To me the holiday season means spending time with my family, enjoying the warmth of a fireplace, and gingerbread. There’s nothing like a soft gingerbread cookie on the eve of Christmas. This year, eager to make more food from scratch, I was curious about growing ginger myself. For any fellow ginger lovers out there, I discovered growing ginger indoors is super easy, and in 10 months (just enough time for the next holiday season), you could be using your own ginger to make cookies or bread!
Follow these steps to grow your own ginger indoors!
- The best ginger to plant is purchased from a garden center or seed catalog. The root you choose to plant should be plump with tight skin. Once you have chosen your root, begin by soaking it over night to get it ready for planting.
- Ginger loves shallow, wide pots. Fill your pot with very rich but well-draining potting soil.
- Stick the ginger root with the eye bud pointing up in the soil and cover it with 1-2 inches of soil. Water it well!
- Place the pot in a spot that stays reasonably warm and doesn’t get too much bright sunlight.
- Keep the soil moist, using a spray bottle to mist it, or water it lightly.
- Ginger is very slow growing… after a few weeks you should see some shoots popping up out of the soil. Continue to water the plant regularly, and keep it warm.
What about harvesting?
- At about 3-4 months small pieces of ginger can be harvested after growth begins.
- Pull aside some of the soil at the edges of the pot to find some rhizomes beneath the surface.
- Cut the needed amount off, and return the soil