Has anyone tried planting ginger?

[Wilson]

Just for grins, I planted a 4" chunk of ginger that I bought in the market and now, after about 3 weeks of waiting, it's sent up a shoot. I was just wondering if anyone else here has tried planting some before. So far, it's only up about 1.25" and is in a 6" x 6" pot of my composted soil which drains well and is pretty rich, but I'm wondering about light & moisture needs and anything else someone might pass on. TIA

[gardenlen]

g'day wilson,

you might have to pot it inot a 2 gallon pot, it will like full sun, with your coming winter it will die back so you will need to keep the pot moist but not overly and in a warm spot for it to grow back next summer.

On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:55:58 -0400, Wilson wrote: snipped

[David Hare-Scott]

It grows in tropical and sub-tropical regions (zone 11-12). It likes humidity and warmth and while natively it is a perenial it is grown commercially as an annual. Here (warm temperate about zone 9) it can be grown as an annual because there is a long growing season between the frosts. Not knowing where you are I cannot say how well it will do.

David

[Ross]

Hello Wilson,

Your coordinates put you somewhere fairly close to the coast of Maine. Like our location, neither one will be the ideal location for growing ginger ;-). But, an interesting experiment in any event.

A few years ago in the early fall, Gerry planted a chunk in a pot in the sunroom. It didn't`t take long to sprout and by spring the shoots were about 18 inches tall. She moved it out into an herb garden partially shaded by a black walnut tree where it did amazingly well. Come fall again, she moved it back into the sunroom where it went into a steady decline and eventually gave up altogether. We assume it was the vast difference in conditions, particularly humidity, that did it in.

Here`s an excerpt from an article by Bonnie Fisher, a culinary herb authority. Her article is included in a book entitled Ginger East To West by Bruce Cost.

1. Carefully select a firm piece of fresh ginger with plenty of knobs.
2. Use either a top-grade commercial soil mixture, or combine equal parts sand, vermiculite, compost, and rich garden loam. Plant the rhizome horizontally in a large clay pot with ample room both around and below for the new tubers to grow. Cover the ginger with only one-half inch of soil.
3. Put the pot over a steady source of heat, such as a radiator or water heater; water the rhizome thoroughly and continually for several weeks to get it to sprout. Once it sprouts, move it into the light and reduce the amount of watering. The soil may be nearly dry between waterings. It may be fertilized once a month with a mild fertilizer. In the summer, the plant may be put in a sunny, wind-protected spot on your porch.

Ross. Southern Ontario, Canada. AgCanada Zone 5b

43º 17' 26.75" North 80º 13' 29.46" West

[Wilson]

On 07/14/10 10:26 AM, sometime in the recent past Ross@home posted this:

Thanks Ross and to the others that replied as well. Don't know how far I'll take this, but it will be fun to see what happens.

[David Hare-Scott]

I didn't notice the coordinates in the sig. So you are above 44 north. Without a hothouse your growing season is far too short to give ginger time to grow properly.

David

[balvenieman]

Yes, but I'm much further south than you. I try to get the Jamaican kind. In/on the ground, it survives for several years; in hanging basket it survives only if brought indoors during low temps. I guess you're growing it for the novelty? It is pretty but it's a late bloomer, even down here in warm country, and may not do much, at all, at your latitude.

I don't think your container is big enough; 14-16" dia. might do for one season; it doesn't have to be too deep. Down here, ginger does well in straight oak leaf mold compost (it requires low pH) and prefers "open shade", although, I have grown it in unbroken shade with no view of the sky. If you had known, you could have set out individual buds and got faster coverage. Remember, it's a tropical plant and, although it requires well drained soil, it also likes warm temperatures and _high_ humidity and it responds well to both bottom watering and misting (pump-up "Hudson" sprayer"). If you have culinary designs on your home-grown, you may be in for a surprise. Homegrown, even from stock you'd cook with, tends to be bland, mundane, boring, wimpy. Flavor and heat intensity are very sensitive to environmental factors, not the least of which are soil type and cultivation practices.

[Billy]

Don't you just hate it, when they don't listen to reason? Like we didn't?