How to Plant Ginger

Ginger refers to the fleshy tuber of ginger plant (scientific name Zingiber officinale). It is a flavoring culinary herb used for preparing a wide variety of delicacies and also for making a herbal tea. Apart from the culinary usage, ginger root is an important medicinal herb, which is effective for therapeutic treatment of nausea, diarrhea, pain and migraine. Due to its attractive blooms, fragrance and several uses, ginger plant is popularly grown as a part of vegetable garden and/ or herbal garden.

Most garden enthusiasts prefer to grow ginger plant for creating landscaping design, especially in the home boundaries. Since ginger plant is native to tropical and subtropical regions, the plant grows best in warm environmental conditions. In addition to this growing criteria, there are certain tips for increasing the yield of ginger root. Let's take a look at the tips on how to plant ginger.

Planting and Caring Tips for Ginger

Ginger plants can be grown both in the garden or in the pots and containers. The basic requirements of ginger plants for a good harvest are fertile soil, proper drainage, filtered sunlight, high humidity and warm climatic conditions. A few things to avoid while planting ginger are waterlogged soil, full sunlight, very strong winds, cold temperature conditions and heavy frost.

Selecting Growing Site: Selecting a growing site is one of the most crucial steps for planting ginger roots. An improper site may result in poor formation of the ginger rhizomes. Hence, while deciding the plantation site, always consider the basic requirements of ginger plants. If your garden soil and/ or area is not suitable for growing ginger plants, always prefer growing them in the pots of proper size, so that you can provide the optimum plant requirements to some extent. For example, if your garden site receives direct sunlight, then you can protect the plants during peak hours by placing them indoors.

Soil Preparation: The best time for planting ginger is winter and early spring. For the plantation of ginger roots, prepare the soil after heavy frost is over. You can add farmyard compost with the garden soil in 1:1 proportion. If your garden soil is wet and heavy type, you can create raised beds in order to minimize excessive water accumulation. Doing so ensures proper drainage of water and prevents water logging.

Choosing Ginger Rhizome: The planting material for growing ginger is rhizomes. Selecting healthy ginger rhizome is as important as deciding the plantation site. Always opt for fresh and plump rhizomes with healthy growth buds. You can select well-developed eyes in the tip portion of the rhizomes. Cut the rhizomes into pieces, ensuring that each bud consists of healthy eyes. For fastening shoot development, you can soak the rhizomes in water overnight.

Planting Ginger Root: After preparing the soil, you can place the ginger rhizome pieces with the growth buds pointing upwards at a depth of about 6-8 cm. If you are planting in the garden soil, leave a space of about 4-5 inch in between two plantations. Accordingly, you can plant the ginger roots in pots. Carefully cover the growth buds with soil.

Watering Ginger Plants: Speaking about watering of ginger plants, they require regular watering, after every two days. Do not over water the plants, otherwise it will result in water logging. In order to maintain humidity level, you can provide heavy mulching around the ginger plants. Mulching also helps in controlling the growth of weeds.

Caring Tips: For ginger plant care, supplementing the soil with fertilizers after every four months is necessary. You can also spray the leaves with liquid fertilizers. For better development of ginger rhizomes, reduce watering the plants during dry spells. If the leaves are dried out, it is time to harvest the ginger rhizomes.

Harvesting of ginger rhizome is perfect about 8 months after plantation. In order to harvest rhizomes, dig up the soil around the plant carefully. You can pull out the stem along with the rhizomes.