Tamarind

Plant family

Legumes (Fabaceae)

Season Overview

Details

Light requirement

Sunny

Water requirement

Moist

Soil

Medium (loamy)

Nutrient requirement

Medium

Plant distance

2 cm

Row spacing

20 cm

Seeding depth

1 cm

Instructions

Description

Tamarinds, Indian dates or sour dates are the fruits or pods of the tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica), which belongs to the legume family (Fabaceae). The fruits are 5-20 cm long, cinnamon to brown in color. They consist mostly of carbohydrates and water. The taste of the pulp is sour-sweet. The tamarind tree grows up to 30 m tall, but as a container plant it remains much smaller and is related to the carob tree.

Growing tips

The seed is only lightly covered with soil, which is carefully pressed down and watered. The planting container should be kept warm. As soon as cotyledons appear (you often have to wait eight weeks for this), the tamarind needs a bright spot. A transparent plastic lid keeps the humidity high. Fertilizer is only applied after about eight weeks, before that the young plant feeds itself from the reserves in the seed. The tamarind tree needs temperatures above 20°C at all times. (From mein-schöner-Garten.de). It takes several years for a tamarind tree to bear fruit. A little earlier with vegetative propagation.