Seedy Saturday - Ginger and Turmeric! Oh, My!

Last Tuesday I was fortunate enough to go on a 'field trip' to a small farm in Denver, NC to check out how to grow ginger and turmeric...in the ground!

Now I have grown them both in pots before. In fact, in my plant area in the kitchen, I have a couple of different gingers sprouting as we speak. And I have a small pot outside of ginger (which I should bring in, by the way). But I never knew I could actually grow culinary ginger and turmeric in the ground.

Both ginger and turmeric have a long growth period. Being 'tropical', our cool/cold winters aren't really conducive to growing them. However, I found out I can grow 'young' ginger and turmeric quite easily. 

The difference? Young ginger and turmeric haven't gotten the 'skin' or 'rind' on them yet. My feeling about that? It's not an issue as far as I'm concerned. Now I don't have to peel my ginger or turmeric!

A row of ginger almost ready to harvest. While these are grown in a poly tunnel, it is done primarily to be able to give them some shade during the summer. Despite being considered 'tropical', I found, and it was confirmed, they don't really like to be out in our burning hot sun in the middle of the afternoon.

So what will I be doing come the first of the year?

Come January I will 'pre-sprout' some ginger and a bit of turmeric inside. They both take a while to germinate and I might find myself breaking down and investing in a couple of heat mats. The farmer we visited actually has an old refrigerator set up (not running) where he slides his trays into with some heat to starting sprouting. 

Then I am going to plant them into the ground in April. Because I still want to protect them from possible late frost and help to hold onto a bit more heat, I will set up a small hoop and fleece arrangement over the row. In fact, I have a whole stack of old windows I just might use to - a mini-greenhouse arrangement. 

As they grow and it gets warmer, I will increase the height of my hoops until I can leave them off entirely and just rig a bit of shade cloth over the row. Where they will be planted gets a lot of sun from about 10 in the morning on.

It was reinforced they need moisture and probably some misting during the hot part of summer. Plus they are heavy feeds, so will have to up my fertilizing game. 

I did buy some ginger and turmeric from him before we left. The ginger got turned into candied ginger (love to munch on that) and ginger simple syrup to add to teas - hot and cold. The turmeric I will probably put in the freezer and use a bit at a time. I also dehydrated the stems and leaves of the ginger plant. Those will be slipped into teas during the coming winter months. 

So far, the 2025-2026 gardening year is getting off to a great start. Elephant and hard neck garlic in the ground already, along with some potatoes. And now plans for ginger and turmeric.