My mom lives in the same oven. You ain’t kiddin’. I live in God’s proofer during summer, then meat locker the other 10 months.
I doubt it would survive our eternal frost situation. Can’t hurt to try, though. Thanks for the spark, though.
2 Likes
To say that I can.
1 Like
And I would add that young, fresh ginger is kind of its own special treat. Unless you live in an area where ginger can easily grow, young ginger can be hard to find. I love pickled ginger, which should be made with young ginger and there are many classic Chinese dishes that are supposed to be better with young ginger.
2 Likes
The first time I tried pickled ginger I wondered where it had been all my life.
The stuff that comes with sushi? Usually pink and tastes of aspartame?
That is one type. The super pink and ‘aspartame-y’ kind are probably the mass market jars, which aren’t great. There are a few commercial kinds that are better than others (avoid the bright pink ones if you can). Homemade gari uses young ginger which often has a slightly purplish tint, and this can give the pickled ginger a pinkish hue. But it shouldn’t look like Barbie pink. 
Big commercial varieties add that coloring to make it seems like you are getting fresh young ginger slices.
If you can find a brand that has a more neutral color, that might give you a better indication of taste. Or even better, make your own pickled ginger so you and adjust the sweetness and vinegar level yourself! If you have access to fresh, young ginger, it’s super easy to make and it tastes very different. Young ginger is also milder, so it gives a nice zing without the intense astringency that old ginger might have.
3 Likes
There’s a vendor at our greenmarket that sells it. And it ain’t cheap!
And the stuff lasts like a day before it goes bad (ok, maybe slightly longer). You pretty much want to do what you intended to do within the week before it starts going - at least for the young ginger that gets shipped to the East coast.
1 Like
These guys grow their own (greenmarket rule is that everything sold has to be grown within a 100 mile radius of NYC). But yeah, the quality starts to decline pretty quickly.
1 Like
I grow a large number of gingers: Galanga (Alpinia galanga), Lesser Galanga (Kaempferia galanga), Thai Finger Ginger (Boesenbergia rotunda), Turmeric, Zeodary, Zerumbet, the typical culinary ginger, and others.
Gingers like very bright light to full sun (depends on the location), but shade from very hot direct sun. The preferred growing temperatures range from warm to hot. Medium to high humidity is preferred.
The commercial gingers want a well drained humus type soil, ph of 5.5-6.5, slightly acidic. They are heavy feeders and grow best in-ground or in large, very wide pots to accommodate the creeping rhizomes. For more baby ginger, I bury new shoots as they break the soils surface, so they grow longer. In any case, gingers produce best when hilled or buried 3-5 times. In-ground, start by planting in a trench and the soil will eventually form hills from repeat burying. This makes better “hands”. In pots, use deep pots so you can add soil to as new buds just are visible.
There’s a lot of misinformation regarding Chinese versus Japanese ginger. Japanese ginger varieties are smaller, more pungent and deeper yellow-orange than Chinese. The Chinese varieties are genetically capable of larger size and used to be the primary ginger type. I prefer Chinese varieties because they’re much easier to peel, fine dice and spread around in dishes. Just because a ginger in the store is large, it does not mean it was grown with something nasty or that it came from China. Hawaii is a major producer of (Chinese) ginger in the US. The more cold-hardy Japanese ginger, Zingiber mioga, is not used for the rhizomes and is a different species.
Keep growing ginger moist, not saturated all the time during the growing season. Depending on the climate and variety, most gingers will start to go yellow and start to die back, often in September. At this point, cut back on watering significantly, keeping the soil humid and almost dry. This post-flowering die back is when the ginger “root”, really a rhizome, puts on the most weight. (Baby ginger is harvested before this point, after the new shoots lengthen a bit.) An ideal growing time is around 10 months. I give the plants a head start in the greenhouse. (Indoors will work.) Then, they go outside where they get some filtering of the sunlight, but some direct sun does hit them, just not a midday. Once the tops die off, the ginger is dormant and ready to dig, harvest. Any potted gingers, all types, get put in a dark basement if it’s rainy and cold, so they’ll dry out and go dormant.
When harvesting, be REALLY careful not to damage the fragile skin. Wrap the rhizomes in newspaper after drying indoors 3–5 days for the skin to toughen and to heal any cuts. You can box the wrapped rhizomes to help keep them humid. It’s kind of tricky to prevent drying/shriveling and too much humidity, which can invite mold or rot. I often wrap the rhizomes in 2 sheets of newspaper and put them in a plastic bag, with the top just a bit open. A bunch small holes in the bag also helps. If ginger is stored in the fridge too long, it often turns bluish.
It’s crazy humid here. I wanted to see how bad it is and took a reading at 6am.
“OL” means it’s over the meter’s limit, which is 99% rH! We’re supposed to break 100 degrees F (38 C) this weekend. With the super high humidity, it’ll be dangerous to be outdoors after morning.
I have no idea what the lower limit is, humidity-wise, for ginger. There will be a relationship between humidity and sun tolerance.
8 Likes
Oh God, I would keel over dead with your humidity. You’re able to grow a lot more than me, but I expect there’d be a lot more insects and fungal diseases where you are. I was in Germany several years ago, and the temps and humidity were in the 80s the whole time, I don’t think my hair ever dried all the way. On the other hand, my cousin’s yard was like a fairyland, with enormous flowers, herbs, and vegetables.
I think ginger is okay here as long as it’s in the shade in a protected area, but time will tell.
1 Like
bogman, thanks for your thorough write up! I’ve been wanting to try growing and now I will.
2 Likes
@bogman, where do you live? I’m kind of amazed at all the instructions for the ginger because my plant is thriving and extremely happy with absolutely no care at all. I have literally never done a thing for it, including watering it. It lives in one of my raised beds and gets about 5 hours of sun a day. The parsley next to it is similarly ignored and also does great.
1 Like
In fact, thanks for ALL your thorough writeups, bogman
1 Like
Does galangal grow under the same conditions as ginger?
Evening news said humidity is 16 in nearby Mariposa, where there’s a bid fire burning.
1 Like
I’m in Virginia, just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It used to be USDA zone 6, but now it’s zone 7. While you can ignore ginger in a frost-free zone, it will make better “hands” with hilling. These are less old and fibrous than plants left to surface wander.
2 Likes
Galangal needs a little bit more shade, though I’ve had it grow above the shade plant and the sun didn’t seem to hurt it near the top. Galangal, Alpinia galanga, gets much larger. I’ve had 8-10 foot (2.4–3 M) tall plants. I don’t do the hilling on it because it’s more fibrous and used differently. Galangal also may remain evergreen if brought indoors, kept warm. I’ve also forced dormancy by slowly withholding water during late fall. It can rot if kept too wet when it’s cold. So far, I’ve kept it in very large pots, 5–7 gallon (19–26 L) when destined for harvest. After harvesting, rhizome sections can be put in smaller pots. Galangal rhizomes get cleaned, trimmed, scrubbed with a stiff brush and cut into sections to vacuum seal and freeze. It keeps for years frozen this way. Half-thaw it before use, so you can get a knife through it.
Another “Galanga”, sometimes confused with the Alpinia, is Kaempferia galanga, which can be easier to grow in pots. Notice that both plants have galanga as their scientific species name.
This is the plant used to make “Chinese dried rhizome”. It has a very pungent, different flavor and does not substitute for the Alpinia galanga. The leaves grow flat to the ground, making a lovely bed for the pretty flowers. Kaempferias need about 50% shade and need a dry dormancy around late fall. At that point, they don’t get water. I keep Kaempferias in wide pots and put them in the basement to dry out, go dormant, when frost approaches. I admit, I grow this one for the looks and, as yet, have not used it in cooking.
I appreciate the thanks!
3 Likes
Yes, the humidity is rough, but it goes way down in the fall, after the “jungle” defoliates. I try to be done with outdoor work by 10am. The humidity makes organic tomato growing either not practical or a short-lived endeavor. Early Blight sets in around midseason unless fungicides are used. At least the humidity is supposed to be good for one’s skin! Tropical plants seem to thrive, feeling right at home. Mushrooms also thrive here.
There are crazy quantities of insects, primarily because lush vegetation is everywhere. It makes for great bird habitat.
1 Like
Here’s a good write-up for pickled ginger. It also covers red pickled ginger, Beni Shoga, which is colored using Red Shiso/Perilla leaves.
If pickling young ginger is your goal, definitely do the hilling, burying of new shoots. This causes them to elongate quickly which makes the ginger less fibrous. When a new red tip starts to poke out of the soil, cover it with about 4 inches of soil, repeat as needed and stop hilling around mid August. Baby ginger should be dug before the leaves yellow, in Sept. If the rhizomes are yellow and pink-tinged, with fresh, young roots on the back end, and a thin skin, it’s “baby”.
Now there’s a conundrum making Beni Shoga: The baby ginger, if harvested too late in the season, will be a time when Red Shiso will have gone to seed, due to short day lengths. So, if you wish to make red pickled ginger, home-grown, push the gingers early to get the baby ginger up to size by early August or sooner.
I’ll try to get some pictures taken of various gingers. The Thai Galangal, Alpinia Galanga is flowering in the greenhouse because it hasn’t been moved outdoors yet. Rain and crazy humidity aren’t inspiring for hauling around big pots! The Magroot Lime loves the weather and it’s making lots of healthy, green leaves.
4 Likes
