I am having difficulty finding a book that provides the growth conditions needed for the various spices. Sure plant encyclopedias and herb guides are easily found but I can't seem to find a Spice Specific one anywhere. Is it some deep, dark secret? Spices on amazon yields up a plethora of books on spices ABOUT COOKING and I did see some "Herbs & Spices" books--which would be okay IF they provide the growth conditions etc. Just the basic info: Zone Hardiness, days to germination, days to harvest, easily transplanted, special things to look out for and that kind of thing. Even google, yahoo et. al. didn't provide much if any info. Any suggestions?

Edit: I have a garden, I've grown vegetables and such but this year I'm expanding into a lot more herbs and spices. My interest comes from a health need and the book "Healing Spices" by Bharat Aggarwal, Phd. NFI of course. The specific spices he includes are only the ones that have some scientific research/evidence of their successful use and/or the mechanisms that seem to be key in that success.

Thank-you

Hi and welcome to ATP GGardenGuy!

First of all, 'spices' is pretty generic and some people include herbs as well in spice .. I'm thinking you should probably decide which ones you want to grow and then get cultivation information for each one.

I did find this book that might help.

The Complete Book of Herbs & Spices: An Illustrated Guide to Growing and Using Culinary, Aromatic, Cosmetic and Medicinal Plants

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0711223742/

Thank-you Xeramtheum! My eyes must have glazed over while I was looking at all the not-what-I'm-looking-for results so I missed it. I've ordered it, it's got a fair number of the spices I'm looking for so it's a great starting point and maybe even all I'll ever need. Thank-you again.

You're welcome! Stop awhile and get to know us .. I'm sure we can learn a lot from you and you can learn a lot from the ATP Family.

I've found when searching for "spice" info, it usually leads to recipes and culinary info, I believe because "spice" refers to the part of the plant used (non leafy parts, roots, bark, stems, fruit, flowers, buds, etc., while leaves are "herbs"). Older information seems to refer to tropical or exotic plants as spices, and temperate plants as herbs. Many of them are tropical shrubs and trees that aren't practical subjects for cultivation if you're not in a warm zone.

If you'd like to share names of specific plants/spices you're considering, and what hardiness zone you're in, we could perhaps give you some more tips

And perhaps if you find growing information for specific plants that is missing from our database, you'd be kind enough to add to it.