Friday, June 10, 2011

Ginger gone wrong again

My second attempt at growing ginger in temperate region did not succeed again. The growing condition was against a brick wall and received only morning sun. I was hoping that this ginger plant survive through winter but the plants has turned yellow last week. I don't want to leave the roots there, it will possibly rot. I have stop watering this plant from middle of autumn so it only received water from rain.
2 weeks ago, this ginger plant look like this.
So did any root growth happened?
Just a bit since I can see a portion of young ginger.
Well, it was slightly better than previous year which no root growth occur at all.
This is ginger rhizome bought from Green Harvest.
Any advice on growing ginger in temperate region (mediteranean like climate)?
I have another plant which is still surviving winter under tomatoes plants and surrounded by different plants like spring onion and leaf amaranth. Hopefully it grows much better than the other one.
After my mom came back to Malaysia after staying with me to give emotional and caring support for Rayyan in February this year, she was excited to grow new things with seeds that she brought back. So she selected an area to make a new veggie patch. She said every time she dig on that area she keeps on digging many fresh big ginger rhizomes. She forgot that she planted ginger on that area after leaving her garden for so long to stay with me. Mom said cooking a dish with fresh ginger is delicious and for weeks I hope I have some fresh ginger to harvest.  Alas, it seems not I have to keep on dreaming. I was heartbroken with our ginger harvest last weekend that my mind went blank with no ideas to use them. The happiness of harvesting our first jicama has been shadowed. I am being a drama queen here. We ate the jicama raw slice like an apple. It was so crisp, sweet and juicy. Ginger is very expensive here in Adelaide and we frequently use them in cooking. Vegetable items that we still have to buy are ginger, garlic, onion and potatoes. Occasionally, we have to buy turmeric, pumpkin and sweet potatoes. We are aiming to plant more garlic, onion and potatoes this year so at least one of these item we don't have to depend much on the store. Trying our best to eat food that is in the season. So endure we must with those daikons. Daikon is not that bad really, fresh home-grown is always good. It is not that we don't like it, after many weeks eating daikon you wish you have other stuff as well.

18 comments:

Cat-from-Sydney said...

MKG dear,
When we were in Sydney, we planted ginger in a pot, left it out on the balcony in spring - autumn and bring it indoors (kitchen window sill) during winter. What we planted was a knob that sprouted in the onion basket and after that we never had to buy ginger (that was at least $9.90/kg). purrr....meow!

miruku said...

I grow gingers in a long pot and they are growing very very slow. Always when i mention there are gingers growing in the garden, my hb (the chef) will say 'aiya go buy la'- as there are always not enough for use even if i dig them all out, ha. I only started to eat ginger during my confinement and until now. Love them so much in the dish.
Wo... You still have so much to harvest in your garden, no matter in what season!

kitchen flavours said...

Wish I could grow ginger, but I use them all the time, there's always ginger in my kitchen, so I always buy from the market. If I grow them in pots, I do not think the yield will be a lot, so I have decided not to grow ginger at all! I'm growing garlic, mainly for the greens, and they seem to grow well. I'm starting with another new pot of garlic now. I'm still jealous over your daikons! :)

shaz said...

Sorry to hear about the ginger dear. Actually, I was wondering perhaps you should leave them in the container and see what happens? I think they are supposed to die back in winter, mine is turning yellow too, I'm going to leave it in the pot and hope it reshoots in spring. I also read somewhere that it is actually best not to harvest ginger for the first two years and let it clump.

cikmanggis said...

Cm beli 7 kg ginger from Bukit Tinggi pahang the best ginger in Malaysia for Atiqa dalam pantang.Setiap hari makan masakan yang ada ginger.Ayam ginger,ikan ginger even sayur pun ginger.Minum air ginger....

cathy@home said...

looking forward to finding out as well

Daphne Gould said...

You might want to contact Mac (from High Desert Garden). She has grown ginger in a temperate zone. If I remember correctly it was in a pot. I don't know the yield that she got though.

Mark Willis said...

You may not find Daikon exciting - but to me (growing it for the first time), it IS. Mine are about the size of my little finger now.

Charmcitybalconygarden said...

I was just thinking about whether it would e possible to grow ginger! I really like the young ones that are not so fiber-y like the ones I get at the store.

Veggie Gnome said...

Aren't they supposed to die back in winter, then come back with a vengeance in spring? Sorry, not much help. Just persevere!

How about a swap soon? Some pumpkin, garlic, etc. for some of your daikon? :)

Jody said...

It sounds like a pot might help. No matter what happens with ginger, you're an inspiring gardener! You've grown jicama for crying out loud. Who's done that?

fer said...

I hope your second ginger does much better. Roots are tricky plants to grow out of their habitat.

So cool that you are growing jicama, I haven't tried any since back when I lived in Mexico. Now I want one! sprinkled with lemon and salt.

rainfield61 said...

I eat ginger, but never grow ginger.

Sue Garrett said...

We have a ginger plant but it's an ornamental type - don't know if you can cook with the roots - anyway it survived our freezing last winter - we covered it with a pile of straw.

Lrong Lim said...

Have never tried growing ginger yet... don't give up...

p3chandan said...

Im about to try growing them, got their rhizomes from the mart the other day, so I hope I have better luck growing them. Ive sent some seeds to your mom's house, hope she has received them.

JGH said...

Hmmmm, not sure what advice to give since I've never grown ginger. One root I am growing is Jerusalem artichoke, though. I didn't harvest it last year, but am anxious to see what I pull up this year. Ginger is one of my favorite flavors and I just discovered a wonderful ginger liquer called Domaine de Canton.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Cat-from-Sydney~Ginger in Sydney is much cheaper. Here is at least $15/kg. We planted some sprouted knob that were bought from the market too.

Milka~They do take a long time to produce bigger and more rhizome. But fresh ginger are so good , I think it is worth to grow them. Plant more Milka!

Joyce~You can interplant ginger growing under good companion plant.

Shaz~ I did left some of them to reshoot last year but it seems that they were not much additional growth. Probably the weather here not that suitable or I don't give them optimum condition which I have to discover.

Cikmanggis~Makanan orang berpantang ginger ginger ginger...buang angin dalam badan...hehehehe...

cathy@home~Good Luck!

Daphne~Thank you for the info.

Mark~Daikon are very exciting, grow very fast and big!Help to break the soil as well which is very good.

Charmcitybalconygarden~The young ones are so good in stir-fry...nyum.

Veggie Gnome~They do come back but some got rotten as well depending on the soil type. I would be happy to give you those daikons. I was thinking about nasi lemak meal together too. How about that?

Jody~ Just got lucky with the jicama. The only problem we have in winter is that we don't have any sunny window to put anything indoors.

Fer~I found that tropical root is a bit tricky than the fruit since you can't see them growing in the soil.Ah I might try eating jicama sprinkle with lemon and salt.

Rainfield61~ I think it is almost impossible to go without ginger in a week.

Sue~Not sure about the ornamental type are edible or not.Perhaps I should be more patient and cover it with straw too.

Lrong~ OK not giving up.

p3chandan~You won't have any problem growing them since you have all the optimum condition. Mom at Sabah at the moment, I will ask her about it when she come back.

JGH~Hope you found some tubers from last year.