Regrowing is the trend of growing vegetables at home. Ginger, for example! You can easily grow it in a pot. What you need besides patience, we tell you here.

That’s why ginger is a good idea

Whether as a tea, spice for stews or cookies, immune booster shot, sweet and sour pickled with sushi or as a flavoring in lemonade: Ginger is indeed a great tuber with its pungency and essential oils. In addition, its ingredients such as vitamin C, magnesium, iron and calcium are also beneficial to health: For centuries, for example, traditional Asian medicine has used ginger to relieve headaches, cold symptoms and gastrointestinal complaints, among other things. You can even lose weight with spices like ginger.  However, ginger is not native to our region: the roots are imported from Asia and have come a long way before they reach our supermarkets. Regrowing is the perfect abbreviation. Because ginger also grows here: on the windowsill.

When it’s best to start

Now is the best time to grow your own ginger: It’s bright and pleasantly warm, making it the perfect climate for a tuber to grow into a plant. It also takes a few months before you can harvest your fresh ginger. When it gets a little more uncomfortable outside, the time has come. Just the right time for the spiciness of your homegrown ginger to warm you from the inside. For example, with a delicious hot honey milk with ginger or a healthy carrot-ginger juice.

What you need

Don’t worry growing ginger is really easy. Although you’ll need a little patience until the tuber is ready to harvest. These are the things you’ll need:

  • Fresh, firm organic ginger with shoot buds
  • Sharp knife
  • Bowl of water
  • Plant pot with holes in the bottom and a capacity of about 4 liters
  • Plant pot with holes in the bottom and about 15-20 liters capacity
  • Nutrient-rich plant soil
  • Large glass or cling film
  • Possibly rubber ring or string

Important: The organic aspect of the tuber you put in the soil is very relevant. This way you can be sure that the ginger has not been treated with pesticides that prevent growth or germination.

How to grow ginger yourself

  • Choose a piece of ginger with eyes. These are the shoot buds, also called vegetative nodes. This is where the plant develops from.
  • Using a sharp, clean knife, cut the piece into pieces about five inches long so that each has at least one eye.
  • Place the pieces in a bowl of water for a day.
  • About a day later, fill your flowerpot two-thirds full with soil.
  • Place the ginger loosely in the pot. Depending on the size of the pieces, there should be no more than two or three per pot. One shoot bud always points upward.
  • Cover the pieces loosely with about two inches of soil.
  • Water lightly until the soil is moist. It should never be wet to avoid rot.
  • Place in a warm, bright location out of direct sunlight. A windowsill above the heater is ideal. If you want the plant to germinate faster, you can imitate a mini greenhouse. To do this, turn a large glass upside down. Alternatively, you can use a piece of plastic wrap that you tighten around the pot with a rubber ring or string. As soon as the first shoots appear: remove the construction.
  • As soon as a green shoot appears after a few weeks: transplant into a larger pot. After a few months, the plant will resemble a bamboo and can grow to about one meter high.
  • If the leaves start to turn yellow, water only a little.

Tip: Your pot needs holes in the bottom so that the water can drain away. Otherwise, damaging waterlogging will occur.

Important: Moisten the soil daily, preferably with low-calcium rainwater. If available, this is best done with a spray bottle. In any case: avoid waterlogging!

How to recognize the harvest time

Usually after seven to ten months, the time has come: all the leaves are yellow and wilted and you can dig up the tuber. The small piece has grown into a large root with many strong sections. Now just free it from the soil, wash it and enjoy! Maybe in the form of ginger pumpkin cupcakes or an Asian turmeric ginger soup?

Tip: You can also grow new ginger from this piece again. Regrowing works as often as you like.