Growing Ginger: How to grow, care and harvest ginger

Herb Gardening Home:

Ginger, Zingiber Officinale

For growing ginger, buy fresh pieces of ginger root at the supermarket and replant in moist, rich soil.

Spacing between herbs should be about a foot apart.

Plants grow nearly four feet high with narrow leaves and occasional exotic flowers that closely resemble small, greenish-yellow orchids.

Cultivation & Care

For growing ginger, buy fresh pieces of ginger root at the supermarket and replant in moist, rich soil. Spacing between herbs should be about a foot apart.

Plants grow nearly four feet high with narrow leaves and occasional exotic flowers that closely resemble small, greenish-yellow orchids.

Choose a plump tuber with a few healthy growing buds to propagate. Selecting a tuber that is half the size of the pot where it will be planted gives it plenty of room to grow.

For planting multiple gingers in one container, the planter should be at least a foot deep and 14-16 inches wide.

Soak ginger tubers in water overnight before planting. After soaking, prepare the containers with potting soil. Use a peat moss mix and supplement the mixture with compost.

Plant the ginger with the growing buds facing up and cover with a thin layer of soil.

A fun project to get children involved in gardening activities is let them start a tuber by suspending the root over a glass of water with toothpicks. Within days, nodes break through the surface and roots begin to grow. Transfer the ginger plant to a pot.

Lightly water the ginger plant until it becomes well established. The plants perform best in a shaded, warm location. The tubers thrive given plenty of moisture and warmth.

It generally takes the herb about ten months to grow two to four feet high. Once the plants have matured, snip the new shoots at the base of the plant for use in the kitchen.

Harvest

It takes about five months before the herb will be ready for harvesting. This may seem like a long time to wait but bear in mind that perennials generally require little help to keep coming back once they get started!

To harvest ginger root, it is not necessary to unearth the entire plant. Simply pull up the tubers growing around the tuber that was planted originally and cut the quanity needed.

Ginger stalks die in cooler regions during the wintertime but will continue growing in warmer climates. The thicker tubers of the perennial plant can be harvested each fall. Store whole ginger roots fresh, dry and grind into powder, or freeze.Uses

Add sugar to make crystallized spicy and sweet ginger candy. The culinary tuber is used in spicing vegetables, meats, soups, Oriental cuisine, and gingerbread. Grate only half as much fresh ginger for a recipe that calls for dried.Benefits of growing ginger

Anyone who knows to reach for a box of ginger snaps for treating nausea already has discovered one of many benefits from growing ginger. Tea made with one third teaspoon of powered ginger in a cup of hot water provides rapid relief for upset stomachs and colds.

Researchers believe the active ingredient gingerol found in growing ginger helps in relieving digestive disorders. Ginger has also proved beneficial for treating arthritis and migraine headaches.

In a clinical study, ginger eased the swelling and pain in 75 percent of arthritis sufferers! It relieves inflammation which doctors' claim is the number one cause of painful aging.