Can I grow grocery store ginger root? Can I harvest from the living plant without harming it?

would one of these grow? I have a freind who gave me a ginger plant once but I kilt it

also how would I go about harvesting some while keeping a plant going?

cool! this site says you can just use the ones from the store and they are apparently really easy to grow!

http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/growing-ginger.html

I did wonder if you could start them from the roots at the store, or if they treated them somehow so they wouldn't sprout.

I guess I will have to try one myself. 

Just be aware that they are frost sensitive.

Sue

That article was excellent!  It addressed that maybe the roots were treated with anti-sprout stuff, so that soaking for awhile might help wash off that stuff...  The author said they started with store bought and just propagated from there!

Paraphrasing from one of the PDC pamphlets:  It's a real shame that we import ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, and tumeric from halfway around the world (and lay waste to a lot of peasant economies) when they are so easily propagated indoors or in just a small, rudimentary greenhouse.  And, because of the minimal space required and the yield, anyone can grow enough of the above for their family's needs and then some.  Cinnamon grown in one pot supplies the whole neighborhood. 

Even pineapples, tea, coffee, and dwarf bananas can grow this way.  Pineapple was an ordinary indoor plant in 1850s England.  Five or six tea plants supplies 20 or 30 households.  Two banana plants provides all the bananas a family normally uses.  Coffee can be grown in a well-lighted office.  It bears edible berries.  "Spit out the pits and take them home and roast them.  You will get pounds and pounds of coffee berries off a single plant."

I think I'll spit out my own coffee pits if I'm doing the drinking, thank you, but it sounds like a good idea to me.

absolutely! I have heard that banana trees grow but don't produce fruit when raised in frost areas 

sounds like a great idea..wonder if it would take over my greenhouse..probalby would die in our winter as i don't heat it..just the ground heat from the tank

bananas are definelty out for most people.
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/banana.html

10-15 months before they produce a flowers stalk.

stop growing below 53* and slow at 80* and stop at 100*

my neigbor growing up kept banana trees. he stored them under the house during the winter. I remember his tribulations (from my childs point of view) trying to get them to produce fruit.

maybe if their are some dwarf varieties that can be taken in the house it would work?

Last year, on the local news (Tulsa, Ok), there was a story about someone around here who grew bananas and actually got fruit on the tree. There weren't a lot of details about how he did it, but I'm pretty sure a greenhouse was involved in the winter. I've grown a banana plant before, and they are persnickety, even for me. I am good with houseplants. I have a 20 yr old rubber tree plant & dracena. My ficus tree is probably 18 years old.

If I had a green house I would give it a go!

I have a neighbor who had bananas on her bananas trees (I think it was October or Nov). She says it is not consistent however and it just depends on how hard the winter was and maybe some other factors that we have not figured out yet. I am in Augusta, GA.  I got some of those trees from her but have not seen bananas yet. I've seen some other banans around here develop a bunch (although the bananas were very small) and then it got cold and they froze off.  I met another woman across the river (augusta is right along the savannah river) in South Carolina. She was selling brazilian banana trees at the farmers market. She says she's gotten a crop from them for the past 3 years or so. So I don't know what the deal is really. I just grow, tend to the soil and hope. By the way if you get some good sized green bananas on your tree don't despair and don't wait for them to ripen. Fry them or roast them up green. Don't peel if you roast and peel if you fry. They are delicious! What type of banana tree do I have. To be honest I don't know. They resemble the Manzano kind and my wife says that in the Spanish speaking Caribbean they call them 'Rulos'. I talked to a guy at the Savannah Bamboo Farm and he says that there is on that will consistenty bear fruits down here (8a-8b, maybe 9a further down on the extreme edges of the coast). He said it was called Viento Cojo. I haven't done any more reseach on finding it however. I know Spanish but I don't know if it has some weird archaic spelling where Cojo might be Coho. I hope I've helped.

Godbless,
Anwar

BY the way to get back to ginger. I have some growing in my backyard now from ginger that I bought at the store. A knot started growing on it and I planted it. I took a very long time for it to come up. I heard they like it moist but not too moist. I also put coffee grounds on it and it responded very well. Hoping to have my own organic backyard ginger to use. I'm really not sure when to take it out of the ground. It keeps putting up new shoots slowly but surely. So I don't want to destroy it just yet. Is that being greedy or safe? I don't really know. Maybe a little bit of both.

Godbless,
Anwar

okay, I have grown ginger from store bought tubers. It is easy to grow in a container, it likes it wet and makes a tall, grass like plant. You can reach in and break a piece off to use.  I have never overwintered it and one year it did really well and the other it grew a lot of grass and not much root.

Put the ginger root in the fridge for a week before you put it in the ground.  When it comes out into the warm air it will grow better than not being chilled.  The root can be broken into pieces to get more plants.  A 2-3" section of root will be fine.  Cure the broken pieces as you would a seed potato.  The plants like good steady moisture, lots of compost in the soil will help the plants.  A frost will kill off the tops.  Mulch deeply to protect the roots over winter.  Ginger is an easy plant to grow.

Homemade ginger ale...MMMM