...for discerning weeders An Okaloosa County Master Gardener Publication July, 2013
GROWING EDIBLE GINGER IN A CONTAINER By Lee V.
Inside this issue:
Weed of the
2
Month Extra! Extra!
2
Walk on the Wild 3 Side Scoop on Poop
4
Hand Paste
5
Kudzu Bug
6
Nymphs
7
Simple Pineapple 8 Bookstore
8
Events
9
Last Word
10
“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.” Thomas Jefferson Do you have a favorite garden quote? Send it in!
DON’T FORGET! You have to log your hours onto the VMS system!
Do you buy ginger root in the supermarket in all its dry, shriveled, bland glory? If you are tired of using this tasteless spice in stir fry, breads, jams and other wonderful homemade concoctions, here is an alternative.
the soil evenly moist and, within a month, a small green spear should appear which quickly becomes an opposite leafed stalk. Over the next several months the stalks will multiply and, by cool weather, the container should have a rhizome several inches long. AlternaEdible ginger is a spice best used fresh. I don’t tively, you may plant the bud directly into the mean fresh out of the store but fresh out of soil in your garden among your other plants your garden. Many people grow flowering and it will fit in perfectly with the landscape. ginger in their gardens but few think of cultiYou may begin harvesting vating edible ginger. Easy to fresh ginger as soon as the cultivate, a sufficient amount second stalk appears, using to supply a family can be the pink part of the growth. grown in a one gallon nursery Cut off the part you wish to pot with a few cupfuls of good use and replant the rest to potting soil and a couple of keep on growing. teaspoons of good slow release fertilizer. Oriental cooking is especially good when made with fresh Edible ginger, Zingiber officiginger. Ginger chicken, for nale, is a short, 24-30 inch, instance, takes on a completeplant. The edible part is the rhizome which ly new flavor when a pink rhizome is thinly forms as the plant grows. New extensions of sliced into it. Peeled and sliced rhizomes may the rhizome are bright pink or reddish and are be boiled in sugar to become candied ginger, the growing points of the plant. Although I freshly dug roots may be stored in a jar of vinhave grown ginger for many years, I have nev- egar and used to flavor stews and soups. The er seen it flower. Literature says that it has a list goes on from confectionery to cookies to yellow, cone-like flower structure but it is real- breads - use your imagination! ly not important; the good part is the root. The stalks of the ginger plant will die in the To get your ginger plant started, you first must fall and the pot may be moved into a greenhave a root with a growing point. Almost any house or garage for the winter. Keep the pot of the store-bought rhizomes will have several barely moist during the winter months, not buds which, if you look at them closely, will be letting it freeze. An alternative is to harvest small whitish bumps on the sides of the rhione of the growing points and store it in a zome. Each of these bumps may become a gin- plastic bag in the crisper unit in your refrigerager plant. In spring or summer, plant a part of tor over winter them replant it in spring to the rhizome with at least one bud in a contain- begin again. er of good potting soil, covering it about two inches deep. Water and set in the sun. Keep Try this. It is fun and flavorful. 1