How I Grow The Worlds Most Expensive Spice at Home, Saffron Crocus
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- Опубликовано: 14 янв 2025
- How to grow Saffron, the most expensive spice in the world. Planting Saffron Corms (bulbs), harvesting, drying, Saffron is the most expensive spice for good reason, but growing your own saffron and processing enough for a years supply is pretty easy.
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Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. How much does saffron cost? thousands of dollars a pound! However, it is relatively easy to grow, and since it is very potent and only a small amount is needed in cooking, it is easy to grow and process your own in your garden or homestead. Just don't try to grow saffron for profit unless you like long hours and low profits!
Saffron crocus, crocus sativa, is a small blue flower that blooms in the fall and grows during the winter. Each flower contains only 3 small red saffron threads, which are the female pollen receptacles. The threads are plucked by hand and dried to make the spice saffron, which is also used to dye cloth and give food a yellow color. It has a distinctive flavor as well as being used for traditional medicine. It is used to treat cancer and cardiovascular disease and depression.
Saffron is a corm, not a bulb. To properly plant saffron, the corms are planted in the early fall or late summer. They are eaten by gophers, voles, squirrels and other rodents. Planting in raised containers or wire lined beds can help deter rodents. After the flowers bloom, they will grow through the winter gathering energy for the following year's bloom. Growing your own saffron is easy. The corms are not the cheapest, but they multiply exponentially, so if you buy just 20 to 40, you'll have a lot of plants soon enough. A bed about 4 x 6 is a good size to shoot for if you are a moderate user. The corms should be divided every few years. They reproduce quickly by dividing underground.
Most saffron is grown in the middle east and Mediterranean, like Iran, Afghanistan and Spain but the plant is fairly widely adapted and cold tolerant.
See also the National Geographic Article, "The Secret History of the Worlds Priciest Spice"
Very high quality video. Camera work, colour, composition, sound, everything is top notch. Educational and relaxing, too! You deserve a lot more views and subscribers.
thanks, I pretty much agree on all points :)
@@SkillCult hi can we grow saffron indoor pleas help or in hydroponics ? pleas pleas help
This looks like it was created by a professional videographer (and a good one). Many thanks for posting it.
This video is so comforting and wholesome. I planted my saffron in 2018 after watching this video and it's doing great. Thanks!
Yay! :)
that thicc bee looks high XD so cute
Don't forget, great in rice, especially a nice mushroom risotto.
indeed.
This video put a huge smile on my face. I used to work for a mushroom vendor and seeing you pick all these guys was amazing. Awesome haul!
:). That reminds me, I bette go see if they are blooming yet. Any day now...
Oh, woops. I meant to post that last comment on your mushroom picking video where you found a bunch of porcinis haha. But im liking the saffron too!
❤thank you 🙏
Lol ya the bumblebees do this with a few flowers in the fall I think they get cold and slow down too much to fly either way they make for a beautiful bed I would stay too lol
That I good educational watching I learn more about the world on you tube than high school.
i guess its the teacher great work
It's best if you pluck the flowers very early in the morning before they open up. Dry the stigmas in a dark hot room, preferably on the drier side (about 30-50% humidity). That way you will get more flavour and fragrance from them.
Thank you. That's what I have heard, but it's harder to pick and process them. I've seen very few videos where people are actually harvesting closed flowers though. I don't have much control over drying conditions. My saffron is adequate for me. Thank you for the tips though.
ruclips.net/video/Mna7iUIP2fM/видео.html
Here you go. You just need to wake up early. Not much trouble.
I just do it when I can get to it. Most of the videos of people processing saffron that I've watched, are processing opened flowers. I'm not saying it's not better to do them closed, just not essential.
Wow. The amount of time put into this video is impressive. Thanks. =]
:)
your video is so relaxing
Beautiful images!
Thanks that was fun to shoot. Easy enough with great subject matter.
I could even taste the spice from watching this, its heavenly!
What a beautiful and colourful video, amazing videography, I enjoyed it a lot. Can't wait to grow my own one day!
Thanks :)
Ive seen bumblebees fall asleep/get intoxicated on Cosmos flowers quite often too
That's interesting. So basically they're slacker junkies of the insect world ;)
@@SkillCult Or maybe it just makes them drunk
Stunning video. Thank you for sharing
nice little film. restful and timeless, like saffron 🙂
thank ya :)
Great video. Just watched the deer skinning then the apple butter and now this one... think got a winner here. Definitely worth a subscription
Thanks Jean, Welcome.
This is a great video, if you have not already seen it, you can look up how to cut them for the different grades of saffron. I believe all the red part is highest grade then some with orange on and then the whole thing
Loved this video, I'm going to grow some
\m>.
This video is awesome! Mine just flowered today for the fist time!!!
Very cool video, thanks for the idea!
If you want to bake with these tasty little things you could always try the Swedish Lussekatt, a christmasy sweet bread baked for Lucia (December 13th) here in Sweden.
I love that he didnt touch the one at the end that had the bee on it. Good Job!
The flowers alone seem beautiful in their own right.
Very nice video Thanks!
They look so lovely. What a well made video.
Thank you :)
You're welcome. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you.
Well done. I enjoyed this video.
Thank you sir :)
At the very beginning and at around 0:35 I can see your wire cage. Do rodents not dig them up from the top? Has your cage you plant in been sufficient enough for pest control?
I've had some come in from the top. gophers usually wont, but voles do. Once they find it, they'll stay and start cleaning you out. but nothing is perfect, it's very effective most of the time and you can trap out the ones that figure it out.
@@SkillCult dang vermin! Thank you. Beautiful video
Beautifully made video! I tried growing saffron some 10 years ago (not very succesfully) but would like to try again. This week I came across an offer (100 bulbs for 30 Euro) and am tempted but I am worried that it would be hard to grow them perennially in our climate (in which case it's rather expensive). Do you have recommendations for creating a suitable micro-climate in a less favourable climate?
I don't know. Here they do their growing during the winter. I"m not even sure what the season is in cold climates. If you haven't, check out Elliot Colemans books on cold climate gardening. He has great ways to extend the season.
SkillCult
Thanks! I have all Eliot Coleman's books, they are indeed very helpful.
checked out your channel - had to sub :)
Such beauty!
Well done video!
relaxing video
What a relaxing video. Thank you for the high quality and the peaceful feeling you give 😊
:)
Outstanding A sensory feast 😍👏 🎨
Thanks!
Saffron is the key ingredient for our family recipe for rice porridge. (the secret ingredient why this family recipe is so special, is in a special way of stirring while heating, but obviously that's the part I have to keep secret, hahaha)
Intriguing...
@@SkillCult if you want to try and experiment with it: be very conservative: when starting off with just a few grains (we get saffron dried and powdered) and slowly increasing, you'll start noticing the flavour, and start seeing the bright yellow colour. But there's a point where it's suddenly too much and the whole thing becomes disgusting... The larger the batch you make, the easier it is to get the right amount of spice...
The stirring technique has influence on both the texture and the flavour and it also results in less crusting while cooling down and less drying out during fridge storage. I also believe that the stirring technique is necessary to properly release the saffron flavour, but obviously there is no science to quote to support that assumption. =D
It took me 4 years but I figured it out. Ty for the tip
that intro is just therapeutic
so so pretty! lots of really great info - are the flowers edible? if so do they have the same flavor or old leather - lol - and that jelly!!! do you have a video on that? so so great - love it! :)
I think the rest of the plant may be poisonous, but I don't remember for sure. Next time I get a crop of red fleshed apples maybe I'll make some jelly for a video. It is pretty easy, just no one has those blood apples yet. They will though someday. Hopefully a new variety bred by me ;)
oh so great! cant wait for that video :)
Informative foodie, with his drunken bumblebees and all. This is great, thanks.
:)
Awesome stuff
What do you do with the petals?
They make soap with them in some countries. I saw this on a YT.
Great video man, I was waiting for this one!
Cool, plant some!
This is beautiful
thanks :)
Nice video - inspiring!
I've always wanted to grow Saffron here where I live. But it want grow. I live in America in NC and here we have a lot of farmers and they tried to get it to grow. And it want. Before you spend a lot of money on bulbs make sure it will grow!
❤ from America
thank you! great video
beautifully shot video, really inspiring! seriously need to build me some more raised beds
hi sir , would u please tell me when exactly do i plante them from seeds is it on march or avril
thanks , subbed
You can't grow true saffron from seeds. The plants are not fertile and make no seeds. They are grown from the Corms or bulbs only. There is a wild flower that is similar, like wild saffron. I'm not sure when you would plant the seeds of that.
At 3:15 in the video, we see the harvested pieces that are colorful on one end and white on the other. Do you cut off and discard the white part, or is that part edible, flavorful and also saved? Thank you.
Commercially the white part is considered useless, at home it doesn't really matter. It doesn't have much flavor. Occasionally they are harvested full length and tied in small bundles, but usually the white part is left in the flower.
Excellent !
thanks!
Bumblebees camp overnight in my raspberries and black currants. By the time saffron blooms in Spokane, all bumblebees except the queens are dead, & they are hiding through the winter elsewhere. If the snow is too deep, I might miss saffron altogether. I'm learning to plant saffron deeply- 4-6 inches - and mulch heavily. They don't compete well with weeds. I like your raised bed idea.
I've seen that before too in other flowers, but it seems different with the saffron. Maybe it's just them winding down before dying in the fall though.
Thanks for this video excellent knowledge gained , I have one doubt if I have 1-2-3gms corms then how to get more weight saffron corms, is there any process please help me to know
Wow!
i just wanna say i like your video. it almost feels artistic.
:)
@@SkillCult It is artistic. Quite lovely.
Where did you buy the flowers to start with?
Beautiful video.
I hadn't considered rodents, but I'll be sure to build a protected bed for them now. You probably just saved me some heartache.
Have you discovered any use for the petals besides composting?
Are you to the point of selling your excess corms yet?
No other petal uses. I am hoping to dig some this week and sell them on my website and or ebay. Best way to find out is following me on instagram. I may or may not announce on YT. My beds are overcrowded and not producing much anymore, so I need to thin them anyway. Hopefully I'll pull that off....
I saw a video where they said in Kashmire they use the petals to make soap.
I started saffron crocuses at the end of last season and they came up before winter.
that is normal. They should bloom in the fall.
I would be curious to know what your crocus patch looks like now....any chance of a mini update?
It's been pretty ravaged by rodents the last couple of years. Mostly voles that eat the tops, but I had a gopher in there last year that ate a lot of corms. Otherwise, they are overcrowded and due for thinning. I may dig them up in the next week or two and replant and sell some of them
@@SkillCult How long would a corm be viable if stored in a cool dry place you think?
Not that long, because they start growing in the fall, even if they are out of the ground. In fact, I only have a short time to dig them and get them sold if I'm going to do that.
@@SkillCult Find your buyers before you pull them up.
Nice
Amazing video. You’re the right person to ask this from. I just ordered 20 bulbs. How do I take advantage of the bulbs multiplying as I’ve heard they do? Do I remove all of the bulbs from the soil after cultivation? Or do I just leave them in the soil till next year?
I would just plant them and let them grow in the same place for two seasons,then dig them up and replant a larger area with single bulbs. They can multiply quite a bit in two years. I don't think you will see them multiply much faster dividing every year, but I don't think there is any reason not to. Rodents really like them, so watch for gophers, voles and squirrels. I plant mine in a wire cage.
@@SkillCult could you plant these under artificial light and reproduce throughout the year? whats the private market like to sell these? Do you sell online?
@@jeffreestaples4309 No. They are a fall/early winter (depending where you live) crop. They need the rest of the year for r&r.
Great video. Is there a use for the flower petals?
Not that I know of I just use them as mulch back on the beds
I'm trying to grow my own, and here's what I learned, stop me if I'm wrong
Right now, its mid October and the weather started getting a cooler
I live in an apartment and can do big pots at best
1) Find the bulbs
2) Use well draining soil (A mix of potting soil, compost and fine sand)
3) Plant and let get 6 hours of sunlight
4) Water 2 times a week
5) They can hold their own during the winter as long as they get sun, but it's best to bring them in if it snows to keep from killing them
Harvest in February when spring hits and the flower blooms
Is there anything I'm missing?
Honestly I just stick them in the ground and they grow, but that sounds like a plan. it is a little late, so get the bulbs as soon as possible.
Do you ever sell the Corms on your site?
Lovely video, the colours are stunning. Just planted some earlier this year, a bit late but three have come up so far. I have heard that saffron infused vodka is very giggly:-)
Good luck :)
What temperature do you dry them at? Is there any danger with frost in your experience? I am trying to grow it here in Sweden for the first time this year, the leaves are looking great and it should be sending out flowers soon. I have floating row cover to protect from light frosts, we usually dont start to get hard frosts until mid november here so i think it should work. Do you just keep the beds totally cleanly weeded in the rest of the year? We use them in a sweet type of bread that is served around christmas time called Lucibullar and in fish soup.
I don't worry about drying temp. I know there are specific temperatures and drying techniques people use in commercial production, but it seems to work fine to lay them out in a warm room. Air circulation helps. Just keep them out of the sun. No frost problems here, but it's not very cold. I know they will grow further north, but I don't know what they will tolerate. They don't grow for most of the year. Mine are very trouble free. I just plant them and they grow well and reproduce a lot.
@@SkillCult In upstate NY ( latitude 41.932423, and the longitude is -73.910522). They grew wild coming up through the snow signaling the onset of spring. So pretty.
So say you wanted to sell your saffron to where and who would you sell it to?
But where do we get the things we need to plant in the first place, and what sort of conditions are needed for it to grow and reproduce?
5 seconds on google searching saffron bulbs or saffron corms and you'll have more sources of saffron than you want to sort through. If you don't know how to do internet searches here is a tutorial. www.wikihow.com/Search-the-Internet They do not seem to be very picky regarding soil and climate. Generally they require little or no supplemental water outside the desert. They seem to be broadly adapted from what I can tell. I don't do anything much for them and they just grow.
Check out Persian dishes, they use a lot of safron in their cuisine
I've never had or tried to cook Persian food, but I bet it's awesome.
The drunk little bees are so cute and I'm afraid of bees. Thanks for making this calming video.
:)
I have not seen a bumble bee in years. Not sure why. I'm in the Pacific NW
Is there any good use for the flower?
not that I know of.
where can we buy a small portable harvester machine to pick the saffron and where can we buy a small machine to dry and process the saffron? those tasks take hours of manual labor!
Please, what to do with the blue petals please?
Can one just collect the saffron and leave the flower to stay on the plant perhaps ?
I'm sure you could be it's already so much work. I think it would be much more work.
Thank you.
I understand now.
Can the blue petals be used in anyway please ?
I have just planted some Saffron bulbs for the first time ever.
Only just ten. Am very excited and am hoping that they will grow.
Many happy greetings from Launceston, Tasmania ..... 🙂
That bee is all chubs
great video. i heard recently that some flowers produce such a heavy load of nectar that it manages to fement..
Whatever this is, it doesn't seem to affect honeybees the same, so probably not that. Someone mentioned another bug that's affected, but I can't remember which.
Picking the flowers before they open is best.
thanks. I think I heard that. I just try to get them before they get too old. I'll compare sometimes.
You mention they're cold tolerant, but any idea about the bulbs surviving underground over a snowy winter, to grow in the spring?
They can be left year 'round in the ground in cold regions, but I don't know how cold. You shoiuld be able to find out if they'll grow in your zone.
Thanks, I’ll always be pushing the growing edge :))
I planted some in pots in September and they are just coming up now. Do I take them inside for the winter? How does this work? Will they go dormant?
Here they grow through the winter. I don't know what they do anywhere else. Find someone that grows in your region maybe.
I live in a Zone 5-6 area, what about you?
Not sure, but warmer than that.
Where do you buy the corms from?
they are widely available through bulb sellers. but start looking early. They are fall blooming.
How does it taste ... is it very strong?
It is very strong and tastes not like anything else. It's easy to use not enough or too much.
Interesting...is there a market for this? I know its known for the price, but I never see it for sale anywhere.
It's available, but not very common in the states. Growing it for money is a losing proposition. I've timed myself and it can't pay well even at the higher prices. As expensive as it is, it's a hell of a deal.
First I was like some ones video...but at the end when I see your face I was like what....? Glad it is yours good video
can saffron planted in tropical place?
Love this Channel.. Where can I buy those corms(bulb) of saffron ?? Im from Philippines
Are the saffron putting out those green grass-like shoots, or do you have a cover crop growing with them?
Yes, that is the saffron. Anything else in there is weeds.
Loved the video. Now with covid , I would love to try growing these. How much for a few bulbs ?
I did sell some this year, but it's no longer the season. Start looking in the early fall or late summer. They are not too hard to find mail order and even sometimes in garden centers.
hi can you tell me what climate these grow in please
I think they are widely adapted, but I don't know what the outer limits are.
So you dont water them during the summer?
No, here they don't even have roots in the summer. The roots all die and the corms just sit there til fall when they flower, then they start growing roots whenever it rains.. I don't know about other places, but I doubt they need water most places
@@SkillCult I live in Charleston South carolina. Low country. Hot and humid and ground can be moist
How long can you store the picked flowers before you have to remove the Saffron Threads? 1 hour? 1 day? 3 days? A week?
it's mostly said that the sooner the better, and even that they flowers should be harvested before they are open. Usually, they are picked in the morning and processed by evening.
How to fertilize the saffron bulbs mine r not blooming
I don't know. I don't use fertilizer they might need to be dug up and divided. they will stop flowering if they are too crowded.
How would one best source their original seeds for a grow like this?
You have to buy the bulbs. This is the time. Do an internet search lots of people sell them. garden stores sometimes have them too.
Where can buy the saffron bulb bos and how much per kilogram?
im a beekeeper and would like to know if they will grow in florida?let me know please and also where can i get the bulbs?thanks S.D.
I'm not sure if they'll grow there or not. Ask google I guess, or David the Good would probably know. You can get the bulbs off of lot so of flower bulb sites in the late summer early fall. They're not uncommon. A little expensive, but they multiply pretty fast if they're happy.
thanks for info i will be looking.
@@stevesoutdoorworld2248 also from florida, did you ever find out about the compatibility?
@@StolidLiquid Never found out.
@@stevesoutdoorworld4340 okay, if I find out I'll post here. Really I haven't even tried gardening in florida yet, I hear the stink bugs can be a problem though...
what was the name of them bloodred apples? they look like something i would try to grow and work with.. where might i find them? anyway another super great video,thank for the video.. have a blessed and safe day
That one is Grenadine. I would get either that or rubaiyat for a very red fleshed apple. I talk about them in some apple tasting videos. ruclips.net/video/dk_K_xd48HQ/видео.html
Hello..just wanted to ask if this also grows in tropical countries?
i don't know.
Is it advisable to give fertilizer, occasionally , to keep the quality of the tuber and flowers optimal. Which fertilizer is best?
I haven't had to add anything. Probably just the stuff people use for flowering bulbs in general.
Which climate is the most conducive for them to grow?
I'm not sure. I'm in a mediterranean climate.
Can the petals be used for anything? They are a great pleasure to look at but wondering if they be good eats or good meds.
Not that I know of, but I never looked into it.
That happens with lavender to.
if i plant / grow saffron where i can sell saffron or saffron seed?.
Zulfi Info TV contact no for saffron bulbs 00923046054190
where can we buy the corms?
Do an internet search. sometimes you can find them locally in the fall, but it might be too late now.