Growing ginger

AndreaDennin
AndreaDennin Posts: 41 ✭✭✭
edited November 2018 in Our Garden: Growing Food
Hi Andrea,

I'm in zone 7 and I've found it best to start ginger in spring.  I overwinter my ginger root in damp peat moss indoors.  As spring approaches I take the root and plant it in at least a 3 gallon pot using good quality potting soil and I'll take it outside when the weather is above 50°F.  I let it grow all spring and summer and harvest it right before the first frost, saving back a healthy root to grow in spring.   That's my experience, I haven't had any luck growing ginger inside (it's frost sensitive) during winter.

D

Comments

  • Cherlynn
    Cherlynn Posts: 169 ✭✭✭
    edited November 2018
    Well if it can't be grown inside it's no use me even attempting it.  I grow tomatoes in the winter inside so was hoping to try a ginger root.  I have helped build several biomass greenhouses in my area.  My Amish neighbor has over 20 commercial greenhouses all done in biomass so they grow tomatoes and melons all year round for a grocery chain.  I am thinking I will still try the ginger root inside and betting I can do it!  My greenhouse is very small just for my family and one side is biomass and the other is not.  So I have to plan what to plant on the hot side to make it count.  That is the difference in growing inside.  With the biomass the dirt is above 70 degrees all winter long but most who grow inside just put a pot inside and think it is warm enough but the dirt is to cold.  The biomass is a rocket stove with pipe running through the bed in a base of rock.  The rock stays hot for hours even if the rocket stove goes out.  You have to keep enough light over it also.  I let ours run to at least 12 hours each day.  The other side is where we grow our greens and cold crops.  No heat in the beds but the green house stays warm due to the biomass on the other side.  It's underneath our sunroom and just looks like a storage shed.   I just use overhead florescent lights.  I put the lights on timers.
  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,561 admin
    edited November 2018
    I am in zone 3 and from the Canadian prairies. I currently have ginger growing inside. I wait until it looks like it is growing on the countertop, then pop it on the top of some potting soil. It is buried half into the soil. It needs full sun and a reasonably large pot.

    I have grown it mainly as a houseplant because somehow I tend to kill it after a while. I am good with indoor plants (I am even growing tropical fruit trees and citrus), so I am not fully sure what I need to correct. I might let it dry out too much between waterings...that makes the most sense to me. Ha...and the kids need to stop bumping the pot over.

    A book that I would highly recommend is "Don't Throw It, Grow It!" by Deborah Peterson & Millicent Selsam. It is published by Storey. I have used some of their siggestions. Sometimes, I just pop the seed in a pot.

    I grew tomatoes inside as well until they started getting horribly infested with bugs. Needless to say, I will no longer be beinging in plants that have been outside. It is just not worth the hassle nor risking my other plants for a few very tasty tomatoes. :(

    I find your biomass greenhouse very interesting. Would you mind creating a separate thread just on it?

    Maybe Marjory would be interested in following up on this idea. What a great topic for a Summit!
  • DebiB
    DebiB Posts: 92 ✭✭✭
    edited November 2018
    That’s wonderful you have such a nice set up there!  I’ll agree that plenty of people would be interested in hearing about it.  I suspect the reason I’ve never had luck growing ginger indoors is because I just don’t have good lighting for it.  My options for indoor growing are either putting it in the garage or the house and neither have bright enough light for ginger.
  • Blair
    Blair Posts: 46
    edited December 2018
    I started a pot of ginger about two weeks ago. I will post if it succeeds or not; however I am just keeping it moist, not wet, and in a south window. (I hope it is warm enough, our house can get chilly in the winter.) I have read it can take a number of weeks to sprout. so am just biding my time.

    update; still no sign of sprouting, probably not going to happen; but I haave nothing better to try right now so I will persevere and see what happens....

     
  • peppypoblano
    peppypoblano Posts: 92
    edited November 2018
    I currently have some in a pot on the patio and I'll bring it in Wednesday since we'll be getting a freeze.  I don't let it dry out but it is in well draining soil.  The leaves may die back a bit but come back in spring.
  • Jana
    Jana Posts: 2
    edited December 2018
    Some gingers are quite hardy:
    https://permaculturenews.org/2014/03/12/hardy-gingers-food-forest-understory/
    I was surprised reading turmeric can handle 5°F/-15°C.

    I am in zone 7 and have unheated greenhouse with high beds. This winter will do the test how ginger and turmeric survive our cold.
  • DebiB
    DebiB Posts: 92 ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Jana,  it might work. There is a local university here (I’m in zone 7 also) that has been doing research on the medical properties of the different varieties of turmeric. They had some turmeric that didn’t get dug up one year and it has been coming back every year since.  The turmeric at the university has no protection from the elements it’s just out in a field, so if you give it some protection you’ll probably have good luck with it.
  • Jana
    Jana Posts: 2
    edited December 2018
    Thank you, DebiB, this info is very encouraging :) .

    Did university published results of this research?
  • DebiB
    DebiB Posts: 92 ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    As far as I know the university has not published the results of their trials.
  • H_D
    H_D Posts: 384 ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    there are hundreds if not thousands of study's and thousands of years of anecdotal evidence of the medicinal power of turmeric root dating back more than 4000 years we dont necessarily need to spend more money on new data, simply need the existing data to be recognized :)

    Happy Healing
    Heather
  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,561 admin
    edited December 2018
    One thing most people don't think of is that many studies of certain herbs and spices have been done in various countries in a variety of languages. China & India woild be two such countries.

    Not all studies are done in English.
  • MissPatricia
    MissPatricia Posts: 318 ✭✭✭

    I started ginger inside last year. When the weather warmed up, I took it outside. Then I planted it in my garden, probably sometime in June as I was leaving July 5 for three weeks, and let it grow well into September. I dug it up around then and was moderately pleased with my harvest. Now I have started it again in a pot, which I put outside. I may plant it in my garden.

  • MarianneWest
    MarianneWest Posts: 12 ✭✭✭

    I can't say that I have had great success with growing ginger inside - we don't have enough light coming in and I didn't want to start using grow lights - but I have been told by an Asian friend that her grandma had a big pot with Ginger growing right in her kitchen and kept using it for cooking. From what she described, it was not that tall but very wide. She didn't know if it was filled with soil or what...

  • Blair
    Blair Posts: 46

    well, last years attempt at ginger completely failed, so here we go again. I had some that had already shown a shoot coming up so i put it ontop of the soil and just nestled it down in a half inch or so. still doing ok Will hope for the best.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,561 admin

    Good luck!

    I planted more inside. I thought it was as good as dead as it started to shrivel. I now have 3 plants, growing well (tall), in a lower light place in the house. It is under my littleavocado tree, actually. Before, I had it in full sun...that didn't work. Maybe it just needed more tropical type companionship. 😂

    So, can a person pinch green growth back to encourage the roots to do more or for the green top to get more bushy? Also, now that I am thinking about it, are the green tops safe to eat or is it just the rhizome that is good?

  • circleoflifeunlimited
    circleoflifeunlimited Posts: 57 ✭✭✭

    Wonderful. Made a note to try this next spring. Wonder if it would work for tumeric?

  • Blair
    Blair Posts: 46

    tumeric should grow similarly to ginger, I just haven't been able to find tumeric roots anywhere.