Think, Eat, Be Healthy

The Backyard Ginger Plant

The Miraculous Tenacity Of Life

ginger, ginger root, fresh ginger root

Fresh ginger root can be broken apart and the pieces planted to grow new plants.

Way back around the end of February or early March I decided to try growing ginger and turmeric. I had never grown either of these plants before and had no idea how to go about getting them started. I talked to a few people who told me to just break off a piece of the root and plant it. Some further research on-line produced the same basic directions. So I thought, how hard can this really be?

I prepared two five gallon buckets as I would for any other vegetables. Four snapped off pieces of ginger root went into one bucket and four pieces of turmeric root went into the other. Everything was covered with and inch of soil and watered well. For two months I kept both buckets well watered and carefully weeded. The rest of the garden was thriving but nothing happened with the ginger or turmeric. Tired of waiting, I uncovered a piece of turmeric in mid May to find it moldy and rotted. I assumed the ginger was sharing the same fate.

The bucket holding the turmeric was promptly replanted with beets and the ginger bucket with carrots. The beets and carrots grew and were harvested as baby vegetables and greens by the middle of July. Both buckets were now going to be left fallow until October, when they would be planted with cold weather vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage and broccoli. They were no longer watered or weeded.

Just a few days ago when checking some other plants in that part of the backyard garden I noticed a tall green spike rising above the weeds in the ginger bucket. A closer look revealed a tightly wrapped leaf stalk about a foot tall emerging from one of the pieces of ginger root. I was totally amazed! After all that time, five full months of Florida summertime heat and humidity, this one small piece of ginger still had what it takes to start a new plant. What tenacity!

ginger, new plant, first leaves, ginger root

The first leaves of a new ginger plant.

I immediately weeded the bucket. Having just turned the compost pile, it also got a fresh layer of mulch. Needless to say I also started watering it again. It was moved to an area with more sun.

This new backyard ginger plant seems to like the sudden pampering. When I got home from work this afternoon and went out to dump the day’s compost, there were two leaves open and another few inches taller. I am very interested in what the roots will be like this winter, when they should be ready for harvest. I wonder why the ginger, or at least this one piece, was able to grow a new plant but the turmeric was not.

I will do more research on growing these plants and talk to more people. In the meanwhile I will just enjoy watching this little backyard miracle grow.

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