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You are here: Home / Specialty Gardening / Container Gardening / How to Grow Ginger in a Container

How to Grow Ginger in a Container

20 Comments

planting ginger root

There are a few spices that grow well in containers right at home, and ginger happens to be one of them. Popular in tasty Asian dishes and in many favorite baked treats, ginger adds zingy flavor to culinary delights of all sorts. And, ginger is super easy to grow in a container. In fact, it’s so easy to grow; you may not be able to stop yourself from running out today to get this simple gardening project started. You can have fresh ginger available to add to your own recipes in no time flat.

Ginger has been a useful plant since before historical records even began. It’s believed to originate in India. It’s been a popular spice on the worldwide scale, second only to pepper, throughout time.

The ginger plant’s adaptability has allowed the most humble of folks all the way to the fancy rulers to enjoy it throughout history. For example, Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) is credited with enjoying the appearance of gingerbread men popular still today at Christmastime. Ginger’s rich history goes right along with its impressionable flavor, and millions continue to enjoy its flavor and its medicinal properties today.

planting ginger in a container

How to Plant Ginger: Container Selection and Sprouting

The healthiest ginger plants are grown from reputable nurseries or from quality online gardening sources. But a ginger root can also be purchased from your local grocery store. Grocery store ginger roots may be coated with a growth inhibitor, which prevent it from sprouting in the grocery store. Grocery ginger root may also be treated with fungicides and/or pesticides. So, to clean your ginger, soak your new ginger root for 24 hours before slicing it up to plant.

Choose a wide, flat container to plant. Ginger’s roots grow horizontally, so width is more important than depth. Containers that are small enough to easily be moved inside and out are the perfect choice for ginger. Fill your container with a rich potting soil that will drain well.

Slice your ginger knob, into thin pieces. Select pieces of the knob that have “eyes” on them. Eyes are indentations in the surface of the root, where sprout will begin. Place the piece of ginger with the eyes facing up into the soil, and cover with about and inch and a half of soil.

How to Care for Ginger Plant

Water your ginger well in the early stages of planting. Continue to water or spray your plant’s soil often to keep the soil moist but not soggy. And be patient. Ginger can take several weeks to sprout.

Ginger is a good plant to enjoy indoors in colder climates. While it will enjoy the outdoors during warm months, any frost will kill a ginger plant. Choose a location with indirect light for your ginger.

After about eight months, your ginger plant will be mature. At that point, you can separate the rhizomes by pulling off a section of the plant including a piece of the rhizome. Transplanting is as easy as setting that rhizome into a new container of soil. Ginger is an easy root to share with a friend.

how to grow ginger in containers
ginger harvest

How to Harvest Ginger

Although the ginger plant may take many months to mature, you can harvest ginger when the plant is three or four months old. When you push away the soil from around the rhizome, you’ll notice that ginger rhizomes look knobby. You will also see roots reaching outward and downward from the rhizome. The rhizome is the edible portion of ginger. The roots can be cleaned off as you clean the rhizome to eat.

To enjoy a bit of ginger, simply uncover a piece of rhizome, and trim off one of the finger-like extensions. You can harvest ginger in this manner anytime you wish. However, you may find that you love it so much that you’ll need more than one rhizome planted at a time. You can alternate snipping from your plants if you grow more than one.

Before you eat ginger, you should rinse it and peel the skin off with a potato peeler. Then, enjoy your ginger freshly sliced or grated. Or, dry your ginger by slicing it paper thin and setting it on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in an oven or outside in a dry, sunny location. Ginger may take several hours or several days to dry. When it’s completely dried, it can safely be stored in plastic bags. You can also grate your dried ginger with a coffee grinder. Grated ginger is a delicious result of an easy gardening project!

Want to learn more about growing ginger?

Check out these helpful resources:
Growing Edible Ginger
Ginger — Zingiber officinale Roscoe University of Florida IFAS Extension

Creative Commons Flickr photo courtesy of Benson Kua

How to grow ginger in a container

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Filed Under: Container Gardening Tagged With: ginger harvest, growing ginger in container, growing ginger inside, harvesting ginger, planting ginger

Comments

  1. Mercedeh says

    March 13, 2015 at 3:12 pm

    I was hoping that when I watched the video it would be more informative and it wasn’t. It would have been helpful to show what the EYE of ginger looks like and for you to actually plant and show depth etc. Thanks

    Reply
    • da says

      April 19, 2015 at 4:32 pm

      Definitely on showing the eye!

      Reply
    • Pat says

      June 25, 2015 at 10:42 pm

      The eye would be very similar to the eye of a potato. It is an indented spot on the ginger that will allow roots to grow from it.

      Basically what they mean by rhizome is the fleshy part beneath the soil with roots growing from it. It looks like the section the woman shows in the video.

      Reply
      • Kathleen says

        July 4, 2015 at 10:46 am

        Thank you Pat. You were very helpful.

        Reply
    • teresa says

      March 13, 2016 at 9:11 am

      I agree. Could have,actually planted it and shown how

      Reply
    • louie engelbrecht says

      June 18, 2016 at 7:17 am

      I thought that the explanation was more than adequate,and easy to understand.Thank you so much for making it available.

      Reply
  2. Shelley Hayes says

    March 14, 2015 at 5:16 pm

    nice

    Reply
  3. Amy says

    April 12, 2015 at 10:16 am

    I agree with Mercedeh. For those of us new to gardening, terms like Rizone are unfamiliar and instructions that may seem obvious to a seasoned gardener are not clear. I would appreciate more visual instruction to go along with the written. The video was not very helpful for me.

    Reply
    • Bob Katz says

      September 28, 2015 at 11:05 am

      I wish there would be sketches or pictures of the parts mentioned.

      Reply
  4. liz seaton says

    June 26, 2015 at 3:45 pm

    I was also left wanting more , how long does it take to sprout, how long will it take to grow so I can harvest, What time of the year is it best to plant.

    Reply
    • clay crumb says

      December 22, 2015 at 12:30 pm

      Sprouts begin almost immediately but grow to the surface in 2-3 weeks if moist- not wet. plant inside anytime, if you plan to put outdoors plant after last frost (usually about the same time as spuds). In frost free environment they may become an invasive weed , but that usually is not a problem if you thin by harvesting every 4 to 6 months. Refresh your spot with bone meal, blood meal, and a good organic compost annually. The pre-soak is important but do not be surprised if it does not grow because some shippers sterilize the store bought rizomes.

      Reply
  5. Leigh says

    July 6, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    An eye is the same thing in a potato, indentations on the skin where possibly you see growth happening .

    Reply
  6. roishin says

    September 28, 2015 at 6:55 am

    was not impress with this video I would have like to see and have more information on how to grow ginger especially as a new student to growing my own Have to look elsewhere for more footage

    Reply
  7. Joseph says

    December 20, 2015 at 4:31 am

    Thanks alot, how give it a try.

    Reply
  8. Marge Hidisyan says

    June 18, 2016 at 9:37 am

    Do u plant turmeric the same way?

    Reply
  9. Maria says

    November 19, 2016 at 2:47 am

    I really would like to grow my own ginger as I love , love , looooove that spice. Unfortunately for me that video was not informative enough for me personally. Maybe I might need a collective guide for Dummies on how to grow my own ginger. Disappointed wannabe ginger grower. 🙁

    Reply
  10. Mags says

    July 15, 2018 at 11:06 pm

    Hey thanks for sharing, it’s truely inspired me to give it a go. Anyone with any brains would go to youtube if they needed more pictures/instuctions so let me help you guys out! All you have to do now is click on the link below.

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+plant+ginger

    Reply
  11. Grow Ginger says

    October 8, 2018 at 2:42 pm

    Thanks! I would like to say that ginger can grow in containers. I have tried it, actually, it will be more productive in bigger size of pots.

    Reply
  12. Naomi Kerii says

    November 22, 2018 at 9:15 am

    I want to know how to plant ginger

    Reply
  13. Emily says

    October 11, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    Any tips on how to cut ginger flowers for flower arrangement?
    I tried but it soon died and the blooms did not come out.

    Reply

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