I try to grow ginger and turmeric in pots. But the ginger seems grow really slow and the leafs always looked sunburn/dry. My question#1) What causes ginger leaf looked dry? 2) how can I make ginger grows little faster? 3) does ginger like a lot of water or prefer dry soil?
About turmeric, I planned turmeric same time as I planted the ginger back in March. I still don’t see it grow a bit( I dug it up and took a look, no sign of sprouting). My question is what can I do to make it to start growing?
I tried to grow turmeric too from store bought fresh turmeric and it never sprouted.
My mom is an expert at growing turmeric. She said I should sprout it first before planting. She told me to leave it in my pantry and wait until it sprouted… After a month, it sprouted!!!
Tumeric in Indian grocery store near me are redder and smaller. Yours looks closer to ginger than what sold here.
@IL847, I am tagging @JustAnne4 for you. She was very successful growing gingers last year. I am growing galangal and ginger this year. Galagal has already sprouted. Not yet on ginger. All in pots.
White Tumeric on the left unknown white turmeric and on the right Purple Curcuma alismatifolia both from uncle chan on ebay. Both have a finger broken off that has not yet sprouted a bud. Do I keep them unplanted till the bud breaks or plant them now?
@IL847
I grow a lot of ginger and turmeric in pots of 1-20 gal. In size.
Sitting in a inch of water for the Summer.
I try to put them in a warm wet place as early as I can (March) to get them growing, they need a long growing season to produce good.
And they like constant water.
I have several ginger as companions to large potted citrus that do good together.
Ginger grows on top of the ground so it can be harvested without disturbing the citrus.
Turmeric needs dug,so best in a pot by itself.
I have had bad luck trying to start them from the grocery store over the years. I believe they must treat them with a sprout inhibitor . Sometimes you can find some that are sprouting.
Organic may be a good choice.
Not sure what’s up with your Plant ?
Maybe too dry , to much salts (fertilizer) or have a root problem ?
Try soaking and rinsing the soil or up pot and sit in a inch of water.
Send me you address , (P M ) I will send you some starts when I can. ( but very busy )
Mine are from wholefoods and a very light orange organic variety. It looks more like tumeric when fresh but after drying in the pantry for a month the skin really dried up and looks more like ginger.
I treat ginger, turmeric and galangal like potatoes in that you get them out of dormancy before planting out. I begin January/February - or whenever you start your potatoes. Get them out of dormancy using warm conditions (like a pantry ) - damp airy soil plus a heat mat has worked for me.
Putting unsprouted (dormant) roots in cold wet soil = rot.
The thing about many root crops is that we have to separate them from their growing conditions (warm, wet soil) to stabilize them for storage (curing). That process has to be reversed which depends on where you live, If you live where the soil is always warm and the root has not gone into dormancy, Nature takes care of that for you. For most of us, we play with curing for storage and then reviving for growth so we have to create those conditions.
If you want to keep these going year round, when you harvest your ginger, save a portion of a plant to replant in a pot inside, and cure the rest for using all winter. If you have room inside that might be easier.
I did that several years ago with galangal. What a beast. Beautiful and wonderfully fragrant, but too pungent for my tastes, so I composted it
I grew ginger in a 3 gal pot and had to cut the pot to get it out at the end of the season. @IL847 the tan leaf edges and weak growing points make me think your plant would benefit from a soluble calcium at this time. I would consider Calcium Nitrate and then next year make sure you lime your potting mix.
Whoops. If you are not familiar with this, it comes in a crystalline form and needs to be diluted in water. I would put about 1/2 tsp/gal and water a pint of this every few days.
Re. Galangal, in Thai cooking, besides being on of several ingredients in chili paste, it isused fresh for two very popular Thai soup.
Tom Yum, spicy clear soup. It is used for flavoring, NOT to bite and chew it.
Tom Kha ( coconut milk-based soup. This one, if you are lucky and it has young galangal in it (impossible to find in the US), you can eat it like a veggie. Otherwise, they use mature galangal for flavoring.
In short, fresh, mature galangal is not to be cut up and eaten like ginger. It is mainly for flavoring.
Thanks @mamuang I had 2 issues.
In my rain+sun climate these grew more vigorously than even a Thai restaurant could ever use, LOL. It was like a weed that I needed help removing.
Second, I didn’t eat it fresh. In fact, my Yankee tastes have never been developed to enjoy spicy food of any kind. I also kind of found it to be too perfume-y for me. Yeah, I don’t venture too far from bland, LOL.
I wish I could grow them here as prolifically as you do.
You should check local supermarkets and southeast Asian markets. They sellthem at $3-4 a pund. A lot of times you can’t find them fresh. I have to buy frozen ones often.
American supermarket like Wegman carries it. Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian market sell it. Contact those stores, you may make some money that way
Opposite to you, I can’t eat bland food. I need to put some kinds of spices esp. chili pepper (fresh or ground in 99% of my dishes.
IL847- The turmeric and ginger grown here in pots can’t handle direct sunlight in 90_ degree heat, and the leaves whither/dry back when they get overdosed on it. The same plants in the same pots in the same heat do quite well when placed in mostly shaded spots below a large Satsuma tree.
Good point. We are just start to warm up not too long ago, having 80s in recent days. May hit 90 in a day or two. I will put the pot in east face spot or somewhere no direct sun hit the pot to over heat the root of the plants.
I grew store bought ginger a few years ago. It did fine but in the fall when i went to harvest there really wasn’t much growth under the soil… I was going to do it this year but when i was thinking about it my grocery store ginger looked not so good so i didn’t get any and i sort of forgot. I’ll try again some day.
) - damp airy soil plus a heat mat has worked for me.
