I've grown them for years in pots in my backyard. The place is basically shady with some sun in the afternoons. I seldom fertilize them and get plenty of leaves and berries to start more if I wish. I repot them every other year in fresh potting soil and take them in during the cold winters here.

The first one I got about twenty years ago was chewed to the roots and I just left it. About a month or so later I was surprised when I noticed a new plant coming up from the roots. That was the starter plant I still have.

I propagate from both seed and the plants that come up from the roots. Very easy to grow!

I have seeds coming soon - could you share your propagation methods?

Here is a complete guide to grow Curry Leaf from Seed to tree, See link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na9XeH2Cicg

Edit: I saw the link has already been posted, however posting it since I already created one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Curry Leaf from seed to tree

This post was edited by djkj on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 13:51

Yeah, I saw that - probably just after it first went up. I was hoping for some first hand advice. I'll have them in a south facing window that gets sun literally all day, and I'll use a seed mat to keep the temp at about 80F. Also a humidity hood, until they sprout.

Well they arrived today so it's a done deal. I hope I didn't do anything wrong. At first I thought the fruit was still green and my heart dropped. But I went ahead and soaked them prior to cleaning them off.

Then I realized they had ALREADY been cleaned off (they were shipped in damp sphagnum moss so they didn't dry out). This after they'd been soaking awhile - and my heart dropped again, when I realized some of them had split open to the center from being in the water.

I got 24 of them and all were showing cotyledons. So even if I oversoaked a few, I think at least some of them may survive to seedling-hood.

Unfortunately since I wasn't expecting them until next week, I don't have my seed mat yet - but should have it before the end of the week. Hopefully they won't be set back much by a few days at 74ish temps (instead of 80ish).

I have had my curry lead tree for a year now. I think it has grown wonderfully from about 10 inches tall to about 2 feet. I dead headed once and 3 branches sprouted. I was ecstatic. I limit the watering and let the soil completely dry out.

Now for my failures and questions: While my tree now has an abundance of leaves and branches they are barely fragrant and have almost no taste. I assume this is due to only fertilizing it once or twice in the year I have had it. Now that it's cooler out and the plant will be going dormant is it too late to fertilize?
Also the tree has never flowered or produced berries. Is that because it's so young (about 2 years old) or from lack of fertilization.

I received the tree in a fairly smal pot and repotted a year ago. Now that it has grown so much it is really too big for the pot it is in. Should I risk keeping it in the small pot until spring or repot it now?

thanks for your help and happy gardening!

No, lack of fertilizing is unlikely to be the cause of lack of taste. They are weeds where they grow native. Usually the main "fertilizing" concerns are getting enough iron to them or they go chlorotic from iron deficiency. I fertilize with some iron in the summer when I put them out but missed it this year. They mostly still look ok though.

I can't really tell from the picture but that sort of looks like M. koenigii and sort of doesn't. If there's an issue with scent or flavor its more likely an issue of the variety than whether or not you fertilized. It actually still has a way to go before you could consider it productive.

From whence cometh your plant? I'm wondering if it came from a tried and true mother plant or if it is of more anonymous provenance.

Nearly all my seedlings did eventually sprout, plus I got some freebie "daughter" plants, and they all smelled like curry leaf plant from the time they sprouted. Just brush them and there is the aroma. I lost a few to container mix experimentation and then a few more to lack of watering when I had a long illness, but I still have 15 or 20 mostly good sized plants now (with some experimentation victims gradually trying to catch up with their more fortunate peers).

It's still too small to flower or set fruit, neither of which are likely to happen if it doesn't get plenty of warm weather and proper lighting. Outside mine do better in light shade (I am in a desert region with fierce fierce sun); inside they do better in the strongest sunlight I can manage.

You are correct in your assumption, now is not the time to fertilize. With what do you fertilize, btw, and what are you using for your container mix?

Last year the plants did not fruit subsequent to their flowering. This year they flowered but also did not set fruit, I suspect lack of fertilization (of the flowers by insects I mean) and insufficient sunlight to be at fault. I did not put them out until quite late last growing season in order to avoid precipitous drops in temp overnight and had to bring them in early this year for the same reason. First snow came in October this year. Hopefully I will be moving to Tejas before the growing season for 2020 ramps up and they will do better there with more outdoors time.