grow ginger plant, grow garlic plant, gardening, health, building immune system, garden, gardening, south africa Steps to growing your own garlic and ginger plant to assist with your immune system, Image: Pexels
South Africans have been flocking to markets to purchase garlic and ginger creating their own natural immune boosters.
“We’ve seen the popularity of ginger increase as consumers seek to bolster their immune systems by including ginger in juices, soups and extracts.”
“These factors have, in turn, increased the price of the imported ginger at the fresh produce markets, which then has a direct effect on retail prices,” it said.
Some South African have given up on buying ginger and are planting their own. You can do the same.
Garlic and ginger are easy to grow in a home herb garden and will produce abundantly. Bonus, both are easy to store, so once you grow them in your garden you will never have to buy either one of them again.
Follow these tips for growing of garlic and ginger, so you can enjoy the tasty rewards all year.
Garlic seeds are the cloves on the outside of the bulb. Buy them at your garden supply centre or use healthy seed cloves from garlic bought from a supermarket. Don’t remove seed cloves from garlic bulbs until you are ready to plant them. Autumn is the best time to plant them, but garlic can also be planted in the spring. In very mild climates, garlic can be grown all year round.
Select a planting location that is in full sun, and has well-draining soil that has been amended with plenty of compost. Snap off the outside cloves from the garlic bulb. Poke each clove 6 to 8cm deep in the prepared soil, with the pointed tip facing upward. Plant cloves 8 to 13cm apart.
Water cloves and cover with 15cm of lightweight mulch, like straw. The garlic shoots will find their way up through the lightweight mulch. Keep soil moist and stop watering when the green above-ground shoots turn brown. Harvest anytime after shoots turn brown.
Ginger grows best in a sheltered location, filtered sunlight, warm weather, humidity, and rich, moist soil. Buy rhizomes (ginger roots) that have “eyes” (they look like tiny horns). Soak rhizomes overnight in cool water the night before planting.
Plant in late winter or early spring in prepared soil. Plant 6cm deep with eyes facing upwards. Each rhizome can be broken apart to create more plants as long as each piece has an eye. Space rhizomes 8cm apart. Keep soil moist and mist plants with water during times of drought. As a rule, most species of ginger thrive in moist soil.
Ginger grows slowly and won’t be ready to harvest until the end of summer. As the weather starts cooling, your ginger will start to die back. Reduce the water, even let the ground dry out. This encourages the ginger to form rhizomes. Once all the leaves have died down, the ginger is ready for harvest.
In mild climates, garlic and ginger can be left in the ground until needed. Both can be harvested and stored in a cool, dry place until needed. Do not wash after harvesting. Place them in a single layer during storage.
Via – IOL
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