Edible Ginger

How is everyone's edible ginger doing? I know some people were going to give it a go. I planted some tubers, bought in a Supermarket, in a pot and kept them in the conservatory until the weather warmed up.
I then forgot about it until recently. I have several healthy shoots growing. I will bring it indoors when the weather cools down to over winter as I am guessing it will be a year or two at least before it is big enough to lift and use, it will probably need moving into larger pots, judging by the way my decorative ginger grows, which is in flower right now, looking gorgeous and smelling even better.
I have noticed this year, that last years stems are still green at their bases and not wanting to be removed so I have left them in situ. In previous years they have died off and I have been able to remove them quite easily in the Spring. Climate change?

 

It must be 30 years since I grew Ginger. Done it in a GH (heated as it was also winter home to my tropical tortoises ) . I had some good results with it as well as managing a couple of Pineapples.
I have debated trying it again so would certainly be interested to know how yours does.

 

No ginger but we were given some turmeric rhizomes some years ago. We planted them up and kept the pots in the unheated garden room. We have used some of the rhizomes in dishes and even with gloves on still had yellow fingers. They die back in the winter but grow back each year. This year with all the heat they are loving it and growing really tall. Would love for them to flower as we have seen in the wild years ago.

 

I put some ginger in only a few weeks ago, bit left over from the pickled walnut escapade. I know I probably started too late, nothing showing yet.
I have grown it before but its just out of curiosity.

I also tried turmeric back in April and its still there but done nothing, I wonder if the supermarkets do something to stop things shooting.

 

I've got some ginger also growing very slowly - which is strange considering the weather. When I last grew it years ago, I used some of it fresh, and it was far more citrussy than the roots you buy in supermarkets

 

I tried growing some several years ago, not realizing it died down in the winte it was thrown away as an empty pot. I know better this time. I think patience is the answer. It was a few years before my decorative ginger really got going, I love it, the scent from the flowerers is wonderful. I always leave the stems on the roots through the winter to act as frost protection, the small tubers have multiplied into an impressive stand of plants now. I would need a pickaxe to dig any up to reduce the size of the clump. I love the flavour of fresh ginger so it will be interesting to try some out eventually. The tubers of the decorative varieties do not have much smell so I assume less flavour.

 

I have 3 large pots growing under my tomatoes in the greenhouse, started from shop rhizomes early in the year. They prefer it a bit shady and warm as they grow on the forest floor in the wild. This year they have suffered a bit from scorched leaves so I have been draping fleece over them. I'll try and keep them going as long as possible, harvest the older parts and hopefully keep the youngest bits going indoors over winter. A couple of years ago I had enough to make 2 jars of ginger marmalade.

 

I think you will find the ornamentals are different to the culinary ginger. Ornamentals are mostly Hedychium species while the edible comes under Zingiber.

 

I have Zingiber mioga, hardy edible Japanese ginger; mine did not like the weather over winter and eventually stuck it's nose up in July. Now recovering in a pot in the greenhouse and at some point I will try a chunk of it outside again, but keep a bit in reserve.
Also have Zingiber chrysanthemum from Nepal/North India dead hardy, edibility not known, very attractive pleated leaves, flowers ground level or underground, fruit is bright red with white seeds. Did exactly the same as the Z mioga when planted out a few years ago, now in a large pot and overwinters in the greenhouse.
Have several hedychium dotted around, one has flowered and a second has aborted the flower bud.

 

@NigelJ I was given a small clump of Z. Mioga which is now in a shadier, damper part of the garden and apparently liking it. Since it supposedly flowers at the base, I don't think I'll see any as my slugs are voracious! As for supposedly edible others, I have an eletteria cardamomum that has somehow survived in pots for over 20 years - but I've never seen a flower! The foliage is scented though, so brushing past it is good.

 

if you can keep the frost off your tubers I think it will be next year before you see any signs of growth. My pieces of SM tubers took about 3 months before I saw any foliage. Also, keep them on the dry side during the winter to avoid them rotting off. They are a tropical plant.

 

@CarolineL I think it's been the dry weather that's set back my Z mioga and when I tried the Z chrysanthemum outside that was 2022 another very dry summer. They are in a damper part of my garden, but all is dry at the moment. The hedychiums I have in the drier parts were slow to establish but seem to cope alright now they are mature plants.

 

All I know about my gingers is I saw and smelled two massive pots of them in the restaurant at Tresillian Gardens and thought "I must have". I eventually found some for sale locally and bought 3 plants, a cream, a red and an orange flowered. I created a hump of compost, in full sun all day, approximately 12 ft by 6 ft, covered it with weed matting, cut holes in the matting to put the plants in, and left them to their own devices. topped the matting with slate chippings.The red flowered one disappeared after about 2 years after a very cold winter. The orange one flourishes and the cream one is hanging on. Plenty of flower spikes each year. The flower stems grow to about two and a half feet tall with the spidery flowers at the top. I have never noticed any mature seed pods.
I always leave the top growth on the plants until late Spring as frost protection. Next door's chickens like to go underneath the leaf canopy for shade when it is hot.

 

OOOOH! Ginger Marmalade. One of my favourites. Now you have set me on a train of thought to grow enough to do the same.

 

Just noticed I have a flower coming on one of my plants: