MOST GINGER IN THE STORES IS TREATED TO RETARD SPROUTING, SO IT WILL PROBABLY TAKE A WHILE. THATS MOST LIKELY WHY THE LAST ONE SPROUTED SO LATE IN THE YEAR. IN THE FALL BRING IT IN AND LET IT GO DORMANT FOR THE WINTER. NEXT YEAR IT SHOULD DO FINE. I HAVE TWO TYPES OF GINGER THAT ARE RELIABLY HARDY IN ZONE 7A. DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH COLDER THEY WILL TAKE IT THOUGH.

Has anyone tried growing decorative ginger, or the edible kind from seeds? See seeds for sale on eBay wondered how to do it and if it would take too long.

I bought a root from the store last spring. Planted it in a pot and have kept it as a houseplant. It took awhile but I finally got a sprout which quickly became about 3 feet tall. Then I cut it down to about 8 inches and 2 more sprouts have emerged. Not really very pretty but a fun experiment.

My store-bought ginger is about 2 inches tall now. I guess it needed to have the growth retardant leach out of it in the soil for awhile. In the past few days it has grown an inch so I'm hoping to see what the whole plant looks like before the cold weather arrives.