Turmeric · Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
When to plant turmeric in Edmonton
Main outdoor window
27 May - 24 Jun
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
13 May
In Edmonton, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Oct - 31 Dec
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Edmonton
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
18 Mar - 15 Apr
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant rhizomes
27 May - 24 Jun
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Oct - 31 Dec
Turmeric through the year
Against the frost risk in Edmonton
Why these dates
Start rhizomes indoors eight weeks before the last frost in a warm place, and move outside two weeks after it. Lift when the foliage dies down, about nine months from planting.
Killed at 0C. In a short season the rhizomes will be small but perfectly usable, so an early lift is better than a frosted crop.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Turmeric are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Edmonton.
The median frost-free season here is 137 days, against 240 to 300 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Edmonton
Other vegetables to time
Growing turmeric in Edmonton
When should I plant turmeric in Edmonton?
Aim for 27 May - 24 Jun in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 5 Jun - 3 Jul - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will turmeric be ready to harvest in Edmonton?
Expect to start picking around 1 Oct - 31 Dec, based on 240 to 300 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will turmeric tolerate?
Killed at 0C. In a short season the rhizomes will be small but perfectly usable, so an early lift is better than a frosted crop.