Have you ever wanted to grow your own fruits, vegetables, and spices at home? The idea always fascinates me because it seems so straightforward. Yet, every time I dive into it, I find myself feeling overwhelmed. Each plant has its own specific needs, from growing techniques to environmental conditions, and even the timing can vary with the seasons and your local weather. But I’m not letting that stop me! Instead, let’s start our gardening journey together, focusing on one plant at a time.
Materials
To get started with planting ginger, we’ll first need a ginger root or “rhizome” with multiple offshoots. This can be purchased at a local grocery store, an Asian market, a garden center, or online. Next, you can purchase some garden compost and garden wood chips, which we’ll mix together in equal parts to create a soil blend that helps with drainage. We’ll also need a pot that’s shallow and wide with a good sized drainage hole. Lastly, we’ll want to get some liquid seaweed feed to help nurture the plant.
When to Plant
Ginger is typically planted in late winter or early spring, but planting in the fall is also an option if we’re prepared to keep it indoors over the winter and monitor a few climate factors. Regardless of when we start, we’ll plant the ginger indoors and then move it outside once the weather warms up. However, if we’re in a region with mild winters, we can keep our ginger outside year-round.
Getting Started
When we’re ready to plant, we’ll start by soaking the ginger rhizome in lukewarm water overnight. This should help wash off any growth inhibitors. The next day, we’ll fill the pot with soil almost to the top. Then, we’ll place the ginger on the soil and cover it with more soil, leaving the rhizome partially visible. Finally, we’ll give it a nice big drink of water.
Plant Care
Ginger plants go dormant from around October to March, but the rest of the year they’re in a state of active growth. To keep them thriving, they need plenty of water and a touch of humidity. Mix the water with liquid seaweed for an extra boost. During the winter we can pull back a little on watering but still ensure the ginger’s environment is humid. A handy trick is to place the pot on a tray of rocks and fill the tray with water—just make sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the pot. Alternatively, we can keep the plant in the bathroom to maintain humidity, but we’ll want to keep an eye on the temperature.
Where to Store It
Inside
We should aim to keep our ginger plant at around 70 degrees fahrenheit. To avoid temperature fluctuations, it’s best not to place the plant next to a heater or under a vent.
Outside
Ginger plants are sensitive to heat, so during the summer, we should keep them in the shade to prevent scorching. If we’re storing the plant outside for the winter, we should move it to a spot with direct sunlight. Ginger won’t get scorched in the winter.
