How to start growing ginger?

Farm Questions
1

hi, i want to grow ginger in my farm , what is the process for growing ginger ? what type of soil is suitable for ginger?

2

Word of caution: Ginger consumes lot of nutrients. Grow in small pieces of land. Say 10 gunta. next year you have to grow in different patch which is not connected to old one. once you grow give 3 years of gap but you can grow anything else other than ginger.
Kerala banned ginger about 10 years back. Karnataka is mulling to ban. Farmers from my district are highest buyers of ginger related pesticide this year.

You can get tissue cultured plants at 10/- you need 15-16000 plants per acre. Tissue culture plants can be planted in any season. But tuber must be planted in March thru May.

see also below discussion.
farmnest.com/forum/agricultural- … /#msg17133

3

thank q sri for your reply.

4

Hello Experts,

I am new to the forum. I have interest in farming and acquired few acres of land in Konkan recently. Planning to venture into farming through ginger cultivation and have few following doubts which experts here could help me with:

  1. I enquired about Tissue Cultured (TC) ginger plants. What I understand is 20000 plants will be required for an acre. What could be yield expected out of these many tissue cultured plants? Further, I heard that first yield of TC plants is ideal for being used as rhizomes in next cycle. If this information is right, then any insights on marketability of a part of first yield and quantity required to use as rhizomes in second cycle will be helpful. If this is the best option (1st cycle with TC and second cycle with rhizomes of first yield) my plan is to initially use 1 acre for TC plants and then do rhizome based cultivation in 3 acres.

  2. Can we use the land where we cultivated ginger for next cycle? Should we leave the land for next three years free or can we plant some other crops there? If yes, what about planting turmeric in same land? Drumsticks/ Or any suggestions on crops on land where Ginger was cultivated will be helpful for me to plan.

  3. I am planning for sprinkler based irrigation system in ginger farm. Will be working on bore well in January. Is this fine? Any rough estimations of cost for this setup?

Looking forward to hearing from friends here,

Thanks
Sangbagh

5

Growing ginger with rhizome as planting material is a gambling(at least it is like that in past 10 years around me).

The beauty of TC is that you can plant in unseason but planting material cost is at least 6-8 times expensive(price is a variable so the proportion may vary).
16000 to 20000 is a good number per acre.

You can plant in November and harvest in next May that is the time where are all the stock is done and market will have scarce and fetch good rates.

word of caution it is good for first year second year you cannot do it in same land(those who tried to do it failed miserably, latest example is my neighbor)

In general contract farmers Kerala get the land on lease and grow for one year and move to next village next year.

natives are bifurcating the plots and grow alternative years.

6

Dear Sri2012 Sir,
Can you pl inform me the TC lab details, who are producing Ginger TC plants, so that I want to go for small area farming .

with good wishes, farmer , g.p.rao.

7

Thank You for the prompt response! Appreciate your sharing of knowledge with new farmers.

So I feel the best thing to do is to leave the land free for one year after ginger farming without planting any crops. Any special addition of fertilizers we need to do in this land to make it fertile in 3rd year or normal FYM/ cowdung/compost is enough to start a new cycle of crops? Further, any rough estimate of yield from TC in first year from an acre opposed to normal rhizome method?

Thanks
Sangbagh

8

Hello Sir,

Please go through botanique dot co dot in for TC lab as I got to know details of TC from here.

There is one more in Bangalore siriglobal dot in
Thanks
Sangbagh

9

Dear G.P Rao sir
The TC supplier whom I know has some issues, he has taken advance and not returning. I dont suggest him. I will have check if somebody else is supplying.
Sri

10

Dear Sri sir,

thank you. g.p.rao, farmer

11

Dont go for Tissue culture plants from Botanique as we had bad experience. They supplied us 20000 plants which died within 10 days. First of all they didnt provided it on time and then there was delay of more than 1 month. We received first lot of 16000 TCP and we directly transplanted in field which died in 8 days. We asked the reason to botanique they said it need secondary hardening before transplanting. Again they send rest 4000 plants which we kept in green house and followed their secondary hardening instructions, but these plants also died in 10 days. They deliver TCP plants packed in card board packing box with no air circulation. Travelling time was 24 hours by train. So dont go for TCP as its not recommended by IISR scientist. If you still want to do TCP cultivation please keep following point in mind.

  1. Look for reputed TCP supplier like jain TCP ( Although they dont supply Ginger TCP )
  2. Only purchased secondary hardened plant ready to transplant.
  3. TCP ginger takes 12 to 14 months to grow.
  4. Never pay full amount in advance till you get good Mortality rate after transplantation.