How to Grow Ginger in Containers (Everything You Need to Know!)

Have you ever wondered what it takes to grow ginger like this in containers this is the video for you let's get to it what's going on y'all welcome back to the channel in this video we're gonna harvest some ginger i kind of jumped the gun a little bit and then i decided you know what let me get this put on on on video because ain't nobody gonna believe me but uh hey got a good video for you today We're going to harvest this ginger. If I mess up and say garlic instead of Virginia, charge it instead of Virginia. We didn't already start it off, y'all. If I say garlic instead of ginger, just charge it to my brain, y'all. Just charge it to my brain. Okay, so we're going to go over everything that I've learned about growing ginger. In containers, okay? We're also going to talk about where I got this ginger from. We're going to talk about the soil. We're going to talk about the container size because that's something that was sneaky important that I did not know. So let's talk about it. First things first. So, you know, I always have people that ask me if I'm going to use the leaves on something. Um, yeah. I have decided to harvest Some of the good leaves off of my ginger and I tell you why it's because I want to eventually do some teas and I think that the ginger leaf and the stalk I learned recently that the stalk actually holds a lot of uh I guess it's the nutrients in it as well so we're gonna be uh freeze drying some of the leaves and some of the stalks. Um, like I said, I already harvested these right here, but look at that y'all look this right here Let me show you so this is what I planted right here and this is what it grew All right, it was attached. Uh, I want to say back here on this end right here Um, but I mean that's at least maybe three times Maybe more than that, y'all. Maybe four times the amount, because this has got a side over here and a side over here, and one coming out down the bottom right there. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is my first, well, this is my second ginger harvest. But the first where I feel like I kind of know what I'm doing, I went down, I talked to Jessica from Essence Farmstead. If y'all don't follow her, y'all need to go follow her. Um, on, uh, Instagram and on Facebook, and I will link her below as well. She is where I got this garlic right here from that I planted. Um, I'm pretty much using her process that, you know, of how she grows garlic or garlic. See, I told you I was going to do it. I knew it, um, how she grows ginger and. Uh, I'm just duplicating it. You know, I didn't come up with none of this, you know, and I'm, I'm very, very new to this, uh, arena. So let me get something to put this ginger in. And then, um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna actually break this down, uh, as far as, uh, what I'm gonna do with it. Well, actually, no, no, no, no. Let's take that back. I'm getting ahead of myself, y'all. We're going to harvest these two right here first. Um, we're going to see what the differences are between the two. And then, uh, after that, I'm going to show you how I'm going to let it sit up and cure and what I'm going to do to process it because some of this is going to be replanted next year. Some of this is going to be freeze-dried, probably just a little bit of it going to be freeze-dried so that I can just see how that process goes. So that when I do a bigger batch, I know what I'm doing. So let me get something to put this stuff in and then I'll be right back. And just like that, I'm back. So I'm just going to use this little tray right here from Bootstrap Farmer. I'm going to cut all the tops. Actually, let me move this out the way. Let me move you out of my way so I can get to the goods. I'm going to harvest this one right here last. This one right here. I also got the seed ginger from Jessica. We did a little bartering, you know what I'm saying? You know, she got a little Peggy Martins, and I got some ginger. And so, you know, hey, I love the barter, y'all. Now, one thing, you know, I just went down there, and we harvested a few of hers. And I got some footage from that and whatnot, and we'll go through that in a little bit. I, um, toward the end. So she likes to take a garden fork and get all the way down into the bottom of your bag and kind of pry it up from the bottom. You can kind of feel it. You can kind of feel the roots kind of pop a little bit, you know, and that's when you kind of know that it's loose enough for you to grab it from the top and pull it up. So, um, Now, toward the end, I started reaching down in here and feeling around, okay? And, um, as I was doing that, I noticed that I could kind of get underneath it. You know, um, I don't have one of those garden forks like, like what she got. Um, but I, I felt like I could get underneath there and kind of, um, kind of lift it up just, just enough to, to, uh, to pop the bottom roots apart. Okay. And this, this feel like it's a, it's a big one down in there. So all I'm doing is just lifting, lifting up just like that. And this was a small piece. that I planted. I'm going to show y'all. I'm going to pull the rest of these out of here, then I'm going to show them all at one time. See that? All right. Looks like I got one more right here. All right. He's got a nice one right here, y'all. We're going to talk about that real quick too, what makes for a good one. So let me get all these up here so I can show you what we're working with. All right. So this was the first one. And y'all, let me tell y'all something. The smell I got. I got dirt all up on me. It'll be all right. We out in the garden, y'all. We out in the garden. The smell is just, it can't be beat, y'all. It can't be beat. This is the piece that was planted, okay? This piece right here, you can kind of see, it's a different color than this right here is. You see how that is a light color and that's kind of a darker color? So this right here is the piece that was planted, and this is what grew from that one piece, all right? Same thing here. This is the piece that was planted. It was a little piece. You see, it's a little, little piece. And all of this came from that one piece. So that is like a four, four times, uh, four, four to four to five times really, uh, multiple. And this right here is when you got a good one right here. Okay. You see all that? That's a good one right there, y'all. Um, so this piece was bigger. This whole section out here. was the original piece and then what you see the rest of it right there look at that big old joker right there y'all um that is the rest of it so you can see this is the old piece and then this is all the rest of it right here so all of this was grown in that one grow bag all right now these grow bags are 15 gallon grow bags okay this is something i want to slow down and talk to you about real quick So, I have my turmeric. Seven-gallon grow bags. With ginger, ginger grows lateral, not so much deep, okay? Okay. As you can see, all of it grows kind of on that same level. And you see, like this right here, it's a great example. All of it's on that same level, okay? So you don't really need a deep container, but you do need a wide container, all right? Right. Oh, and another thing in the turmeric video. Um, several people were saying how dry the, the, the, uh, mix was, well, that was on purpose. Okay. Um, a few weeks before I harvest, I stopped watering them. Okay. Um, it just makes the harvesting process a lot easier. Um, the dirt doesn't stick to the, uh, ginger as much. And, uh, depending on how you plan on using the ginger, like if I want to keep this for regrowing next year I'm not going to wash this, okay? I'm just going to try to brush off as much of this soil as I possibly can. And it's so much easier to do that when you have some dry. Like, this is perfect right here. This is absolutely perfect. And just being out here in the air for just a little bit, like, you can tell that I can easily just brush the soil off of this right here. And it'll be ready to be stored. So we'll talk about storing it here in a little bit. All right. So you might look at this and say, yeah, it's a little dry. But down here where the roots were at, it's actually got some good moisture down in here. But it is a tad bit dry. This one right here, it was dry as well, right? But like I said, I kind of did that on purpose because I wanted... When I harvest it, I want the soil to just come off of it, okay? Now, let's talk about the mix that we got right here. All right, I got my phone out, y'all, because I want to read off this verbatim because it's got some components in here, okay? The main bulk of the mix is equal parts compost, manure, perlite, vermiculite, coco coir, peat moss, okay? Now, let me get you up here so you can see me. I want you to know that I did not mix all of that. I did not have all that on hand, so I used what I had. I did have peat moss, perlite, compost. I want to say that was it, y'all. I want to say that was it. As far as the main mix is concerned, yeah, I used compost, perlite, and peat moss. For the amendments, now this was also important, something that I did not know. The amendments that she recommended are azomite, blood meal, or alfalfa meal, kelp meal, bone meal, gypsum, and humic acids, okay? Now, I obviously didn't have all that on hand, so I did have azomite, I did have bone meal, I did have kelp meal, and gypsum. So that's what I used in mine, okay? Okay. Uh, Next year, I'll have all that stuff on hand and I'll try it with all the stuff that she recommended as well. But even she said, you know, hey, if you don't have all that stuff, don't worry about it, just use what you got. But that's what's in this bag. And the cool thing about this mix is that next year, I just need to top this off. If you look... so her bags don't sink down quite like my bag did because she's been growing in her bags for like years you know um and so since that was the first year of this mix you can see how much that sank down i mean that's six inches you know that it sank down so uh What I'll do this year is I'll do the same mix and I'll top it off with that mix. I'll mix it in a little bit, you know, right here, but then I'll just top it off. Um... And then, you know, I don't have to redo the whole bag each year, okay? Now, what I will do next year is I'm probably going to, instead of just doing three bags, I'm probably going to, like, add another three bags to it, let's say, right? So next year, I'll do six bags. I'll save enough from these right here so that I can do six bags. And I'm going to save big chunks too. The bigger, nicer the chunk that you use, especially if you had a particular one that did really, really well, it's probably going to serve you well to use that piece next year when you want to grow more. Now, I will start... Pre-sprouting mine, uh, this winter. So stay tuned for that. I will be showing that in a video, how I pre-sprout them. And, um, I did that last year with, uh, her help. And, um, that's how all this stuff right here got, got grown was from me pre-sprouting it last winter. All right. So I'm going to, uh, try to get down in there underneath and kind of pry. pry this up from the bottom oh yeah this one grew up through the up through the handle see if i can get that out of there oh i broke one off that'll be all right all right y'all well that is that's nice right there obviously i gotta clear it all off but um this bag is a little bit uh wetter than the other bag and it's a little bit harder to to to clean off i always snap them off by accident but This is a monster. This is a monster. Yeah, this is massive. This is like crazy, y'all. I mean, I'm sorry. I just got to take my time on this one, y'all, and just clear this, the soil off of it. Okay. So the piece from last year, well, the piece that I planted is right here. It's kind of hard to distinguish between it, but it's right here. And it kind of goes underneath this part right here I can feel the bottom of it. I don't know if y'all can see this piece that moves. You see that? That was all from last year. Well, that was all that was planted for the rest of this to grow. Y'all, that right there is insane. That's insane right there. So I'll definitely be saving some to regrow next year from this right here. For sure. Man, I don't even want to break that. I don't want to. And it's only one. It's not two. Sometimes, you know, I planted two in some of them, but this one right here, it's only that one. Man, that's absolutely incredible. I got to take a picture of that. All right, y'all. So this right here is definitely going to be saved for stock for growing next year, for sure. And what I'll do is I'll come through here and I'll snip them. You see where it's starting to turn pink right there? That's where I'm going to snip it at. Okay? Just like that. Right there where it's starting to turn pink at. I'm going to go ahead and snip it off. And then one like this right here. I'm going to freeze dry this whole thing right here. This whole, I mean, I'm going to cut it up, you know, so it freezes well. But like if I get a little end like that right there, I'm going to snip that end off of it. And then I'll freeze dry the rest of it. So if it's got a little dead end on it like that right there, I'm just going to snip that just like that and freeze the rest of it. Well, freeze dry the rest of it, I should say. All right, so all of this right here. We'll go into the freeze dryer. I'll cut it up, you know, just so that it freeze dries better. But, um, yep, that's how that right there will get processed. And then I'm going to go ahead and take, I'm going to go ahead and take the part that I planted. I'm going to go ahead and take that off y'all. So this is what was planted last year. Well, this spring I can get it a little bit. Dude, this is, this is crazy. So hey, y'all, we're going to recap. We're going to recap all this at the end of the video. So y'all stay tuned. If y'all haven't been taking notes, this right here says y'all should have been taking notes. This right here says y'all should have been taking notes. Hey, don't worry. We're going to have all the answers to the quiz at the end of the video, y'all. This is massive. Man. Wow. Jessica, Jessica, let me tell you. Hey. I don't get none of the credit for y'all. She told me what to do and I did it. And yeah, I say I say she know what she doing. I'm gonna go ahead and start sniffing these. Also what I'm gonna do. So this piece right here was from was what was planted on that big one on this big one right here last this past spring. So this is actually mature ginger right here. 18 months old ginger. This is mature. I'm actually going to clean these, clean this up. And if it's, as long as it's not soft, at least that's what I understand, as long as it's not soft, I'm going to process this and I'm going to use this, okay? This possibly, this possibly could also be replanted for next year, but I'm not going to try that. I'm going to grow from all new stuff. But I still may process this freeze dried or something and just store it separately from what's universally known as baby ginger. All right. This is baby ginger. So this is the piece that it grew from. And that's how much it grew. All right. So all of this right here will get processed. And this piece right here is still pretty solid, too. So I'll process that. All right. That's good stuff right there, y'all. Get all that soil out of there. without uh scratching up the ginger and see this is another really big one this was what was grown from everything that my hand is hiding back here and this is all the new up front right here and you can see where it was still growing y'all see it was still growing new shoots out see that because this actually wants to keep growing um now if i wanted to since i got them in grow bags What I could have done. Because all of these right here got little shoots coming out of them, right? That one's got a little one about to come up out of it. Is I could take it, like, in my greenhouse. If I had a greenhouse that was reliably, you know, stay warm, you could actually take this in inside and it'll keep growing, okay? It's just in this climate, the frost is going to kill it. The frost is going to kill the tops, you know? So that's why we harvest it here. But if you're in a climate. Where you don't get any freezes, you know? Yeah, you could grow this year round. Got some good tops on this right here too. So I'll be processing most of all that. This one right here has a lot of good green tops on it. So I'm going to have a whole load probably of just the tops that I can process. I'll probably put those in the freeze dryer. Maybe not today, but within the next couple of days. Because I'm going to... I'm gonna cut them up and I'm gonna get them ready for for processing and then I'm probably gonna put them in the freezer overnight and then I'll probably put them in the freeze dryer tomorrow. All right look at that one that one had a a nice uh new shoot coming up out of it. And that is the ginger harvest right there y'all look at that man hey let's recap real quick. All right y'all I'm losing daylight real quick but I want to do a quick recap and let y'all know. So those of y'all that weren't taking notes, here you go right here, okay? I'm going to throw the soil mix up on the screen, all right? You can pause it if you need to, but the soil mix is up on the screen. The amendments, I'm going to throw the amendments up on the screen, all right? The grow bag, now this is for container gardening now. The grow bag, 15 gallon is the smallest, okay? You want one that's wide, okay? You want it to be wide. So 15-gallon grow bag, perfect. I didn't baby it. I didn't baby mine, okay? I watered them at the beginning, you know, but you don't want that soil to stay real super saturated. You really don't because that'll probably do more harm than good. Down here in the south, they need a little bit of shade. Just a little bit. A little bit of shade goes a long way. They do like... Full sun. You know how everybody say full sun. They do like full sun, but, um, but the brutal, brutal heat, they, they tend to do a lot better if they can get a little bit of shade. Okay. Um, and then the harvesting. Okay. Um, if you got one of those garden forks or whatnot, you can stick down in the sides and, and pry it up from the bottom. Hey. That is a good way to do it. As you saw with me, I could put my hands down in there and get underneath of it. And I felt like that is, it's better than pouring it out because the soil that you have in here, you're going to use again next year for, for the, for, uh, for your ginger. So rather than pouring it out, because you don't have to dig down in there, It's not like potatoes or something where you got to make sure you got them all out It's all going to be. On that one level, okay, so you don't have to worry about, you know, missing a piece or nothing like that. It's all going to be in the top. So emptying out those bags and refilling them, depending on how many you have, is probably a little bit more work than what you need to do. And then once you get them up out of there, just shake the shake the soil off of them. I'm gonna let so if if I wanted to use this fresh, I'm just gonna sit it Uh, sit it out and let it kind of cure over for a little bit. Um, brush all the rest of the, of the soil off of it. The ones that I'm going to use for regrowing next year, I'm not going to worry as much about the soil on it. And I'm just going to, uh, I mean, I want them to dry out. I want them to dry and everything first, but, uh, once they finish drying and, you know, the skin gets a little papery on and whatnot, then I'm going to brush the rest of the, the soil off of them, put them in a brown paper bag. I'm going to put them away for the rest until I'm ready to start pre-sprouting. The ones that I'm going to use for freeze drying, I am going to rinse them off. I'm going to rinse them off because I got to get all that soil off of it, okay? I'm going to rinse them off and then I'm going to set them out on a rack so that they can dry. And once they dry, I'm going to cut them up. I'm going to cut them up and try to get equal parts. Then I'm going to freeze them. Then I'm going to put them in the freeze dryer, all right? For fresh use. Um, I'm just going to leave them. I'm going to leave them like, like how they are. I'm just going to take the piece and just leave it like that. Put it in maybe a Mason jar or something. Uh, um, I'll probably do the seal, the vacuum seal on it. You know, you could also put them in the freezer. If you wanted to, uh, you could take a, you take a clean it off and then freeze it. And then you can just shave off pieces as you need it, you know, frozen. So that also works. Um, I probably won't freeze them like that, but most of this that I have here is going to be for regrowing next year because I'm going to grow at least six bags next year. Um, I don't know. I may do 10 bags seeing this right here, but, um, Hey, that's how you get it done right there. I'm going to go ahead and close this video out because you're probably going to have a hard time seeing me here in a little bit. But I had to get this video in real quick, man, because I wanted to You know, I went down there and I hung out with Jessica and I was I got back here and I was like, first thing I wanted to do was harvest. So, so I grabbed, you know, I grabbed one out and I was like, oh man, let me, let me record this for the, for the, for my good folks out there. Cause I know that y'all gonna have questions if I, if I say, Hey, I harvested it and I didn't show y'all what was going on. So anyway, you saw the harvest. I talked to you about how, um, I grew them. Y'all need to go follow Essence Farmstead, Facebook and Instagram. Now, don't go hitting her up, talking about you want some ginger, okay? She ain't ready for that yet, okay? All right, tell her I sent you over there, but just let her know that, hey, you standing by, okay? Because she going to let y'all know. When she ready, okay? So don't go over there talking about, you know, something dog said you had some ginger and I want some. You know, don't, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh. Don't do that, okay? Just go over there, follow her, you know, and keep in touch, you know? And then when she's ready, she's going to post it and y'all going to need to jump on it because she already told me it's going to be limited. It's going to be limited. And so I got mine from her last year by bartering. And let me tell you. It paid off. So now I'm going to have some that I can just keep growing and keep growing and keep growing. And that's the beauty of ginger. But hey, that's all I got for this video. Thank you so much for watching. I appreciate each and every last one of y'all. And I'll see you in the next video.