This article will teach you everything you need to know about growing ginger. Before anything else, let me first give you a short background on the subject of ginger.

Ginger or ginger root is the tuber of the plant Zingiber officinale, which is commonly consumed as medicine or spice. Its cousins include turmeric, cardamom, and galangal. The cultivation of ginger started in South Asia but because of its popularity and countless uses, it has since spread to several Western countries.

Listed below are some of the most common uses for the ginger root:

1. Kitchen Spice

In many countries of the world, ginger roots are commonly used as a hot, fragrant kitchen spice. Mature ginger roots are fibrous and nearly dry. However, the juice from old ginger roots are extremely powerful. This juice extract is typically used as spice in Indian recipes and is a main ingredient in Chinese, Korean, Japanese and many other Asian cuisines for flavoring dishes such as seafood or goat meat. Sliced ginger roots are also popularly used for cooking to produce savory dishes such as salad, curries, soups and other vegetable preparations.

2. Drinks

Common among the many countries that use ginger is when it is used to make drinks. In the Philippines, ginger roots are brewed into a tea called salabat. In Western countries, they use it in making ginger ales.

3. Medicine

Aside from its numerous uses in food and drinks, ginger roots are also used for traditional medicine. The roots of which are classified as stimulant and carminative, used frequently to cure dyspepsia, constipation, or gastroparesis.

Planting Ginger

To start with, you can use a single tuber (root base) you bought from your local grocery store. It requires minimal amount of sunlight to sprout. The time that it does, the best thing to do is to replant it.  First of all, whether you plant your ginger root in a pot or in your garden, you need to use nutritious soil. It needs to be rich enough to feed your ginger root. To make it even more nutritious, you can always add more fertilizers, such as fruit peelings or humus, to your soil. You also have to make sure that your soil can hold enough moisture so it does not dry out. On the contrary, it must also be free-draining so the ginger roots do not become waterlogged.

The best planting time is during the dry season or early wet season, such as late winter or early spring, as this plant cannot stand frost. Ginger hates direct sunlight, as well, so when you choose a planting spot, make sure it is filtered or sheltered from the sun.

Ginger grows as a houseplant in most North American homes. It is not necessarily something that you will plant in your garden bed, although you may grow it in a pot and bring it out in the summer. Contrary to what many people think, growing ginger is very easy. It requires very little care. You only need to revisit it once a year, at harvest time. You can harvest it once a year, replant part of it, and forget about it for another year.

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