you ever go to the grocery store because
you're getting ready to cook this
delicious dish and you just need a
little piece of ginger and you think to
yourself man ginger's so expensive
you don't get much and you have to shave
off the edges and it's not much there
well you can grow your own it's really
simple you can grow it from the grocery
store ginger too it's really really easy
i'm going to show you a way to do it and
it's not going to leave you with a
stomach ache all right let's go
[Music]
oh man
oh i love ginger
ginger's really an amazing little plant
in fact it can be used so many different
ways i mean the leaves smell great it's
got a beautiful fine texture and it can
be used in a landscape plant and it's
also edible which is great now let's
talk a little bit about ginger
especially if you want to grow your own
ginger is not a root they call it ginger
root it's a rhizome kind of like the
bananas but ginger root is what you find
in the store it's the same thing you
plant the ground now ginger generally
grows in the tropics it needs a pretty
good amount of humidity also it likes
heat
and uh it really likes really fertile
soil likes to keep its uh feet wet
and you can grow it anywhere though but
zones eight and up really are best you
can grow it in zone seven on down but
you have to do a little bit different
things we'll talk about that just a
second now what's amazing about ginger
it has great properties uh first of all
it's tasty it's using a lot of asian
cuisine and just for different
flavorings if you want to kind of zest
up a dish a little bit it's also great
for the stomach
in fact i believe ginger ale was created
for that reason ginger beer was made to
soothe a
sore stomach you can eat the root raw
you do have to peel the outside
you can also dry it by slicing it into
thin sheets and throwing it on the dryer
and then you can grind it up and use it
like a powder just like you would find
in the grocery store you can also use
these leaves these leaves have the same
types of
chemical makeup and all the things that
go into ginger that are so good for you
uh in the leaves as well they're just
not as potent in fact they can be used
fresh in uh in
asian cuisine i've used them in stir fry
they're really tasty you do want to kind
of chop them up a little bit though
they're
a little bit
fibery you can also dry these and make a
great tea which is really great to have
around if people have stomach aches or
stomach issues in the house you can dry
a whole bunch of this and
put it in the jar and just steep it and
make a tea and we're actually going to
use all parts of this plant today so
first of all we're going to talk about
what to look for in the store we're
going to talk about how to get that
ready how to plant it how to grow it and
then how to harvest it all right let's
get our hands dirty
dumpling
okay anyway
so the first step to growing ginger on
your own especially from store-bought
material is to pick your ginger this is
a ginger rhizome as you can see it's
plump
it's quite firm
doesn't have any soft spots in it and
it's not shriveled and dried up
now that's important
you don't have to get organic i will say
that sometimes
dump i'll get you some when we're done
buddy
chicken anyway
you don't have to get organic it it
probably is a little bit better might be
a little bit easier but i've never used
the organic before and it works just
fine
now what you want to look for again is
you want
something that's firm you also want to
look for little eyes and that's just
like a potato so you can see where it's
going to grow where it's going to
produce is growth from i do recommend
getting a big piece because it gives you
more opportunities for success now if
you look here closely these are what
we're looking for these little bumps
now these bumps are what will produce
the eyes
that come out of this and form the
actual growing plant
now not all of them are going to produce
you don't want to look you want to look
for stuff that doesn't have any damage
to it like for instance this part here
you can see it
it's really dried out that's probably
not going to produce one but that's the
most important part it's got to be firm
it doesn't need to be mushy it doesn't
need to be shriveled and dried up and
you're looking for a few eyes the more
the better so once you get this bring it
home it's really really easy set it on
your kitchen counter let it sit for
three four five weeks and don't put any
water in it or any of that stuff make
sure it's just a normal spot it gets
light and all that good stuff and if you
want to speed it up you can maybe throw
a onion or a piece of garlic in there
and just let it sit in the paper of
course you don't need to shave it so
anyway that's what you do then you wait
and you end up with something like this
things have grown considerably those are
those little eyes
you can see how it's grown out
and up this is what will produce the
actual leaves there's one here now you
notice
there's a bunch of spots on this there's
here there's here
here here here and here not all of them
produced although one of these i just
saw this one is starting to produce
but it's very shriveled now so it's
probably not going to go a whole lot
further so once you get to this point
i'm going to take this and i'm going to
cut a piece off of it
and show you how this works
all i'm going to do is take this
clean knife and i'm actually going to do
this over here so i'll cut myself
and i'll just take and i'll cut off a
piece of this
now i'm going to cut several pieces
that actually
it's kind of a big piece but it's okay
it's not gonna hurt anything
there's one more there we'll take that
we'll actually just cut this whole piece
off here
and we will take
that
and we'll even see if maybe
this may grow as well
okay so now we've got our ginger cut up
into pieces
you can see
the little uh growth area right there
and each piece has something if you have
a part that's not you can just get rid
of it but i suggest just planting it
anyway because you never know what's
going to grow so now we've got to plant
it right
this is just um
compost i actually don't need a
container this deep
as you can see it's a full-size pot here
ginger really only grows about that
depth
dump i'm hurrying they want seed it only
grows about this depth so you don't need
a pot this deep but it is important to
note that when you plant this
don't plant it next to the side get it
right in the middle and if you're going
to put it in pots start in a smaller pot
than you plan to grow it in and
we should talk about that too we'll get
to that after we plant this but the
reason is because it spreads out usually
in one direction
sometimes two
but almost always in a line so if you
plant it next to the edge
it's gonna grow right to the edge you're
gonna have a problem so anyway let's
plant this in the soil
we're gonna start by taking our soil
here and we're just going to make a
little bit of a trench okay now i plan
to actually repot this later it's okay
that this hasn't healed off yet by the
way and i'll explain that a minute when
we harvest but all i'm going to do is
i'm going to push this into the soil
that's it not very deep and i'm actually
going to put these other pieces in here
too and the reason is is because i'm
going to split this off later now let's
talk about that if you're in a climate
that is not ideal for growing ginger
then it's very important
that you pot it because you'll want to
bring it in now if you look i'm not
covering up these new growth stems
okay just a little bit of cover on top
this is pre-moistened soil and we're
going to water it in
when you bring these plants in for the
winter
you want to protect them from the cold
they will freeze back in zones 8 through
10
they'll freeze back and be fine
you just want to make sure they don't
get waterlogged but in other zones you
want to plant in a pot you want to start
here once you get some good green growth
usually about 6 to 12 inches you want to
make sure that you pot it up and the
reason being is because it needs room to
spread out it's more of a horizontal
growth than a deep vertical growth and
obviously the growth is below ground
so
again zones 8 and 10 or 8 through 10
it's really easy you could stick this in
the ground at just about any time
right now it's actually early winter for
me or actually winter for me but very
early on
i could stick it in the ground now and
let it grow i'm not going to do that i'm
going to start it in pots because that's
the way i've done it before if you're in
a nor more northern climate so something
lower than zone 8
if you're going to put in the ground or
even if you have it in the house because
the house tends to be cooler make sure
you tent it with something plastic you
can take a clear plastic milk jug or a
juice jug cut the top off and stick it
over the pot you just want to keep that
humidity in there you also want to keep
it a little bit warm once you see that
growth start to come up you've got to
make sure
that you uh you pull it off so it has
room to grow don't let it get too cold
it's okay in the house it definitely
needs to get some sunlight even your
ambient lights above will grow it it
won't grow up great but once you get to
the springtime you can always move it
into a much bigger pot and i would
suggest something in the 12 to 14 inch
range at the top you can plant it into
there and or multiple pots and stick it
outside it'll do great all right so
let's talk about how we feed and take
care of ginger
so this is the ginger plant now it's
early december mid-december and i
planted this in my garden in march now
we've had an unseasonably
warm
december in fact it's the warmest
december we've had in texas ever in
recorded history so
this really shouldn't be here by now
some of it's turning a little bit brown
and that's what you'll see when it gets
too cold it'll start to brown out now
let's talk about how we took care of
this the whole time like i said before
there's a couple things it needs it
needs humidity which is not a deal
breaker if the humidity is not super
high it's okay but it does need water it
needs to stay damp not wet not soaked
but damp and it needs good
organic material so i would suggest what
i did is i planted directly uh into my
regular garden soil i topped it with
compost and then i've watered it several
times using a liquid fertilizer
fish emulsions what i use mostly i also
use tomato and veg from neptune's
harvest not sponsored
and i've also used some of my own
homemade stuff that we'll talk about in
other videos but it works well this is a
really easy plant you don't have to
worry about it too much there's not a
whole lot of bugs that mess with it or
anything else my worst part's been
dealing with armadillos trying to dig it
up
hopefully you don't have that issue but
that's all you have to do to take care
of it so now that we know how to take
care of our ginger we've already planted
it we've grown into the year we've put
it in the ground and this is tripled in
size this was uh two small plants by the
way so two of those that we just planted
a minute ago
that's what these were when i planted
them in the spring they were about that
tall to harvest these things you can
really just pull them up but if they're
not in your garden or they're in a
little bit stickier place it might be a
little harder to do but let's get into
your clothes and i'll show you what this
stuff looks like on the ground so down
here at the base
i'll just pull these leaves out real
quick
you can see where the shoots have come
up now somewhere in about the middle of
this plant
right here
so in here all of this is new growth off
the single chute now this one's actually
started to spread out but if i dig down
look at that
you can see
there's the ginger okay
so that's what we want to get to
okay now that it's time to pull this
stuff up and you've seen where the root
is there's two things we need to harvest
this you can take a shovel
gently push it into the soil
and lift
to loosen your soil
and that can help release it
now once it's loosened you're going to
need these now remember i told you that
these leaves can be used to make tea on
their own so we're going to save those
now i'm going to go to this first plant
and i'm just going to trim them out
so just want to come in here and grab
these up
in a bunch
and we're going to snip it about a foot
off the ground
okay so we've done this single plant
over here you can see most of it's gone
i'll trim this off again here in a
minute too but right now i want to get
to pulling this this ginger up i want to
show you what it looks like how it comes
out of the ground and what we do with it
after that i'm going to probably leave
this one in the ground to see how it
does over this winter but i am going to
cut these leaves off so let's take a
look at this and see what it looks like
i'm gonna grab it
by the stalks
i'm just gonna lift
so we've got quite a bit out of this
you set this piece up here
and this piece that fell off now you can
see there's ginger all through this big
pieces
chunks it's got a lot of dirt in it but
that's okay we're just going to rinse
this off
we're going to cut the knobs off and
we're done you don't have to harvest
this in one big batch like this you can
actually harvest just a piece and i'll
show you that now
so we don't have to harvest the whole
thing like i said we can just harvest a
piece so what i'm going to do is i'm
actually going to dig down here in the
ground
to pull this out and harvest this piece
we're just going to grab it firmly at
the base we're going to twist
and what we get
is a nice big piece of ginger
now don't worry too much
about hurting these plants all i really
want to do is cover the hole back up
[Applause]
and like i said i'm going to trim this
down in just a minute too but as you can
see we got a big piece of ginger the
rhizoma left in the ground will be just
fine
and it'll heal up uh it's basically a
root and so it doesn't really need to
heal like a potato does um it'll be fine
just don't don't over water it so this
is gonna be some tasty ginger
all right guys i just wanted to show you
this beautiful piece of ginger i've
washed it all up i probably got about
three or four pounds of ginger out of
that it's super fresh
smells super good so worth doing it's so
easy to do and i also got these which
i'm going to dry these leaves and stems
the stems chopped up really small and
i'm gonna use them for tea from now
until probably this time next year
so i want to recap really quickly
everything we did first of all make sure
that you pick the right ginger it
doesn't have to be organic it doesn't
have to be anything special you just
have to make sure that it's firm not
wilted and it has a few eyes popping off
the sides if they're green all the
better if they're not green okay but you
need to make sure that you look for that
looks kind of like a potato eye next
when you get back you need to make sure
you put that in a warm place like your
house you can put in the kitchen counter
make sure there's light doesn't matter
it's fine leave it there for at least
two to three weeks until you see the
eyes pop up and swell like we showed you
before and the shoots start to come out
now if you want to speed this up put a
whole onion in there beside it or a
couple pieces of garlic cloves with the
paper on it it'll help speed it up a
little bit next when it's time to plant
we're going to cut off sections of the
ginger to make sure that each one has a
new stock an eye that's grown and we're
going to plant all we can now
remember it doesn't have to be healed
like you do a potato you just put it in
there cover up the root or the rhizome
but not the new stem okay give it water
if you live in an area like mine that
zones eight through ten you could plant
it outside even in the winter but you
might put a plastic kind of greenhouse
type cap over it to keep the humidity
and warmth up as it gets to growing if
you live
zone 7 and lower then you definitely
want to bring it inside and put some
kind of plastic bag over to keep the
humidity and keep it growing once the
shoots get to about a foot or so or they
start to touch the top of your container
pull it off and you're ready to go keep
it watered but not wet and make sure to
give it a little bit of fertilizer now
how do we take care of it long term same
thing when you pop it in the ground or
you pot it up you want to make sure that
you add some compost some good organic
material to the top water it in keep it
wet or keep it moist not wet if you put
it in the ground same thing it's going
to grow on its own it's not hard when it
comes time to harvest all we're going to
do is we're going to cut the tops off
we're going to loosen the plant either
by using a shovel to loosen the root at
the bottom or we can use our hands to
rock back and forth pull it out break
them apart wash them up cut the stems
we're ready to go but that's it it's
really simple i think you're gonna have
success with it now guys if you've
gotten this far and you like this video
make sure to give it a thumbs up and
more importantly leave a comment below
it really helps my channel grow and it
helps the videos get more traction on
youtube now if you know somebody that
wants to grow ginger or loves things
like this or maybe it's had a method of
growing ginger that works and they want
to see another one share the video with
them and tell them to comment down below
too i love your comments guys because i
learned things i don't know already this
is an experiment for me too okay i've
done this a lot but i'm always learning
so i've tried out some of the crazy
things that people have put in there
some of them work some of them don't but
i appreciate all of them and i try to
talk to each and every one of you so
make sure you like and subscribe if you
haven't already now i want to leave you
like i always leave you there's only
four things you need to have a happy and
well-balanced life number one you need
to have something to believe in number
two you need to have somebody to love
number three you need to have something
to do and number four you need to have
something to look forward to i look
forward to hanging out with you guys
cooking in the kitchen being in the
garden i love you all and i cannot wait
to see in the next video all right doc
out
dump geez
looks like they know all right ginger
generally glow ginger ginger
ginger generally
oh i can't say that
well i'm gonna tell you it's really easy
to
dump
that chicken he took nuggets place