Fenugreek Seeds

Leaf, seed or both

Trigonella foenum-graecum, common fenugreek or methi, is used as a green herb and as a seed condiment in curries. Extension guides for temperate climates give 30–40 days from sowing to a herb cut and 105–140 days to ripe seed; in summer heat cut earlier, before the plants flower.

A 100-seed packet weighs about 2 g, at roughly 18–22 g per 1,000 seeds (approximate, typical for the species; varies by lot).

Depth, spacing and soaking

Sow about 2–4 cm deep after soaking the seed in water for about 12 hours, once the soil is above 10 °C.

Spacing depends on the crop you want: 5–30 cm between plants in the row, wider for seed, and 10–50 cm between rows, wider for herb. Herb growers often use 5 cm between plants and 30–50 cm between rows.

Soil, frost and what goes wrong

Use well-drained loam; the tolerated pH range is 5.3–8.2, and the plant does poorly in wet soil. Frost is tolerated only while the plant is still vegetative.

Damping-off, root rots and Cercospora and Alternaria leaf spots are the diseases extension services list for the crop.

Common fenugreek or Kasuri methi

This card is common fenugreek, Trigonella foenum-graecum. Kasuri methi is Trigonella corniculata, sold separately as our Fenugreek, Mathi Kasuri Seeds.

The pods tell them apart: common fenugreek pods grow up to about 10 cm and hold 10–20 seeds, while Kasuri methi pods are 2–3 cm. Common fenugreek also ripens seed sooner, in 105–140 days against 150–160 days reported for Kasuri methi.

When to sow around the world

Fenugreek is sown in spring where winters are cold, and in autumn or early winter where winters are mild.

• Cold-winter temperate climates. Sow outdoors in spring. In Ontario, Canada, field seeding is in mid to late spring. In trials near Kyiv, Ukraine, sowings from mid-April to early May gave the best herbage and seed yields; a sowing in early June cut herbage yield by 84–87%, and very early sowings flowered early and were then vulnerable to severe cold and frost.
• Mild-winter and Mediterranean climates. Sow in autumn or early winter. In Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye (an eastern Mediterranean transition zone), a sowing on 13 November gave more pods and more seed per plant than one on 7 March. In Minia, Upper Egypt, 1 October was the best of three dates (15 September, 1 October and 15 October).

Also known as

Methi, Methi dana, Greek hay, Greek clover, Venthayam, Menthulu, Alholva, Fenugrec, Bockshornklee, Fieno greco, Hulba and Shanbalileh.