I read up on it a little, bought a big ginger root and soaked it for a while, cut it into 3 and I have put it in a large pot of compost in a sunny position. I am just keeping my fingers crossed!
But I wondered if any of you have any success in growing it.
I read recently (I am forever reading stuff and forgetting where ) that it needs hot temperatures to grow, I think it was 30oC.... which I don't think I'd even get in my poly-tunnel for very long.
But then on the BBC Grow Your Own Drugs program, he said it grows easily in a green house.
I'd love to grow some, let me know how you get on
Ann Pan
"Some days you're the dog,
some days you're the lamp-post"
I'm sure I've heard somewhere that it's relatively easy to grow! I went on holiday to Zanzibar a few years back and went on a spice garden tour. We were shown through an area of ginger plants there and they are indeed very pretty, in a jagged leafy kind of way!
I grow ginger - very easy to grow, but it does like warm and dry so greenhouse or conservatory preferably, but it does like a big deep pot.
I grew mine from a big piece of shop bought ginger root, one with lots of nodules on, and then left it to hang in a dark place, a couple of months later and nearly every nodule has a green shoot - detach those with a portion of the original root and plant about 10 cms deep, in dry sandy soil, water once, cover up with plastic bottle cloche type thing for the heat and leave - if nothing happens after a couple of weeks, water again, cover and leave again, once it starts to grow it is quite slow, but it will fill a builders bucket sized plant pot with roots within a couple of years, just dig them up, separate and replant smaller sprouting nodules.
2010 is my year of projects - 365 days and 365 projects.
Well I planted mine a weel or so ago, in a large pot, watered well and placed in the warmest part of the garden.
I gave it another quick water last night. I am just keeping my fingers crossed!
All I did was but a large piece of shop bought root, with plently of nodules on, split into three and planted all three in the pot.
I've grown it before, it's especially easy at this time of the year with nodules showing on shop bought ginger.
You need a big wide and deep pot as it will produce root into this. When you plant it, I read somewhere to leave a nodule just showing on the soil surface (a bit like irises etc.) However my ginger didn't sprout from this node, but on further down and a bit more covered, so go figure!. I was trying to see if I could get a ginger lillie flower, but although it was in the kitchen on a window sill the cold air at night blackend the leaves. After a whole season the root had doubled in size, but the old bit was inedible as it was stringy.
So a bit of fun, but it's not going to make you ssish in ginger , not in Europe anyway!.
It's not easy being Cheezy
So you know how great Salsify is as a veg, what about Cavero Nero,great leaves all through the winter , then in Spring sprouting broccolli like flowers! Takes up half as much room as broccolli