How to Grow Ginger Successfully - Containers, Garden Beds and Aquaponics
G’day folks. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is one of my favourite plants to grow. There’s something very satisfying about lifting a clump at the end of the season and finding a pile of plump, fresh ginger hiding underneath.
You don’t need a huge garden to grow it either, just a small raised bed, a roomy pot or a grow bag can all produce a worthwhile harvest. Ginger can also be grown in aquaponics with our system providing us with some of the best harvests we've had to date.
The main things you need to get right to grow a bumper harvest are warmth, moisture, nutrition and a long enough growing season. Here’s how I go about it.
Selecting Your Ginger
Ginger is grown from pieces of rhizome, those gnarly “hands” you see at the shops, rather than from a seed. Although we commonly call it ginger root, it's actually a rhizome. Ginger rhizome is actually a modified stem that swells and spreads sideways beneath the soil.
You can source your planting ginger from nurseries and online suppliers or use ginger purchased from a greengrocer. If you’re buying ginger from the shops, look for firm, plump pieces with healthy buds or “eyes”. Avoid anything soft, mouldy or shrivelled. Ginger that has already started developing little shoots takes some of the guesswork out of the job.
I prefer planting sections that are about 75mm (3”) in length or larger. In my own experience, the larger pieces have generally gotten off to a better start and produced healthier plants with plumper rhizomes.
You can divide a large hand into smaller planting pieces, but make sure each section has healthy buds. Let the broken or cut surfaces dry for a few days so they can heal over before planting otherwise you may have issues with rot setting in.
What's the Best Climate for Ginger?
Ginger is best suited to warm, humid tropical and subtropical climates, where it has a long 8-10 month long growing season. In some tropical regions it may grow all year round.
That doesn’t rule out growing ginger in cooler climates, it just means you’ll need to make the most of your warm months. Starting ginger indoors, either in small pots for transplanting later or in the containers you plan to grow it in, gives the plants a head start before it’s warm enough to move them outside.
In cooler regions, harvesting tender baby ginger can be a more practical goal than waiting for fully mature rhizomes. A greenhouse or other warm, protected growing space can help extend the season.
How much sun does ginger need?
Ginger is a tropical understory plant so planting it out where it gets the morning to midday sun followed by afternoon shade is a useful starting point for those in hotter climates. I have grown most of our gingers under shade cloth in the subtropics and found that it thrives under the filtered light.
In cooler temperate regions, ginger benefits from more direct sun, particularly early in the growing season, as this helps keep the soil warm. They may still require shielding from the harsh afternoon sun during the peak of Summer.
Containers are a handy option in cooler regions as you can move them around the yard to “chase the sun” as its position changes through the season. It pays to keep an eye on the leaves and soil if you’re not sure about their position when growing in containers. Yellowing leaves with scorched edges and soil that dries rapidly means that they could use a bit more protection from direct sun or hot winds.
Planting Ginger
When to plant
Ginger will start to shoot once the soil temperature is above 20°C (38°F) and thrives in 25°C (77°F) or above soils.
For us here in subtropical Queensland, the soil starts to hit the low 20c at the start of our Spring, so I like to start off ours in early September.
Planting ginger rhizomes out before the soil warms up isn’t a big issue if the soil is not overly wet. Wait until the chance of frost has passed and plant out then. Just keep in mind that prolonged wet conditions increase the chance of rot if you get a lot of rain before the soil warms up.
If your growing season is short, start the rhizomes in pots somewhere warm before the weather warms up as mentioned above.
And don’t panic if shoots take a while to appear. Ginger isn’t the fastest plant out of the gate, taking up top 6 weeks before you may see shoots above the soil.
Preparing the Soil
Ginger likes free draining soils so I like to grow ours in raised beds and large containers. If your soil is on the heavier side and holds a lot of moisture, planting on wide mounds about 20cm (8") high can help improve drainage around the roots and rhizomes. Before planting, I like to work mature compost through the soil. This improves the soil structure and gives the plants a good kick start to the season. If you don't have compost, dig through some slow release organic fertiliser pellets. These will break down slowly to give a constant supply of food to the beneficial microbes and plants.
Spacing and Depth
I like to allow roughly a 30 × 30cm (12 X 12”) patch per planting piece when planting out a whole bed. Neighbouring ginger clumps may grow into each other if they grow exceptionally well, but a little intermingling usually isn’t a problem. You might just have a ginger-scented jigsaw to solve come harvest time.
Plant the rhizomes with the buds facing upwards and cover them with about 5cm (2”) of soil. These planting sections of rhizomes are often called ”Mothers”, as they will propagate “daughters” from their sides. I normally find the original mothers sections still plump and healthy come harvest time.
I then mulch the top in our warmer climate as it helps conserve moisture and gradually breaks down through the season helping to feed the soil.
Folks in cooler climates may benefit from holding off on a thick layer of organic mulch if the soil is still cool. This will allow the sun to warm it more readily while the ginger is sprouting. Just keep an eye on the moisture level. Mulch can be added once the soil is warmer to help with weed control and water retention.
Growing Ginger in Pots and Grow Bags
Containers are a great option if you have limited space or want to move your ginger to chase the sun in cooler climates as mentioned above.
Choose a broad container with good drainage and room for the rhizomes to spread. A pot at least 40cm (16”) in diameter will do the trick in cooler areas but I prefer a larger one, 50cm (20") or larger, as I’ve had jumbo rhizomes split pots open in the past.
My usual starting mix is:
Three to four parts good-quality potting mix
One-part mature compost
A slow-release organic fertiliser, depending on what’s in your potting mix
Check what’s already in your potting mix before adding fertiliser as some come with enough food to support the plants for several months while the budget bags could do with some additional slow-release fertiliser. Leave a little space below the rim for adding extra potting mix if the developing rhizomes become too exposed.
Plant the rhizome in about 5cm (2”) deep then cover with soil and mulch.
See how I grow ginger in containers
Watering Ginger
Making sure the soil doesn’t dry out will greatly increase the chance of a great yield. I have a very advanced moisture-testing tool for this job, my finger.
I push it about 5cm (2 inches) into the soil and if it’s starting to dry out at that depth, I give the bed or pot a good watering.
The aim is to keep the soil evenly moist during active growing period. Repeatedly letting the soil dry out can impede the growth, while constantly saturated soil can cause rot to form on the roots and rhizomes.
How often you water will really depend on your climate, container/bed size, soil drainage and plant size. My preferred grow bed method for nearly all out plants is a wicking bed but a conventional pot left standing in a tray of water can do the same job. Water will wick up from the reservoir into the base of the soil layer for the roots allowing the surface layer containing the rhizomes to stay moist.
You will find that the plant requires less water as the foliage dies back and the plant becomes dormant just before harvesting.
Keeping Your Ginger Well Fed
Soil in a bed or container that’s been prepared with compost or suitable fertiliser will get your ginger crop off to a flying start but as ginger can take well over 6 months to mature it pays to give it periodic feeds along it’s growing season.
Our plants get an application of liquid fish emulsion fertiliser every month along with the rest of the patch.
Once the first stems reach about 40-50cm (16-20") tall, I like to top dress the soil with some more compost or slow-release organic fertiliser. With our longer growing season, I like to feed them again mid to late summer to help carry them through to harvest with another addition of compost.
Those in cooler regions with shorter growing seasons may find the first additional feed of compost, once the plants reach 40-50cm tall, is enough if the soil was well prepared before planting.
Growing Ginger in Aquaponics
Ginger grows exceptionally well in aquaponics. For a backyard setup, I’d favour a flood and drain grow bed with media that gives the rhizomes room to expand.
Expanded clay is a practical option because it will move aside as the ginger puts on more size and not restrict it's growth unlike rough rocks that lock in with each other.
Allow space between planting pieces and around plumbing. A large clump can make access to a standpipe or siphon awkward by harvest time, as I found out the hard way.
Another option would be to add a soil wicking pot or grow bag bed to your aquaponics. I suggest you add some cloth in the base of a pot to cover the drainage holes, add a 50-75mm (2-3”) layer of sand then the same sort of soil blend you would normally use for ginger. Place the container in a bed where the aquaponic water can enter through the base and contact the sand making sure the soil layer is above the highest water level.
The water will wick through the sand into the soil giving the plants a constant supply of additional nutrients from the fish water. I have been very impressed with both ginger and potato crops grown with this method. Watch my soil-based aquaponics growing method
When is ginger ready to harvest?
There are two stages where folks will harvest their ginger depending on the flavour and texture they are wanting.
Harvesting Baby Ginger
The first is young ginger, often called “baby ginger”. Baby ginger can generally be harvested after about 4 months, depending on your climate. I like to use visual cues and only harvest small amounts after the mother ginger has started to produce new sections of rhizome.
At this stage, the rhizome has a pinkish hue at the top where it joins the stem. It has tender flesh, thin skin and a mild, more floral flavour but still packs a spicy zing. To harvest, simply uncover the rhizome at the edge of the clump, carefully snap off a small section and recover the remaining clump. Baby ginger is best used fresh as it doesn’t store as well as thicker skinned mature sections.
I usually leave our plants in longer as we prefer the stronger flavour of mature ginger and want the extra yield. But if you enjoy tender young ginger, or have a short growing season, an earlier harvest of baby ginger is well worth considering.
Harvesting Mature Ginger
Ginger left to grow all season will usually let you know when it’s time to harvest as the foliage turns yellow and starts to die back.
I like to wait until the majority of the stems have died off before I harvest. I cut off the stalks about 50-75mm (2-3”) above where they meet the rhizome, then carefully lift the clump with a garden fork. Make sure you start far enough away from the clump so as to not spear the ginger.
In regions with a shorter growing season, you may need to harvest before frost or move container plants under cover. Harvesting earlier will give you smaller crop but leaving ginger in cool wet soil when it’s not actively growing may cause it to rot. If you’re in a warmer region, you could leave some healthy looking rhizome in the ground to help get a jump start on the next crop.
The beds we grow in are well drained and our winters dry so that helps a lot. Leaving some in the ground also provides me with a “living pantry” so to speak as I can nip out to the patch and harvest some fresh rhizome out of season.
I remove the mulch from the edge of the clump and take a small piece, then cover the remaining rhizomes back up, the same as you would for harvesting baby ginger.
Saving Seed Ginger
I always save some of the healthiest looking ginger sections for replanting next season. We keep the sections n a cool, dark, airy part of the pantry for a few months until the buds began to form. I periodically check and remove any sections that show signs of rot, which doesn’t happen very often.
How to store ginger
Once you’ve harvested your ginger, you’ll need to store what you don’t give away to family and friends. The following video shows you 7 methods we use to store ginger for use later.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this look at my methods for growing and harvesting ginger. Cheers all & happy growing.🌱🌱
Comments