Just stick it in the dirt with the 'humps' up. I have a bunch of nice 5 ft tall plants that I planted from those same rhizomes last summer

I have a similar question. I planted some ginger galangals over a month ago and have seen no action. I dug one up, and it looked sort of shrivelled, so I'm guessing I overwatered it.

1) How much should I water them?

2) How far apart should I space them?

3) Approximately how long do they take to break the surface?

Thanks

I planted mine in a shallow (5-6" deep kind of dish type round) pot and they came up almost immediately. I kept them from frosting back this winter and they are now almost 8 ft tall. They are out in the yard getting rained on almost every day now.

I have mine in a contained area outside, and it's a good thing: They proliferate! They're practically bullet-proof, here in Orlando, FL.

I almost wanted to jokingly answer "how far apart should I space them?" with "As far as possible, because they fill up that in-between space pretty fast."

I wish I had as much success with the mystery white ginger I bought from Home Depot last year (no taxonomy given, just "Ginger"). It appeared to be another type of Alpinia (lanceolate leaves emerge bilaterally on tall stalks, thinner, darker and shorter than the galangal, with larger flowers), but although it grows and flowers, the leaves and inflorescence of flowers always look brown and crispy around the edges, and we've had plenty of rain. They survive, but they don't look at all happy. Perhaps they prefer more shade? Or they need more time to acclimate? I recall the variegated ginger out front look pretty bad for about a year and then they were fine.