Anyone else growing grocery store ginger?

Last year, I planted some of the fresh ginger spice roots sold in grocery stores. I just wanted to see what might grow from them. The plants have returned this year, surviving winter temps as low as about 28 F on a few nights this winter. I covered all my gingers with about 3 inches of hay as winter mulch to help keep them from freezing.

The plant that grew from the grocery store ginger is only about 18 inches high and not very dramatic in its thin stems and foliage. I haven't gotten any blooms out of it yet, but it only just emerged from dormancy about 3 weeks ago, so maybe it still has time to bloom this growing season.

Here is the plant files link for Zingiber officianale (the ginger spice plant that should grow from the grocery store ginger roots):

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/55488/index.html

Some of the roots I planted were ginger I bought for cooking, but the rhizomes began to mold before I ate it all, so into the ginger patch it went! I bought some of the others from the grocery store just because they looked really fresh with lots of buds. I planted those immediately without cutting into them for cooking.

I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has tried growing the grocery store ginger, and especially would enjoy seeing any photos you got if the ginger bloomed for you. It is a cheap way to get new and different ginger plants -- just buy the fresh spice ginger rhizomes by the pound from the produce section!

Jeremy

Zingiber officianale are you sure its not Alpinia galanga? I have heard you can eat them all but that is suppose to be the one for cooking...

ely

how cool, i want to try that. i do have a sweet potato growing in the pantry. the sprout is about 2 ft. long. i'm leaving it in there until a certain DH opens the door and screams.

Jeremy,

Yes i just planted about 5 pounds... I have some already shooting up... if you goto the Beavers Street Farmers Market there is a little store in the front strip mall, the something Jalapeno (I forgot the name of it) but the lasy there has the sprouting ginger for sale cheap... its a little dehydrated but is getting green tips and shoots.. its like 3 poinds for a dollar

FYI

Chris

I planted some last year and it has returned this year. You are right, it is not very dramatic. it is planted by my other ginger, so it gets lost.

Alpina galanga has tough, fiberous,small diameter, root and won't be found in regular Grocery stores. The most common use I know about is planting it deep under sawdust or compost and harvesting the long stems and using these in cooking or candying them.also Alpina gets much bigger than the ginger pictured above.[I grow both]-Michael

Turmeric grows well here also,

Off subject but important!!!

Michael, how are the Peacocks?
Pati

Thanks, Chris, for the tip on the Farmer's Market and cheap ginger roots! I'll get over there soon on one of my forays out into the real world and pick me up a few pounds, both for cooking and growing.

One of the reasons I wanted to grow the grocery store ginger was to be able to compare what grew to the Zingiber officianale photos and see if it was the same. Z. officianale (you can tell by the species name of "official") is the ginger root specified by the early pharmacists as "the real thang." I would presume it is also the official ginger for powdered ginger spice and for raw ginger root for cooking & eating; but I think the comment by ely above is correct, that all the ginger roots are edible. We may end up having in the grocery stores whatever is most available and easiest to grow and harvest. I hope I can get a flower out of my grocery store gingers as a better means of identifying the root.

Jeremy

There is enough difference in "official" and the others they could not be interchanged at the market.- not only apearence but taste.

Thanks, MichaelP, that's good to know! The flower of officianale is very interesting. I look forward to seeing it, if I can get my plants to bloom.

Jeremy

What about the peacocks?

Blooms, I'm looking for the thread that Michael had going last year. As soon as I find it I'll share....great pictures!
Pati

Jeremy,

Did you get any roots, if not most of mine have sprouted.. and you can have a few.. and take a brug home too..

Chris from the West Side (not the best side)

hehe

Hey, Chris.

I never did make it over to the Farmer's Market for ginger roots. My life lately seems to be as if I'm running on a tread mill one step ahead of a steam roller. I'll be glad when this next art show on Aug. 7 is behind me and I can return to a more relaxed pace.

I'd love to have some more Z. officianale if you have it to share. My Z. officianale plants are hanging in there, but no blooms yet. Several of my other species of ginger, named varieties, are blooming for the first time. I'll start a ginger thread in this forum and post photos soon after next weekend when I can break my chains from the easel.

I hope we can get together soon to exchange plants and view gardens!

Jeremy

PS - I grew up on the westside, Forrest High graduate, but now I greatly enjoy my North Shore home, so I'm also ambivalent about westside being the best side, but I'm ambivalent about most things (very typically Gemini in that regard)

Well, rofl. I had ginger last year and it did nuttin. So I put it in the compost bed and buried it-- leaves and all. Would you beleive I have a ton of ginger now? Yup, came up in the corner of the compost bed in almost total shade and growin" away. Looks like the grocery store type that ya'all are talking about to. Cork

Great story, Cork! I am often amazed at how some plants thrive better with total neglect and disdain than with attention and coddling. I've had seeds do the same thing as your ginger. When they didn't germinate in the pots I had for them, I gave up on moonvine seeds a few years back and just dumped the pots of soil out into my flower beds. It wasn't long before I had moonvines popping up everywhere.

Have you tried transplanting your ginger or did you leave it be in the compost pile where it was happiest?

Jeremy

Just leaving it where it is happy. I mean there is a ton of it. About 20 or so gorgeous leaves. Corky

Hey Jeremy...

I got pleanty if you want any ginger.. where is your show? My mother travels to shows and is an "artist" herself..

Just shoot me an email over at botanyguy@comcast.net and I can get the plants to ya..

My coontie palms just started popping up from planting seed 3 months ago.. took long enough!

If you want a few of them I can spare them, they are TINY though!


Chris

Hey, Chris.

My art show is this Sunday, August 7, noon - around 7 PM, Jax Beach Seawalk Pavillion. I rented a vendor's booth at the Gay Pride Festival. About 10,000 people expected to attend, so plan on parking problems if you decide to attend. I welcome all to drop by and say hello. Admission to the festival is free.

I will send you an E-mail and hopefully we can arrange some trades soon. I'll be glad when this current deadline of Aug. 7 is behind me and I can return to a more relaxed pace.

Jeremy

Hi.
I was reading the ginger discussion with great interest. With respect to all concerned, I I would just like to make a small, almost irrelevant point. Whenever the latin words "officinale" or "officinalis" are included in the name of a plant, it means that it was the specific variety used by apothecaries, healers and other health practicionners in the middle ages before we relied on pharmaceutical companies to make us better. The term simply means medicinal.

Thanks, Corky

This is kind of a nice little blurb on growning edible gingers in Florida http://leon.ifas.ufl.edu/growing_and_using_edible_gingers.htm If anyone ever finds any galangal in or around Jacksonville, let me know!!

Hi lours....glad to see you on here too. Can't wait for your LH time...

Hap

Barksy was a cute little article. Corky

Jeremy,

Couldnt drop in due to work... got called out 4 times this weekend.. geesh..,,,,,,

but the ginger is doing just fine.................getting big rapidally


Chris