this link has some great info...if you read it..i guess it means that your ginger is ready for harvest since your leaves turned brown and keeled over!

Here is a link that might be useful: growing ginger

Wait, you mean ginger is a plant that dies when the roots are ready?? As in, I can't just keep it as a decorative plant? Hmmm. So my greenery is dying because the root wants to be harvested.

I guess I'll dig mine up, and see what's down there. Hard to imagine the root has grown that much in four months.

As to planting them in the ground, mine aren't panted in the ground. They're in a pot, and in the winter, the pot goes inside where it's warm. I would consider that to be a seasonally independent strategy.

Now, I have to wonder if cooler temperatures are a cue for the ginger to die back and say "Harvest me, already!"

OK, I dug up the root on my plant. What I dug up was 2-3 times the size of what I planted. Zoweee! That's just after a few months.

Now, the largest piece had a rotten core on one side, but everything else about the root was good quality.

So I'm still wondering. Why didn't the plant just keep growing? Again, is something telling the plant, "OK, it's time to shut down and let the root be harvested"? Does the root only get so big, and then the plant dies? I really don't understand what is going on here.

From my limited experience I'd say it was the temperatures. It doesn't like to be under 60 and definitely not under 50.

I'm pretty sure your seasonal independent strategy isn't optimal for the successful growing of ginger. Ginger likes it hotter, likes humid conditions, and needs brighter light as compared to treating it as a basic houseplant. Same as trying to grow a tomato plant inside ( which I attempted one year). The plant did grow although a bit sad, even threw me out a couple of small tomatoes- that tasted iffy at best. Same variety outside gives me a 6 foot monster plant with hundreds of yummy tomatoes!

If you're determined to growing indoors in winter, I would recommend increasing temp to 80+, humidity by misting several times a day, and using a grow light. The plant will still get brown leaves 6-8 months later at the end of its life cycle but at least you should get a better crop ....

I wouldn't think it would be the end of its life cycle, so much as a dormant phase. The question is what triggers that dormant phase, and can it be avoided? Not trying to be nitpicking lorabell, just thought it was important to make a distinction between "resting" and "dead" :) everything else you said made good sense to me!

I'm thinking of other tropical(ish) tubers/rhizomes that have dormant periods... Canna lillies, and elephant ears come to mind... Tuberous begonias and amaryllis too. But I'm not sure what triggers them in their native habitats. Wish I could be more helpful, this thread is very interesting!

OK, what I'm hearing is that when winter comes, ginger is cued to go into a dormant phase. That's where the greenery dies, and the roots just hang out until the temperatures rise again. That would make a lot of sense with what I'm seeing.

In fact, doing a search for "ginger" and "dormancy" (thanks for using that word!) that's exactly what I'm seeing. Not all, but some gingers do precisely that, I'm reading. I guess it's not completely clear how ginger knows that it's winter and goes dormant. There must be a "trigger" temperature that convinces them of this. It would be useful to know what that temperature is. That is, how cold does it have to get to trigger dormancy?

Now, I will say that although ginger likes high temps, it shows no great need for a lot of sun. My ginger got no sun when indoors (when I first planted it, and it sprouted), and probably got 20-30% sun when it was outside. As a tropical plant, it is probably well suited to growing under cover.

So I pulled off all but a few little rooted bulblets, and kept those in the pot. On to spring!

I'm in Southeast Texas and my ginger grows outside in the ground. It stays green until it gets really cold, then the leaves die back and turn brown and fall over. In the spring, they all start growing again. The ginger blooms are beautiful and fragrant. I dig up a ginger rhizome whenever I need it, regardless of the season. I use it in teas, in cooking, have have also candied it. I use it fresh and also grated and dried. The plant spreads somewhat but is not invasive at all. I did not start mine from a grocery store rhizome, but was a shared plant from a friend. A similar plant, I have planted an organic turmeric rhizome from the grocery store and it has been growing nicely. That one is still in a pot, but my intention is to plant it outside also. I've read that if you can grow ginger in your area, you can also grow turmeric. It's too young and small to harvest any yet. I don't really know the growing habits of the container grown ginger, but it is really easy to grow outside. Although our winters are relatively mild, we do get freezing temperatures in the teens on occasion. The ginger always comes back. Our summers here are very hot and humid.

Jill

When I took care of my mother's yard in Mobile, she had three types of ginger in her flowerbeds. They died back in winter, stayed mulched with pine needles, and came back each spring. A joy, like Jill said.

Up here in Z6, a local organic farmer grew some beautiful roots in his high tunnel last summer. A fun find at the farmers market!

Sunnibeb,

You were right to nick pic me. I should have said that in my garden, it is the end of life! I have tried my hardest to overwinter my culinary ginger outside but they have not survived...so far. Will try yet another method next year.

I've ornamental gingers that are being grown inside house over winter... They haven't gone dormant in the least and are thriving. Not sure what is triggering the culinary ginger....

Tumeric overwinters here outside with mulch, though. They get planted a bit deeper than ginger... I'm guessing that's why?

OK, so indeed, we're talking dormancy. Seems like at some temperature which is well above freezing and even above 40F, the ginger plant just chucks it's greenery, and says "see ya next spring". I would like to know what that temperature is.

But maybe the ginger plant knows in some other way that it's winter time. I don't think it's about the length of time the greenery is out there. My ginger was rooted in August, and it knew it was done in December.

For example, if I keep the plant indoors, will it go dormant at all?

Cool temperatures aren't the only things that can signal dormancy. Plants are triggered into dormancy for a number of reasons, and drouth is a major one. In the tropics, day length and seasonal temperature changes are pretty minor, so I would expect other environmental factors will the be dominant trigger. Drouth, or at least a change in moisture levels, would fit the bill as a stressor.

In this case, that didn't happen. The soil was quite moist throughout its life. Of course, it is hardly clear that ginger does, actually, go dormant in the tropical winter. Is that, in fact, the case?

Although evidently not very popular, the Ginger Forum may be thr right place, after all, to post this question. There has been some discussion there about dormancy, over the years.

Hello! Could I have a bit of help please!

I planted some ginger root last year but then read that I had planted too late and the frost came about 1 month later. However, during the cold season I saw some greenery coming up and now I have what is pictured below. What do I do, harvest, seeds or should I just bin it and start again???

Any plant will respond to the change in temperature and light. That's how practically all plants that die back for the winter do it. It didn't matter if you started the plant in April, August, or October. Plants don't grow a set number of days or months just because you put it in the ground. I've had ginger in the ground and in pots, and they die down and then return for the spring.

If you leave it in the ground/pot during the winter, you can treat it as a tuberous root plant and remove some of that root to control how thick the growing area is. Or, plant it over a few inches or feet to give a better decorative feel to the area if you wanted.

There are also actual ornamental ginger varieties if you want to get some of those instead. And it's not beyond reason to begin a ginger collection, and get all of them! :-)