This is going to be a little long. I want to make sure I get it all in here in case something I did along the way has harmed my ginger. So bear with me! OK I bought some ginger off ebay some months back. Ive tried and tried to get these things to grow. Well, theres five in all, all of them a different type. (from my blog) I planted them when I got them in the mail. Three had already started sprouting in the peat moss that it was packaged in. Well, the tags were lost in the move so now I dont know who is who. When we first moved here, I had them inside set on a table near a window. Only two were still growning. I would check the others every once in a while to mack sure they hadnt rotted. Im a pro at causing roots to rot! Well, about a week after it started getting warmer, we had a massive down pour, Im talking standing water, which isnt hard in my yard, but still. It was about a week after that, that I had started moving everything outside. I dont have lawn chairs yet so I sit on my steps at the front door when I need to cool off or take a break while in the yard. Its in the shade. Now if you are sitting on the steps, to the left, is the front yard, which as the sun moves up in the sky, is in full sun but not until about 10 am and as it moves across the sky, the side yard, where the steps and door is, gets the late eveninng sun.... I posted this pic in the thread for my garden...this is when I thought it would stay a shade garden. OK just up from the rake is my three ginger that are growing. Its the one closes to the rake that Im having trouble with and the two that you cant see...they arent growing at all! I hope you are getting this! Now to the right of the steps, doesnt get any sun what so ever. Its stays in in the shade and it leds to the back yard. Next right next to the steps on the right, is my gardening "station". I have a set of wooden shelves that I keep my plant feeders at, all the stuff to take care of them. I have my empties there too, pots I mean. I have a set of old wooden steps that I turned into my nursey for seedling and my sickly potted plants. I have my rake, and shovel and all the gardening goodies there. Ok that being said.... Right about two weeks after I moved everything outside, including the ginger, we had a nasty wind storm and it blow alot of my potted plants over, including two of my ginger. It wasnt but maybe 2 weeks ago now, that I was sitting on my steps taking a break ,this was about three to four weeks after the last massive rain storm we had, that I mentioned above, and I looked over to the right and straight down. There growing and about four inches tall, was one of my ginger!!! It had been knocked out of the pot and had grown quite nicely in the ground. It had two very large leaves on it (see pic, that pic was taken but a few days after I found the wayward ginger) When I found it, I thought I figured out what was wrong with the way I had been growing them. I thought I wasnt watering them enough and maybe they didn tlike the pots. So I put all of them in the ground, where you see them. Now, a few days ago, I noticed something was eatting them. So I tried the egg shell and it worked. But last night I went out with the dogs into the yard and noticed that the one ginger I found growing, had its one little pitiful leaf curled closed. It had happened the day before too but I thought it was cuz it had gotten the evening sun. But last night it was dark and still the leaf was curled. Now this morning I was out watering and that ginger leaf just looks bad. It looks like its rotting and so does the new leaf trying to come out of the top. Its edged in black and is very limp. The other two that are growning look fine. So Im at a lose! And I still have two in the ground that show no signs of growing what so ever! When I think of the leaf curling, I think of the Birds of Paradise. When thier leaves curl, its because of one of two things, not enough water, or not enough sun. They are both tropical, so maybe?? Ive thought about doing to them what Ive done to my 4 banana tree pups that just didnt want to show thier heads. I forced into sprouting. I dug them up out of the ground, planted them in black pots and set them in full sun. Its been 4 days now, and three are showing leaves. One will be ready for transplant next week, its growing so fast. Will this work for ginger? I have been told I can grow them in full sun but I have to keep them well watered. But then I read somewhere else that I have to grow them in shade.... I dont think I missed anything. SOMEONE,PLEASE, HELP ME! I dont want to to lose them!
I forgot to add that not this past weekend but the weekend before( of the 25 of March) I fertilzed and fed all my plants with a mixture of manture, compost and plant food pellets. But nothing happened until now. Is that too long for something to wait to react to fertilzer?
The link below is where I got info for growing mine and it worked like a charm. I bought a hand of ginger at the grocery store, broke it into chunks, put them in a large pot of potting soil/compost mix, placed it in shade (not deep shade but dappled shade) and watered every day. I had a pot full of gorgeous plants. It is a really slow grower as the article says, taking up to a year to reach it's full height. http://www.ehow.com/how_318_grow-ginger.html
Also found this: HOW TO GROW GINGERS Please note these recommendations are for the plants we list in our catalogue only. What are gingers? Gingers belong to the Zingiberaceae family. They are native to tropical or semi-tropical regions; many gingers are hardy here and make excellent additions to the summer garden & patio. The rhizomes of all gingers are either edible or have medicinal uses. Zingiber officinale (culinary ginger) is the one most commonly used for cooking. Gingers will give you beautiful foliage and attractive flowers. Position Most gingers grow best in filtered light, some grow in sunny conditions & some are epiphytic. They like direct sun for 2 to 4 hours a day & should not be planted in hot, sunny, dry locations as this tends to attract infestations of Red Spider Mite. Remember choose a location with appropriate light levels. Gingers include many genera with many different sizes, growth habits and flower forms. Low-growing plants like Kaempferia, some Curcuma & Globba make excellent pot plants for a shady area. Medium-sized plants include species of Curcuma, Hedychium & Costus. Large-sized plants are excellent choices for the back of a summer border or greenhouse/conservatory display. Alpinia zerumbet & some species of Curcuma & Costus grow well in full sun. Watering & Feeding Gingers grow best in moist but well drained soils rich in organic matter. A mix of potting compost, pearlite & sharp sand suits them well, especially, when starting the rhizomes off in the spring. Do not start them in too large a container, pot them on gradually otherwise you can rot the rhizome. When planting gingers in containers, mix in some general-purpose fertilizer so the plants can help themselves. Use a liquid feed during the summer. Flowering Gingers flower at different times of the year depending on the variety. Kaempferia rotunda & some Curcumas flower in the spring prior to the foliage appearing. Most gingers tend to flower mid to late summer when grown here in the UK. If you grow Hedychium under glass you will enjoy the flowers right into winter. The flower forms are very diverse, many of the Zingiberaceae flower on short stems directly from the rhizome & below the foliage. There are also plants that produce the flower on the stem tips. Most gingers we grow produce beautiful exotic & sometimes fragrant flowers, H.coronarium & H.gardnerianum having the strongest of scents. After Flowering It is best with most gingers to cut the stem off just above the soil when the flowers have faded. Globba species cathcartii & schomburgkii will produce bulbils on the old flowering stems; leave them on the plant until they ripen. The same applies to H.greenei. In mild locations some varieties of Hedychium can be mulched & left outside. Keep container grown plants warm & relatively dry during the winter, as per cannas. Curcumas, Globba & Kaempferia go completely dormant during the winter. The foliage dies down in the autumn, cut them back when this happens. Keep warm & reasonably dry, re-pot in the spring & start off under heat. Other gingers are evergreen (when grown under glass) & flower on new stems each year. Plants in this group, such as Hedychium and Costus can be cut back to the base in winter/early spring, as with cannas. If your plants get frosted, remove all the damaged stems back to ground level. Alpinia zerumbet is evergreen & flowers on the previous year's growth. Do not cut it back. Gingers produce a fleshy rhizome that grows on or just below the surface of the soil. Lift & store during the winter, the rhizome will sprout again in the spring. Dividing is best done in late March/early April but they can be divided throughout the summer months. Depending on how fast the plant grows, dividing and replanting is usually done every 2 years. Pests & diseases Gingers are generally trouble free but here are a few pests you may encounter; Slugs/snails - attack new growth early in the season. Red Spider Mite - generally appears mid/late summer when the atmosphere is too dry for the plants. Aphid - attack new shoots. Whitefly - summer infestations only. Fingers crossed that some of this information is of use to you Denee.
