half in their ripening. The cultivation of Indian caraway is not only occupied by rural residents of India, but also in Turkey, Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan, the states of Central Asia, North and East Africa. Of these countries, for the most part, Indian caraway is imported into our country.

Fans of the characteristic flavor and taste of Indian spices can try to grow it in their garden, but, most likely, this experience will be unsuccessful. But it is possible to grow zoned varieties of ordinary cumin at your site. Plant it in a place well illuminated by the sun, otherwise flowering can and do not wait. To the ground, cumin is not very demanding, but avoid sowing it on acidic or swampy soils, with ground waters close to the surface. Despite this, cumin requires careful watering, especially during the growth of the stem.

Soil, prepared for planting cumin, in early spring should be carefully pierced immediately after the emergence of weeds, and loosen all the time of growth. In the first year, as we said earlier, expect fruit harvest should not be. Fertilize during this period the soil can be 12-15 grams of potassium salt, 25-30 grams of superphosphate and 2-3 kg of manure per one square meter of planting area. The depth of the seed should be at least 2.5 cm, and the distance between the rows should be 20 cm. After 25-30 days after the appearance of the first shoots, the first mineral top dressing is carried out with equal parts of ammonium nitrate, potassium salt and superphosphate. The second fertilizing is carried out through the same period, but without the use of ammonium nitrate. In the second year of cultivation the first inflorescences appear already in the beginning-middle of June.

Cleaning of seeds is carried out after the onset of their milk freshness, as soon as most seeds become brownish. There are general guidelines for cleaning them. To obtain a fragrant cumin, it should be produced by pulling the whole plant from the ground, so that the fruits reach their ripeness, being on the stem of a plant that has a rhizome. The plants thus harvested are bundled into sheaves and left on the field or dried to reduce losses. After drying sheaves (in the usual case it occurs within a few weeks after harvesting) the harvest is threshed and stored in a dry place and a sealed container. The guaranteed shelf life of this crop is three years. But the caraway grown on its site will have a particularly bright aroma and taste of fruits. We only note that it is possible to squeeze out a valuable oil from cumin seeds, which is used both in cooking and as a medicinal preparation.