We can definitely grow ginger in Canada – The real question is… how?
We eat a lot of ginger in our house. It’s so good for calming tummy troubles, which we’ve had plenty of, and we just love the taste. What we don’t love is that when we buy it from the grocery store it comes from very far away. Most recently, ginger from Peru is what has been available at our local grocery store. So that ginger traveled thousands of kilometers from where it was grown to arrive in my pantry!
Local food (especially when grown regeneratively) not only tastes better because it is fresher, but it creates so much less waste and supports local economies.
What if we could grow ginger right in our own Canadian backyards?
Ginger is a heat-loving, tropical plant, but some are growing it successfully here in Canada. Here’s a few examples…
- Wise Earth Farm in Kelowna, BC is growing ginger interplanted with tomatoes in a greenhouse.
- Le Jardin des Funambules outside Sherbrook, QC is also growing ginger in greenhouses. In this video, they describe mistakes and what has/has not worked best.
- Maggie Wysocki, a home grower in Manitoba, is growing ginger in pots in Zone 3.
Our ginger growing experiments
We’ve tried growing ginger for two seasons, but it has not been very successful.
The first year we grew it outside in poor soil and we neglected it because we were busy building our house. The second year we grew it in a polytunnel alongside tomatoes and peppers – better conditions for sure!
We’ve had plenty of green growth above ground, but the rhizomes (the root-like part that we most like to eat, what we’re used to seeing in the grocery store) haven’t been developing very well.
Why haven’t our ginger plants been producing?
Here’s a few possible reasons our ginger growing experiments haven’t been fruitful…
- I may have started with the wrong variety – some are more ornamental, some are more for food so tend to grow more of the parts we like to eat.
- Not enough nutrients in the soil. Ginger is a ‘heavy feeder’, meaning it needs lots of nutrition to thrive. Our garden beds are new so may not yet have the full complement of happy soil life.
- Not enough heat. Ginger loves heat and humidity! Market gardeners in Quebec grow it in a heated greenhouse with an additional plastic cover over just the ginger to keep it extra warm and wet.
- Not a long enough growing season. In the examples I listed above, ginger growers in Canada are extending our relatively short growing season by heating their greenhouses or growing ginger in containers to be able to bring them inside when it gets too cold.
The way forward
I think it’s time to try something different. As gardeners, we are constantly experimenting and sometimes those experiments fail! It’s all part of the learning process.
My next steps are to start with new rhizomes – ones that I know produce food! And reach out to other local growers for some tips.
Happy growing!
