How to Grow Yellow Ginger

Check the drainage in your proposed planting location by digging a 3-inch trench and filling it with water. Look in half an hour and make certain it is drained. If not, add 3 inches of sand dug into the soil to a depth of 6 inches.

Prepare a planting bed in early spring by incorporating 5 inches of compost. This further increases the drainage but also adds nutrients. Dig a planting hole that is 2 inches deep. Space holes 10 inches apart. Lay the rhizomes on their side with the majority of growth nodes or bumps facing upward.

Fill in the holes with soil. Water the bed until the soil puddles up. Give supplemental irrigation if the spring weather is dry. Soil should remain damp but not soggy to a depth of 6 to 8 inches.

Apply a complete balanced fertilizer to the soil after the plants have sprouted and grown 6 inches. Use 1/4 cup per plant and work into the soil to a depth of 3 inches.

Cut the spent flower stalks off to the ground. Leave the ginger leaves on the plant until fall or early spring to allow them to collect energy for the rhizomes.

Overwinter the rhizomes in U.S. Department of Agriculture zones below 7b. Cut back the foliage to the ground in fall and dig up the rhizomes. Let them dry on the counter for two to three days and then nest them in sphagnum moss in a paper bag.

Store the yellow ginger rhizomes until spring indoors at room temperature around 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, where it is dry. Plant as soon as the soil temperature reaches 60 F.