Like anything you grow at home- ginger just tastes better than store bought. And with how much I love ginger’s bold and distinct flavor of course I grow it. Plus, growing an exotic, tropical plant up in zones 3 and 4 is pretty darn empowering.

Then there’s the fact that most ginger sold in the U.S. is imported from China, Brazil or Thailand…and has been grown without much regulation and then shipped thousands of miles. Add in that is a beautiful plant that smells amazing and you’ve got to try growing this at least once!

Ginger Botany

Zingiber Officinale roscoe
Classified as an aromatic herb, the part of the ginger plant we most often eat is  called a rhizome, the underground stem of a plant. But with homegrown ginger you can enjoy the stems as well- I chop the stems and enjoy them in tea!

Native to Southeast Asia this plant likes if hot and humid. So if you have a greenhouse you’re a step ahead, but dedicating your warmest space to this plant should get you a happy harvest too. Growing ginger is an 8-10 month project, so we try to get started at the end of January here in Minnesota zone 4. And yes, these plants will be LARGE before they head outside, so plan for space similar to a tomato and they may even have to stay inside longer.

Here’s A Ginger Growing Timeline

  • Jan 20-Feb 20- Start soaking your rhizomes
  • Jan 27- Feb 27  pot up into soil, in a tray to sprout
  • March 1-15 pot up again into deeper pots with ample space
  • June 1- 15 Once temps are 65+F outside, you can move to final growing space outdoors

Growing Ginger

You can see the oxygen bubbles (from the added Hydrogen Peroxice) surrounding the rhizomes

Just like with growing anything, it makes a difference if you can start with healthy rhizomes. Organic ginger stock is best because you know the rhizomes haven’t been sprayed with any growth inhibitors (another reason to soak the rhizomes before planting), plus if you’ll be growing it organically the plant will have been through a similar growth pattern before. I have yet to buy ginger from a seed company, as I’ve had good luck with organic ginger from my co-op.

Look for firm, dense rhizomes. You can break apart into smaller pieces before soaking, making sure each piece has a bud or two on it. You can heal the ‘wounds’ where you broke them apart if you’re going to skip the soaking part.

I start by adding my ginger pieces to a dark container, and soaking in water for a week or two, changing it out every few days. I add a few tablespoons of Hydrogen peroxide to my soaking water to increase the oxygen available to the nodes.

Then, once plumped and possibly sprouting a little more, I’ll plant the rhizomes a few inches deep into some happy, rich well-draining seed starting mix (find my recipe for Seed Starting Mix in my Seed Starting 101 blog) in a seedling tray. I add a mix of worm castings and or sifted compost to the potting mixture to add a boost of nutrients. It usually takes about three weeks to see noticeable buds sprouting on my ginger.

I don’t do anything special for my ginger except keep the soil moist, fertilize like tomatoes, and give them as much extra light and warmth as possible throughout the growing season.

End of Season

Tip: I have brought large plants back inside because of cold spring and fall temperatures. If it’s going to get much below 50F I will bring them back in because the colder temps really seem to affect these guys getting growing again.

Other than that, just make sure they stay warm, ginger’s perfect growing temp is right at 70-75F, and that the soil doesn’t dry out. A little afternoon shade is OK too! This is another reason I love my little greenhouse. I can trap lots of heat in there during the day, (It an often be 90F inside when it only gets up to 60F outside) so even if it dips below 50F overnight, I can keep my ginger happy inside my greenhouse.

If you can, plant them in a location where you can brush the leaves as you walk by, the ginger scent is intoxicating.

Harvesting Ginger

Half of last year’s Harvest
View of an actual ginger ‘root’ which also smell like ginger!

As for harvesting ginger, you’ll wait for one of two signs…  if you’re up north like me, wait until the temperatures are dropping, or you’ll notice they stop taking up as much water and their leaves start to turn yellow (I’ve heard it’s similar to the way garlic starts to dry out). Either way, your ginger has slowed/stopped adding onto to it’s rhizome at that point.

So go ahead and pull apart those big beautiful juicy rhizomes, snip the stems to a few inches above the root (and save for tea if you want), and gently scrub off any remaining dirt.

Preserving Ginger

I like to keep a few ‘roots’ in the refrigerator, and I grate and freeze the majority of the rest. I use a mandolin to grate the roots- so keeping a section of stem on makes it a LOT easier to grate them. It may loose a little flavor by grating versus leaving in larger chunks, but by prepping it all at once I am able to use it more easily.

And I use it almost daily. Ginger goes into my cooking, teas, homemade elderberry syrup, baked goods and ferments – like ginger bug soda… My full Blog on making your own sodas from fermented ginger coming soon!

My three pots of ginger produced almost enough to get me through the season, until I started making ginger bug… So, I’m increasing my ginger growing by almost double this coming season.  That’s why we garden –  so we can grow what we love, right!

One of my dreams is to make my own ginger powder from dehydrated ginger someday… I’ve done that with my homegrown garlic, but haven’t increased my stock enough to attempt that with ginger –  yet.

Are you growing ginger this season?

Dig In,

Michelle