Growing Ginger

Gardening to 'grow your own food' from square foot to half an acre !!
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Trev62
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Growing Ginger

Post by Trev62 »

Always willing to try growing new things we were told ginger is easy to grow and once established you will never have to buy it again. Liking the sound of that I went to the fridge, took out a piece, soaked it for 24 hours then buried in a pot of soil just beneath the surface.

Lo and behold today (6 weeks later) we had our first green shoot poke its head above the surface, I say had as our rabbit made short work of it tonight so it now has a wire covering in the hope it will regrow or another shoot will appear soon.

Anyone else tried this?
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p.penn
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Re: Growing Ginger

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I haven't but it sounds interesting. As bunny nibbled it, I take it that you are growing it outside?
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Trev62
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Re: Growing Ginger

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p.penn wrote:I haven't but it sounds interesting. As bunny nibbled it, I take it that you are growing it outside?


We are growing inside as a pot plant.

The rabbit lives in the house with a dog crate as a home but has free run during the day to go outside as he pleases. We are currently litter training him but he is only @ 9 weeks old at present, so a long way to go yet.
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Trev62
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Re: Growing Ginger

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Our first ginger shoot has reached about three foot in height now with a second showing. I planted a second piece and that already has a green shoot showing. Not sure when you can start to harvest the ginger so more research is required on that. Both plants have now been moved to a safe area away from Percy "I will nibble anything" the rabbit!

Really stunned that this seems to have worked.
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p.penn
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Re: Growing Ginger

Post by p.penn »

I know nothing about growing ginger, but I assume you kill the plant and eat the root? It sounds like you are doing everything right though!
Helen xx

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Mo
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Re: Growing Ginger

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I found this article. It says if you are growing outdoors you can
start stealing little bits of it once it is about four months old. Just dig carefully at the side of a clump. (This "green ginger" does have a lot less flavour than the mature stuff, though.)

Or wait till the leaves die down after 8 to 10 months, tip out the whole pot, select a piece with good buds for replantint and peel /chop/freeze the rest.

The other point he makes is if you want a good stock of plants let them multiply for a couple of years before you eat any. Can't see many people doing that though. And in cool climates you'll only get a decorative plant anyway. I can't see where the writer is based, but the article's called Tropical Permaculture.
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Re: Growing Ginger

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Many thanks Mo.

Our plants are growing in pots inside the house and after reading various links on the internet I will just let one keep growing and see what happens, the other I will snap a few bits off when there are more shoots. A case of trial and error really!!

It will be interesting to see how each one develops as both are supermarket brought pieces that we soaked in water for 24 hours before planting.
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Mo
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Re: Growing Ginger

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)ot: , but there is a street in Hull called Green Ginger, and a clog team from the area, called after it.,
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sandy
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Re: Growing Ginger

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This is a bit )ot: I had a ginger plant many years ago I put sugar and water in with it over night to make 6 corona sized bottles. The plant, which had expanded, then had to be halved and the same again the next week and so on and so on so I ended up with a LOT of ginger beer. It was the best tasting ginger beer I have ever tasted but after giving many plants away in the end it was thrown away.
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Mo
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Re: Growing Ginger

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We called that a ginger beer plant. Of course ours made ginger beer suitable for our baptist TT household ( ask me no questions I'll tell you no lies).
You had to 'feed' it with sugar and powdered ginger, then dilute the product. No one told us that the 'plant' was yeast, but it must have been.
Some people had bottles that exploded when stored.

If one person had one the whole street soon did, like a chain letter.
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p.penn
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Re: Growing Ginger

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When i made ginger beer (the one and only time!) I accidentally put about 4 times the amount of yeast in. I heard this hissing sound from the kitchen, very quickly put the plastic bottles outside in the garden, but then my cat decided to investigate them! Bam yike* They started to explode and cat vanished.

She came back later that evening, her hair was on end and completely crunchy {rofwl}
Helen xx

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Re: Growing Ginger

Post by Trev62 »

I know we are well off topic but I am intrigued.....................has anyone still got a recipe for their ginger "plant"? Always one to experiment and it would be interesting to give it a go.

Enjoyed reading all the "ginger connections".

I used to work in Hull and never knew about the street or clog dancing. Though, I did go and see "The Lord of the Dance" with Michael Flatley in, my feet have never moved that fast!!!!

Oh dear, well )ot: again!!!!
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Mo
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Re: Growing Ginger

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Well, I thought I'd seen something about it online, so had a google and found several articles, some saying that a 'real' ginger beer plant is something different from ordinary yeast, some saying you can make it from yeast and even one that says that you can make 'non-alcoholic' ginger beer by leaving sugar and ginger standing around till the natural yeasts in the air start it fermenting, not sure I believe that story, if it ferments it is making alcohol, or it's more harmful cousins.
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sandy
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Re: Growing Ginger

Post by sandy »

Mo ours wasnt alcoholic I am sure.
No idea how to get a plant though sorry
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Trev62
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Re: Growing Ginger

Post by Trev62 »

Thanks for the links Mo.

In the next couple of weeks I will give one of the "recipes" a try, no doubt another disaster awaits me but it is too much of a challenge to turn down, so if you hear a loud bang in the near future you know I will be on my hands and knees cleaning up a sticky mess after my bottles have exploded!!!
"Not all those who wander are lost"
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