Update 12/24/2024: This turned out remarkably well. From the three boxes below (about 7 square feet total) I got about 7 pounds of usable ginger root.
But it’s not mature ginger. This may be what’s sold in grocery stores as “baby ginger”. No tough skin. No tough fibers. Few fibers, period. And yet, peppery enough for me.
The only downside is that the roots don’t keep, as mature ginger roots will, so they have to be processed in some way.
See Post G24-028 for the harvest-and-use portion of this year’s ginger crop.
Update 6/25/2024:
The standard advice for growing ginger runs something like this: Ginger is a tropical plant with a ten-month growing season in its native climate. Therefore, if you are in a temperate, non-tropical climate, you should start your ginger plants ten months before your expected first fall frost.
Which, in my climate (Virginia, USDA zone 7) means starting ginger in … January? And then growing your ginger as a house plant for some months, until it can survive outside?
Yep, that’s the standard advice. I did that, as shown below. And I think that’s bad advice. Continue reading Post G24-010: Growing ginger in Virginia? This needs a rethink.