Edible Ginger Plant (Zingiber officinale)

About the Edible Ginger Plant (Zingiber officinale)

This is true culinary ginger, the spice of a thousand kitchens, from a plant you can grow at home. It forms a clump of slender, reed-like stems with narrow, fragrant leaves, and underground it spreads into plump, knobbly rhizomes. You can dig tender, mild 'young ginger' with thin pink-tinged skin after about four to six months, or wait eight to ten months for mature, pungent rhizomes to cook with, store and replant. Fresh homegrown ginger is juicier and more aromatic than most store-bought roots. Available as a rhizome, a potted young plant or a flowering-size clump.

How to Care for It

To plant a rhizome, lay it horizontally 5 cm deep in loose, compost-rich, well-drained soil with the buds facing up, water once and keep it barely moist until shoots appear; too much water before then can rot it. Plant at the start of the rains in partial shade with rich soil and regular water, never soggy. Harvest by digging part or all of the clump. Feed monthly while growing and mulch to keep the roots cool and moist.

Sculptural flowers, fragrant blooms and edible rhizomes. Our tropical gingers include beehive ginger (awapuhi) in golden, red, pink and chocolate, shampoo ginger, red and pink torch ginger, red ginger, shell and butterfly ginger, plus culinary ginger and turmeric. Sold as rhizomes, potted plants or flowering clumps.

Growing Profile

Botanical name

Zingiber officinale

Family

Zingiberaceae

Native to

Tropical Asia; known only in cultivation

Mature height

0.6–1.2 m

Plant spacing

0.3 m

Time to first flowers

0.7–0.8 years

Harvest

Young ginger from 4–6 months; mature rhizomes 8–10 months after planting

Light

Sun to part shade

Water

Moderate

Cold tolerance

down to 10 °C

Best climates

Humid tropics, Dry tropics, Subtropical

Grows in a pot

Yes

Ships from

Our farms in Yucatán & Chiapas