Growing Ginger

Zingiber Officinale : Zingiberaceae / the ginger family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec

Not recommended for growing in USA - Zone 5a regions

  • Plant pieces of fresh root showing signs of shoots. Best planted at soil temperatures between 20°C and 30°C. (Show °F/in)
  • Space plants: 15 cm apart
  • Harvest in approximately 25 weeks. Reduce water as plant dies back to encourage rhizome growth.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Grow in separate bed
  • Ginger plant
  • Ginger ready to harvest
  • Ginger root
  • New shoots of ginger

Ginger is a warm climate plant. It can be grown indoors in pots in cool/temperate areas. To grow well it needs lots of water and nutrients. Prepare the soil by adding compost which will retain some moisture but not get saturated. Add a small amount of sand to ensure drainage. Water regularly in summer to keep moist. In a pot, in addition to watering to keep moist, water ginger about once a fortnight with a seaweed or other liquid fertilizer. This perennial will die down in autumn. Remove the dead leaves. In spring lift the root clumps and break them up into smaller pieces to replant.

Harvesting Ginger: You can harvest ginger root after the plant dies down in winter, digging around the plant to cut off a piece of the older root. The young root with shoots is the actively growing plant and should be left to resprout.

You can also carefully dig down under the plant through the growing season to cut off bits of the older root for use, just be careful not to disturb the rest of the plant too much.

Let plants become well established before harvesting - it is often best to wait until the second growing season.

Make sure that you have edible ginger. Ginger plants sold in nurseries are usually decorative varieties and not suitable for eating.

Ginger can be grown in pots. The best growing temperature is around 25 - 30 C (75 - 85 F)

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Ginger

Ginger root freezes well either whole or grated, and can be used direct from the freezer in most recipes requiring fresh ginger.

Your comments and tips

28 Jul 23, dz (USA - Zone 10a climate)
the guide says for Zone 10A to plant ginger in Feb, but sometimes you just have to adapt as things occur. A couple of weeks ago (July), my wife handed me a piece of store bought ginger that had started to grow a shoot, so I put it in a small clean snack cup, added about 1/2" of water, and checked it daily, adding and/or changing water as needed, and in a couple weeks it had grown a lot of roots, and the shoot grew to about 4 inches and opened its third leaf, so this morning I planted it outside in a 5-gallon bucket and will continue to monitor it closely.
10 Nov 23, Eric (USA - Zone 10b climate)
I have a newly started piece of ginger growing. I am in zone 10 B and was wondering if it would do well through the winter outside or if I should bring it inside. Any insight is appreciated.
26 Feb 24, dz (USA - Zone 10a climate)
Eric, my ginger grew very well in the 5-gallon bucket and three additional shoots grew up, which I think means new root (rhizome) lobes have grown, and I've been leaving it alone during the winter to see how it does. We had minor frost a couple of nights in January and a lot of my more tropical / warm climate plants took some damage, including the ginger. As of today, the green growth has all died off, so I'll need to carefully check to see if the roots are still solid and not rotting from wet weather. My Taro root in a bucket next to the ginger also died down from the frost but has quickly recovered and is starting to grow some new leaves, so hopefully the ginger starts growing again soon.
22 Jul 23, (USA - Zone 9b climate)
It also says it will not grow in 9a/b which are warm climates.
27 Jul 23, (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Try it then.
16 Oct 23, Trip Bauer (USA - Zone 9b climate)
I've had pretty good success with Ginger on the 9a/9b border. I'm more inland and my property is fairly protected from a lot of wind.
19 Jul 23, Wilma Begly (USA - Zone 5a climate)
I would like to grow ginger, I live in ohio u s a but do not know which zone I am in. When can I plant it. Your advice would be Appreciate it on this. I am needing this for medicinal reasons. Thank you very much
24 Jul 23, (USA - Zone 5a climate)
If you want to grow ginger in Zone 5, you will need to plant it in a container and keep it indoors over winter, since ginger plants are not frost hardy.
02 May 23, paul feldman (USA - Zone 6b climate)
Will ginger grow as a perennial In zone 6b ?
08 May 23, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
The guide here says it won't grow in your climate zone.
Showing 1 - 10 of 46 comments

"Ginger is a warm climate plant. It can be grown indoors in cool/temperate areas. To grow well it needs lots of water and nutrients. Prepare the soil by adding compost which will retain some moisture but not get saturated. Add a small amount of sand to ensure drainage. Water regularly in summer to keep moist". I would suggest a raised bed - even just a bed that is higher than the surrounding area. Doesn't have to be a constructed bed. Put plenty of compost and sand as suggested. A sandy soil rather than a clay soil - a good loamy soil. The trick is to keep it moist but not have it wet all the time.

- Mike

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