As you know from previous posts, we are very big on being or becoming more self-sufficient. This week’s talk is How to Grow Your Own Fresh Ginger at Home.

In the last couple of weeks we have done talks that connect to this one, so please check out these other talks for more related info.

Why You Get Headaches and Using Natural Remedies and Techniques to Stop Them

and

DIY Homemade Tincture of Ginger for Headaches and Upset Stomach

But for today, we have wonderful, useful ginger.

Many people think of ginger as some exotic spice. But it is very simple to grow your own supply of ginger at home. We have been growing ginger for a couple of years now. Our journey with ginger started with Mistfit Market Place.

We did a post on Mistfit Market Place a good while back. It is mail order for fresh fruits and veg as well as a nice selection of pantry goods. Misfit Market Place takes small, odd, or discolored fruits and veg that most stores will not take and sells at a discount. Not only do you get good food but you get discount prices and it helps stop national grocery store food waste. Please do check them out, they are a great company.

We started our interest in ginger, with a batch of fresh ginger that came in one of our Misfit Market Place boxes. We had not really done anything with ginger before so we had to do some research to find out what to do with it.

We found ginger could be a very useful plant. Then we found something we wanted to make that required ginger or some form of ginger. So of course, we decided to grow our own.

How to Grow Your Own Fresh Ginger at Home

You will need:

fresh ginger

a planter

dirt

water

sun

time

patience

1. Fresh Ginger Fingers

Ginger grows large, tropical-looking leaves but it grows from tubers under the ground. The tuber is the part that is used in both herbal remedies and spice cooking.

Buy a few “fingers” of fresh ginger. It is best, of course, to get organic for this. You can just buy the ones from the grocery store, or from Misfit Market Place.

2. Wrap ginger in a damp paper towel.

Put your ginger in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag. Then set it aside. It will take several weeks before you start to see those cute little buds so be patient.

We actually had some ginger start to bud just sitting on the counter. That is what you get for living in the humid South.

We had planned to use that ginger for a project but when we started to cut it, the ginger already had buds on it so we kept it.

3. Wait for buds

The ginger will start to form little buds here and there.

4. Plant budding ginger in planters

Once you have buds, you can plant your ginger. We put ours in pots so we can have better control of things. In some places, that do not get too cold, you can plant your ginger outside.

To plant, get a pot and some dirt, of course.

Gently and carefully not to hurt the buds, place your ginger in the dirt.

There seem to be several different ways of thinking on how you should plant your ginger.

Some say to put the whole thing in and cover it up.

Some say, to set it up, base into the dirt, and leave the rest sticking out of the dirt.

Others say to put your ginger in water and wait for roots and leaves to form.

It really does not seem to matter how you do it. Our ginger grew no matter how we planted it.

5. Watch your ginger grow

You will need to monitor the water for your ginger. Ginger wants to be moist but not wet. If you keep your ginger wet, it will rot. Not enough water and your ginger will shrivel up.

Ginger also does not like full sun, so keep it in a shady place that gets some sun but not enough to burn the delicate thing.

Then you just wait. You will see buds, then greenies, then leaves. Our ginger grew in the warm greenhouse all winter with no issues.

Ginger will form more tubers on its own, so just let it be and it will multiply. Once you have a nice, supply of ginger, you can dig out however much you need and leave the rest. The ginger will keep growing and keep multiplying.

You will not only have a homegrown spice supply but a beautiful tropical plant as well.

If you use ginger, like the smell of ginger, or just need an easy-to-grow tropical plant, ginger is for you. Try it out and see just how easy it is and how wonderful this spice is to use.

We hope you enjoyed this talk on How to Grow Your Own Fresh Ginger at Home. We hope you will try growing your own ginger. This is an easy-growing project that you can get the kids into and maybe start the kids on a plant journey of their own.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.