Grow your own ginger for its several useful properties

Ginger was highly recommended by the great Chinese philosopher Confucius, who seasoned every dish with the spice. The plant has many medicinal uses, especially as a remedy for motion sickness and nausea. Here are some handy tips on growing your own ginger root.

• Native to tropical Asia, ginger is a perennial with a tender rhizome that measures about 35 inches (90 centimetres).
• The freshly-picked fleshy rhizomes are a pale yellow colour. The yellow flowers with purple labella and green bracts are grouped in reddish conical points.
• The foliage is beautiful, and the plant does well in pots, in a greenhouse or elsewhere.

• Clinical trials have confirmed that ginger is an effective and safe remedy for the prevention and treatment of nausea.
• It is also effective against digestive problems such as indigestion, flatulence and colic.
• It is used to combat cold symptoms, menstrual pain, cold extremities (chillblains), arthritis and rheumatism.
• It can help prevent clots from forming in the heart and arteries, and lower cholesterol.
• To make appropriate use of ginger, consult your doctor or herbal therapist.

• The Japanese Ginger (Zingiber myoga) has similar foliage, and even when grown in pots, it produces large creamy white, orchid-like flowers that rise from the ground in spring.
• It is very hardy. The variegated variety or Dancing Crane is less robust, but it grows well in pots.

• Ginger prefers rich soil that is moist and well drained.

• Grow segments of rhizome with one or two buds, or the entire rhizome for larger plants.
• Place the rhizomes just under the surface of the ground, in pots containing a fibrous compost and at a temperature of 25-30 °C.

• Lower the temperature once the shoot is well on its way, but keep it at a minimum of 20 °C.
• The soil should be moist and fertilized once a month.
• Stop watering when the leaves begin to wither, and keep it dry during dormant season.

• The rhizome tends to rot if the weather is cool and wet.

• Used fresh, the rhizome is collected in late summer or early fall.
• Dormant rhizomes are best dried and ground.

• Ginger beer dates back to the 19th Century when sobriety became a criterion of respectability, and botanical breweries began producing low-alcohol beverages.
• The recipes vary, but the basics remain the same: ginger roots are crushed and fermented in sugar, yeast and various flavours including lemon. The ginger beer wort is a yeast culture nourished daily with sugar and ground ginger, which is an indispensable ingredient for the production of the beer.

• Fresh ginger is an essential cooking ingredient in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, especially in curries, stews, soups, salads, chutneys, condiments, marinades and in meat, fish and vegetable dishes.
• Crystallized and candied ginger is used in confectionery, pastry, jams and marmalades.
• Ginger wine can be enjoyed on its own or with whisky.
• Dried ginger is a spice used in baking and in spice mixtures. Gari is a Japanese ginger marinated in vinegar, often found as an accompaniment to sushi.
• Green shoots and buds are also eaten in Japan.

By growing your own ginger, you'll have a low-maintenance that's useful in the kitchen.