Grew Ginger By Accident

Last year, I experimented on growing ginger from the stock a friend sent me (there was a lot!). I let them root first in water and waited until a stem sprouted. Then I planted them in soil. Research showed that it takes 10 months before you can harvest ginger, so I left them alone. 

They died during when we did some renovations since we moved out for almost a month. I set aside the pots and was surprised to see the ginger re-grow. The pots got wet from the rain and I guess it woke up the roots. I moved them back under the bamboo and they've been growing steadily.

Nature finds a way to survive.

Noticed that there were a lot of leaves in one pot. I guess the previous occupant multiplied. Decided to re-pot them so they can grow bigger. The roots smelled so good when I pulled them out of the pot. I saw many grape sized ginger forming and realized I picked a good time to move them to a bigger pot. There were more grape sized ginger with roots at the bottom of the pot. 

I mixed loam soil with compost and put some egg shells at the bottom. I hope that would encourage the ginger to grow bigger. I put the huge pot in a shaded area first and will move it next week once it adjusts. It was fun to re-pot it since it smelled so good! It smelled like sweetened salabat. Ohhh, I hope we are able to harvest in a few months! I have others growing and will also re-pot them soon. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: Growing Ginger from Kitchen Scraps (3rd Month Update)

Got a lot of ginger from a friend when the boys had COVID-19. I made salabat for a few weeks and even tried making ginger candy. We still had a lot though, so I researched how I could possibly plant some of them for future use. I use ginger sparingly also when I cook, so it would be more economical to have it in my garden. I can just get some whenever I need it. 

As of October 22 before it was inundated with sawdust.

I read that I could just put the knob in water* and allow roots to grow. It's time to plant it in soil once you have roots and stalks growing. It's been 3 months since I put some knobs in water. I put them in a covered area where it would get morning sun. Leaves soon grew and the plants looked very happy where they were located. I would water them whenever the soil was dry. I also gave it fertilizer once a week, usually diluted rice water. 

Rooted knobs in rain water. Just change the water every 2 days.

The plants though got stressed when we had some work done in our house. Sawdust would cover the leaves and it was cumbersome to clean the leaves. I noticed the leaves started to yellow and wilt. Last weekend I got help from Miggy and transferred them under the bamboo trees outside. Ginger prefers to have some morning sun and thrives in partial shade. The rain from the past week cleaned up the leaves and they soon enough looked happy again. 

I should probably be able to harvest some of the ginger by summer time. Yay!

*I used rain water

Plantita Saturdays: Propagated Ginger from Kitchen Scraps

We got a boatload of ginger from a friend. Made salabat and ginger candy out of it and since there were some nuggets left-over I thought I'd try to grow more from scraps. I tried it a few months ago, but I failed. It did not work out because I just immediately put the scraps in soil. I learned that you need to let some roots grow before you plant it in soil. 

So I put the scraps in a container with half an inch of water. I just used tap water and it took almost a week before it started to grow roots. I changed the water every other day. After two weeks I used rain water and was so surprised that the roots and stem grew so fast overnight. 

After four weeks I decided to plant the propagated ginger in soil. I selected the ones that had healthy stems and roots. The roots were pretty gnarly, but it was easy to split up. I put 3 to 4 knobs per pot to give it enough space to grow bigger. I'll have to wait 8 to 10 months before I harvest the ginger. 

It's been a few days since planted the propagated ginger in soil. I put them in the garage area so they don't get direct sunlight. They seem to have adjusted well and the leaves are now starting to unfurl. Looking forward to harvesting ginger next summer!

#BeKind #StaySafe