Murraya koenigeii, Curry Leaf Indoor Growing
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Mike Ramsey
Posted on: February 21, 2007

I am hoping you can help me. There is not much info on growing curry leaf. I am in the Sacramento, California, USA area. I have several plants one inside and three outside. This winter was the wettest nearly on record with very cold spells. The outside plants aren’t doing well and I can understand that.

My real problem is with the inside plant. It was going great until March, when it started to shed all its leaves. There are some new shoots coming out near the top of the apical stem, and a flower at the top of the apical as well. But little new growth lower on the plant.

Is this normal for Murraya? Should I harvest the leaves in the winter since it appears the plant loses leaves? I guess I figured it was "evergreen" but that was probably an error on my part?

Your indoor problems sound much like spider mite damage (spray with insecticidal soap three times at eight hour intervals). The leaf drop could also be because of the lower temperature. Murraya tends to become deciduous at about 10 degrees Celsius. Check our web-site at www.richters.com under "Q&A" type in "Curry leaf" and check the topics that come up. One by Conrad Richter gives great information on your problems.

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