Crops Caraway (Carum carvi)

Summary Information



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Young plant

Most traditionally-grown forms of caraway are biennial plants, forming in the first year a deeply- penetrating taproot and a rosette of dark green, finely cut, feathery leaves.

Flower head from above

Plants which are sufficiently well-advanced produce their flowering stems early in the second year; the stems are hollow and branching (often from near the base) and may attain a height of 75 cm.

Plants in flowe

The umbels of white flowers open from late April onwards, and are succeeded by the fruits, each consisting of two curved seeds, which ripen from early July.

Developing seedhead

Annual types of caraway have lighter-coloured leaves and flower from July, the fruits ripening during September.

Ripening seedheads

Caraway thrives best on fertile, water-retentive soils and benefits from preceding deep cultivation. To ensure that the biennial types are well-grown by the autumn, it is necessary to sow during March or early April, at a seedrate of about 10 kg per ha in drills some 30-35 cm apart. A rapidly-growing annual, such as dill or coriander, is often sown as a companion crop in order to utilise the ground during the first season: this is cleared in August, to allow the caraway plants to develop fully before the onset of winter. The crop responds well to dressings of up to 75 kg per ha each of nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. Weed control is important: while linuron products may generally be effective and crop-safe, they are not necessarily approved for use in all countries. The plants should be cut and windrowed as the first fruits ripen, and combined when ready, in order to reduce losses from seed-shedding; yields may attain 2 t fruits per ha or more. Annual types are harvested in late September, possibly direct-combined since shedding losses are generally lower, but yields usually do not exceed 1.5 t per ha. During the past few years a concentrated research effort in the Netherlands has been directed towards the development of caraway as a crop for industrial purposes. This has included work on agronomy and plant breeding, investigations into other potential uses of carvone (such as in anti-malarial agents) and the testing of carvone in potato stores as a sprout-suppressing agent. The first product for this latter purpose, based on carvone from caraway, has just been made available commercially.