Ginger is an amazing herb which can be grown indoors. It doesn’t require much maintenance, needs partial sunlight and you can use it whenever you want. We don’t need to mention that it is delicious.
Something about ginger
Ginger is fully grown after 10 months and it cannot thrive in frosty conditions. So if you live in an area with cold winters, you should put ginger in a pot and place it indoors until summer.
Ginger also likes partial to full shade which makes ginger suitable to be grown inside your home where there isn’t full sun pouring on the windows throughout the whole day.
Little bit of ginger can be used while it still grows. You can use these pieces for cooking, as a remedy or to prepare tea.
How to plant ginger?
First you need to buy the plant from a garden center or seed catalog. Sometimes it can be hard to find.
You can purchase ginger from produce department or local grocery story but those roots are usually with low quality. Grocery store ginger is usually treated with a growth inhibitor which keeps it from sprouting before it is bought. That inhibitor may keep it from growing when you place the roots in the pot.
Grocery store ginger is sometimes treated with fungicides and pesticides as well. You cannot know if that ginger will grow or it will stay in the pot and never budging. If you buy a ginger from the grocery store you must soak it in the water overnight to remove the inhibitors as much as you can.
Below you can find useful tips on how to grow ginger inside:
- You should buy a root which is plump with tight skin, not old and dry. It should contain several eye buds on it (like potato eyes) and they should be already a little green.
- In case your root has several eye buds, you can cut some of them and place them in separate pots to grow several plants.
- You should choose the right pot as well!
- Ginger should be placed in shallow, wide pots as the roots grow horizontally.
Grow ginger indoors, step by step:
- First, place the ginger root overnight in warm water so it could be ready for planting.
- Fill your pot with very rich and quality potting soil.
- After sticking the ginger root with the eye bud pointing up in the soil, cover it with 1-2 inches of soil. Then water it well.
- Place the pot with ginger in a reasonably warm area where it won’t get too much bright sunlight.
- The soil must be wet, so use a spray bottle to mist it, or water it lightly.
- Ginger needs more time to grow, but after a few weeks you should see some shoots coming out of the soil. Continue to water the plant regularly.
Harvesting ginger:
You can harvest small pieces of ginger 3-4 months after the growth begins. Remove some soil at the edges of the pot to find some rhizomes under the surface. Cut the needed amount and then return the soil again.
You can harvest ginger as long as you want but you must take care of the root. If you need a larger amount, you can pull out the whole plant and re-plant a few rhizomes to start the process again.
