Ginger/Turmeric in Northern Latitudes

Hello all.  I am in Montana, zone 4-5 ish.  I bought some ginger from a local farm a few years ago, more for the novelty of it than anything.  I never saw them selling it again, I guess the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.  It got me wondering on a smaller scale if a person could grow a dozen pounds or so of it for them selves up here?

I understand that it must be planted in January-ish and takes nearly a full year to mature to harvest.  Getting it started inside could be a challenge in low light northern winter, but once established could grow in pots with relative ease.  

Does anyone have any experience with this?  Any recommendations for seed root supply?  Soil requirements?  Would greenhouse/window boxes be of any use?  Thoughts in general?

Thank you for your insights and sharing your experiences.  I will update if I decide to pursue cultivating these rhizomes at my higher latitude.

Watching this thread closely. I can grow plenty of greens and calories on site, but spices are a problem yet to be solved. Including black pepper.

Hey fellas,

I'm not sure how it will work for you being a just a wee bit colder than here in southern New England (zone 5a) , but I was able to get some fairly decent yields out of my attempt.

Here's a link to my thread on the topic. https://permies.com/t/266153/Tips-growing-ginger-turmeric-cold#2846988

For what it's worth, I source my rhizomes from Fedco, https://www.fedcoseeds.com/moose/ginger-and-turmeric]

The order comes with instuctions, but they also list the how-to's online here: https://www.fedcoseeds.com/resources/growing-guides/ginger-and-turmeric.htm

I had to laugh when I saw the pic on the Fedco instruction page showing the full-grown rhizome ball. I'm here to tell you, it took quite of bit of pruning to clean them up for that pic (see my thread for what they look like coming out of the ground).

Hope this helps - cheers!

I’m not in Montana but ginger might not grow well there because of the short days in winter and usually low light. Yet, if you have a good sunlit area in the summer and some extra work for winter, it might be worth it giving it a shot!

It is advisable to start germinating inside early in the pots and you could use a grow light. About dirt as for soil, ginger prefers warm well drained rich loamy soil with a component of organic matter added to it. It would be advisable perhaps to have a greenhouse or window box to sort out temperature and light during these cold periods.

I tried both ginger and turmeric this past year. I was late to getting started so didn't get underway until late May.
I bought organic roots at the grocery store then soaked them for couple of days in water, with a couple of water changes.
They were planted out in some long planters that were on our back patio, which is south facing and has a very mild microclimate.
The turmeric was much faster to sprout and most of the pieces sprouted. There was only one piece of the ginger that took.
None of it was very large so I just took the bits out of the planters and potted them up before the frost, then moved them inside.
The turmeric continues to be more vigorous but the ginger has gone dormant. We'll see if any make it to go outside in the spring.

I grew some ginger last summer.
I got some from a local store and put them in a pot in about march.
I got it to grow, probably picked it early, didn't get as much as I could have if I'd grown it for a year, but I got more than I planted and it was yummy.

I bought some ginger from the store a couple weeks ago to try this year.I can grow tomatoes and all kinds of chiles in an open ended cattle panel hoop house.The tomatoes love it and it looks like a jungle come august.I always have so many chiles i cant give them all away and freeze bunches,i still have fresh chiles in the fridge and a few tomatoes in brown bags from the end of season clean up.

Will ginger thrive in hot humid conditions of the hoop house? It has got to be above 100F during the hottest parts of our summer in there,and humidity levels very high as well.