Plant Ginger

Spice:

Ginger

Botanical Name:

Zingiber officinale

Botany:

N/A

Cultivation:

The size of the ginger rhizome is essential to the production of ginger. The larger the rhizome piece, the faster ginger will be produced and therefore the faster it will be sold onto the market. Prior to planting the seed rhizomes, farmers are required to treat the seeds to prevent pests, and rhizome rot and other seed-borne diseases. There are various ways farmers do seed treatment in India. These include dipping the seeds in cow dung emulsion, smoking the seeds before storage, or hot water treatment. Once the seeds are properly treated, the farmland in which they are to be planted must be thoroughly dug or ploughed by the farmer to break up the soil. After the soil is sufficiently ploughed (at least 3-5 times), water channels are made 60–80 feet (18–24 m) apart to irrigate the crop. The next step is planting the rhizome seed. In India, planting the irrigated ginger crop is usually done in the months between March and June as those months account for the beginning of the monsoon, or rainy season. Once the planting stage is done, farmers go on to mulch the crop to conserve moisture and check weed growth, as well as check surface run-off to conserve soil. Mulching is done by applying mulch (green leaves for example) to the plant beds directly after planting and again 45 and 90 days into growth.[36] After mulching comes hilling, which is the stirring and breaking up of soil to check weed growth, break the firmness of the soil from rain, and conserve soil moisture. Farmers must ensure that their ginger crops are receiving supplemental irrigation if rainfall is low in their region. In India, farmers must irrigate their ginger crops every two weeks at the least between September and November (when the monsoon is over) to ensure maximum yield and high quality product. The final farming stage for ginger is the harvesting stage and for items such as vegetable, soda, and candy, harvesting should be done between four and five months of planting, whereas when the rhizome is planted for products such as dried ginger or ginger oil, harvesting must be done eight to ten months after planting. Dry ginger is one of the most popular forms of ginger in commerce. Ginger rhizomes for dry ginger are harvested at full maturity (8–10 months). After soaking them in water, the outer skin is scraped off with a bamboo splinter or wooden knife by hand as it is too delicate a process to be done by machinery. The whole dried rhizomes are ground in the consuming centres. Fresh ginger does not need further processing after harvest, and is harvested much younger.

Wikipedia URL:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger