Ginger not sprouting...

About 45 days ago, I planted an entire 4x8 garden bed full of ginger. None of it has sprouted.

I planted it in a shaded area, and we've been getting plenty of light rains at a decent cadence, so the soil has stayed damp but not muddy.

The garden bed is loose soil, I planted them an inch deep, but then I put another inch of woodchips over that.

These are store-bought ginger, which I understand may be sprayed with growth retardants, but many people seem to grow store-bought ginger successfully.

I got large whole ginger that looked very lively, cut them into large 2" chunks with multiple eyes, rinsed them loosely and waited 24 hours for their cut ends to do whatever, then soaked then for an hour and planted them.

Not a single one has sprouted above the ground. Any ideas what I did wrong?

My new garden bed used alot of mostly-aged cow manure. Does ginger not like manure?

Is it too shaded? It's not full shade, but it's more than partial shade, and gets maybe two hours of full direct sun.

I'm in Zone 6A.

Tomorrow I'll dig some up to see what's what, but I don't know what to look for.

Going to be interested to hear some of the replies you get.  I'm doing the same thing but have tried a couple of different tactics to get it to sprout.  So far the best seems to be wrapped in a wet paper towel in a plastic bag in a dark cabinet.  Less than 3 weeks and I can see some growth.  I have some in composted manure and then more in a coir based substrate.  I kept those two on a heat mat at 75 for the same amount of time.  Not much going on there.  I bought the ginger from someone on ebay.  It really was gorgeous and fresh.  What I have read says don't expect too much for a month.

A question I do have is the pieces all have an end where they were broken off from the main plant.  That end tends to mold a little bit.  I have been cutting it off leaving a fresh raw end.  Is this the smart thing to do?

I have some sitting in a windowsill and the buds have only grown about half an inch. I have one potted, and it's about an inch tall. They are slow-growing.

I had the same problem with ginger from the store. My thought is that the store kept the ginger too cold in the fridge and killed them. I bought 10 additional pieces from fedco and every single one has sprouted. The nursery has an interest in selling you something that will grow so they probably take that into account when storing them. The grocery stores only interest is selling you something that won’t rot immediately.

I find it extremely difficult to get ginger to root and grow.  And, at least here in 7b, it grows very slowly when I do.  I think the answer in almost every case is "it wants to be warmer, and you have to get the soil moisture just right or it rots instead of rooting."

Here's my thread from years ago:  Getting ginger root to grow instead of rotting or drying out -- how?

I work only with ginger chunks from the grocery store that are already budding out when I find them.  Then, I ended up having to set up a heated terrarium in order to get an actual plant.  Grew it out over two years (overwintering one winter indoors) and still didn't have much root growth.  Plant seems to have died when it went dormant indoors last winter, so I'm back to square zero.

Every time I plant ginger I wonder if I have killed it. Literally every time. It seems to sprout when it is good and ready (and I'm in 9b). But in the end, it always does. Hang in there!

I have grown ginger (and tumeric) in zone 8b for over 15 years now and can tell you it has a mind of its own.  Mine stays in the ground from the excess of fall harvest to sprout in spring.  It has been into the 90s for about 6 weeks now but the ginger has only come up over the last two weeks. Like growing sugarcane, it comes up when its good and ready but it does come up.

I had to dig two up today, because I was building something, and both were sprouted! They hadn't stuck up above the woodchips, but this gives me hope for all the rest hidden in the ground. I thought it was all dead.

Multiple of them are coming up now, up to 4" out of the ground. I guess I just need to remember in the future that these are very slow to see visual progress.

I have turmeric in a pot as a houseplant just for fun, and every year it dies down in early spring and then I think it's had it.  It's only just in the last week or so come back up. I sometimes think it's almost "summer deciduous", but I can't decide if it is cumulative heat that brings it back to life or day length.

Not only ginger, but I have had unusual difficulty getting anything to sprout this year.  I have had to replant some of my raised beds 4 and 5 times.  Most things are going ok now, but the corn and watermelon  are still up for grabs  (each are on their 5th planting).  We have had massive amounts of rain this year.

Most of the ginger that I started right around the middle of May is finally starting to poke their heads up.  I tried a couple of different ways of getting it started.  Most seem to have worked but it takes 6-7 weeks for it to happen.

Jamin Grey wrote:Multiple of them are coming up now, up to 4" out of the ground. I guess I just need to remember in the future that these are very slow to see visual progress.

I'd be interested in an update and how this has impacted what you do to grow it each year.