Growing Ginger in a Vertical Farm: All You Need to Know9 min read

Read further to find out what are the specific requirements for growing ginger in a controlled environment and what to watch out for when doing it.

How to Grow Ginger in a Vertical Farm?

Before planting ginger in a vertical system, you should first cut the rhizome into small bites and plant them in soil or ideally in compost. Wait until rhizomes sprout and once you can observe green stems coming from the ground, you can move ginger to your vertical hydroponic or aquaponic system.

To hold the rhizome in place you will need some growing media. The most common media used for root plants such as ginger is expanded clay. 

To plant ginger in the growing media, make a hole in the clay and put a rhizome in it. Make sure the roots are directed downwards. Then fill in the hole with clay in a way that the top of the rhizome will be roughly at the level of a clay surface.

In the video below, you can see by example how it’s done in an aquaponics system with expanded clay.

 

Best Conditions for Growing Ginger in a Vertical Farm

Lights

• 18 hours of day light?

Temperature

• Water temperature 24-26 C (75.2-78.8 F)
• I had it in very bright light out of direct sun in high summer temps as high as almost 110* F, with about 3 months of temps regularly over 100*. Winter temps never got below about 30*F,

Humidity

• High humidity
• My wife grows ginger and turmeric in our high tunnel. She says main thing is ginger likes relatively dry media. Not as dry as turmeric, but pretty dry nevertheless. She has it in large pots.
• Not sure about growing it hydroponically, but got some growing on my kitchen counter… Noticed they don’t like allot of water…
• maybe not even that low, so maybe if I had kept it moist over the winter it would have survived

Nutrients

• If you have fairly high nitrate level in your system they aren’t going to do fairly well
• Sweet spots for pH is 5.5 – 6.5
• Ginger doesn’t like salt so it’s not recommended to grow it in heavily salty systems

Time of Growth, Harvesting, and Yields of Ginger Grown in a Vertical Farm

Ginger has a fairly long growing season. It takes around 2-4 weeks

• Fairly long growing season to get nice sizeable rhizome
• To harvest, move away expanded clay and slowly pull up the root. Shake the clay off the roots
• Time from planting to harvest – around 10 months
  [Yt video of harvesting ginger]

Leaf symptoms of nutritional disorders in ginger

Nutrients deficiencies

Nitrogen deficiency	Leaves are paler and may turn yellow if deficiency is severe.
Potassium deficiency	Plants are smaller and darker green in color. Also, leaf surfaces are crinkled.
Phosphorus deficiency	Plants are smaller and darker green in color.
Calcium deficiency	Small irregular yellow to white spots towards the tips of the upper leaves.
Sulfur deficiency	Upper leaves turn yellow or sometimes even white. Paler than leaves with nitrogen deficiency.
Manganese deficiency	Bright yellow to white color of the leaver. Symptoms start from the leaf tip and go towards the stem.
Iron deficiency	The tissue between the veins of the upper leaves becomes pale.
Boron deficiency	The spacing between the leaves is reduced towards the top of the plant and the upper leaves develop small rough circular spots caused by the breakdown of the tissue inside the leaf.
Zinc deficiency	Short spacing between the upper leaves. Broad yellow to white in color stripes between the main veins of the leaves.
Copper deficiency	Leaves not fully unrolled – young leaves entangled with older leaves.
Molybdenum deficiency	The tips and margins of the younger leaves look bleached. Also narrow discolored lines on the leaves.

Nutrients toxicities

</tablePests Control for Hydroponic Ginger

• Table with common pests and how to prevent them

Ginger can definitely be grown in a vertical farm. If you allow enough room for the ginger leaves to grow and absorb a lot of light, you can grow ginger in a vertical farm with soil. However, most people who choose to grow ginger in a vertical farm choose not to use soil at all but instead choose to use hydroponic or aeroponic systems.Methods of Growing Ginger in a Vertical Farm
If you want to grow ginger in a vertical farm with soil, it is very easy to do. Simply put the ginger root in large planters stacked high with enough room for the leaves to grow and allow them access to plenty of sunlight.A hydroponic system is the best system to grow ginger in a vertical farm. However, the roots of a ginger plant will not grow in water, they will only grow in soil. If you are growing ginger in a hydroponic system, put the ginger rhizome in soil with plenty of compost. After 2-4 weeks the roots will have grown enough for you to move them to the hydroponic system. Drip hydroponic systems are great for growing ginger in, but other ones will work as well.An Aeroponic system is also great for growing ginger. Aeroponic systems grow plants suspended in the air in a closed environment without soil, and the plants are misted frequently. This is a great system to grow ginger in because they do not need a lot of water, but will grow better with plenty of it.Best Conditions for Growing Ginger in a Vertical FarmLightsFluorescent lights are great to use while growing ginger plants. They are bright and long-lasting, which is great because ginger needs a lot of light to grow. Give growing ginger plants at least 18 hours of light a day, and let them rest without light for the rest of the day.TemperatureGinger plants love the heat. They typically grow in very warm climates, so they need to be in warm temperatures to grow. Keep the temperature between 72-90° Fahrenheit, and they will continue to grow.HumidityGinger plants love humidity, so keep them in a very humid environment. They prefer conditions with 70-90% humidity.NutrientsGinger plants do not need any specific nutrient mixtures, so any standard hydroponic nutrient solution will work. Feed the plants every 2 hours with the nutrient solution. If you notice that the leaves of the ginger plant are wilting slightly, increase the amount of nutrient solution in the water. If you keep the pH level of the water between 5.5 and 8.0, the plants will likely stay very healthy.Time of Growth and Yields of Vertically Grown Hydroponic GingerGinger takes about 4 months to produce rhizomes and grow enough to be harvested, but it takes 8-10 months for the ginger plant to be fully grown. However, ginger plants grown in a hydroponic vertical system can grow up to 50% faster than ginger that is grown in soil.After 1-2 weeks, the roots will begin to grow and form under the soil it is planted in. The roots will not form unless the ginger rhizome is under the soil. At the same time, small leaves will begin to grow.After 2-4 weeks, buds start to grow and swell, and the leaves will start to grow larger. As the buds grow and swell, the roots will grow longer and stronger around the base of the shoot. At this point, the ginger can be moved from the soil to a hydroponic system.As the ginger plant continues to grow, the leaves will grow longer and wider. Ginger leaves are long and slim and look very similar to sprouting grass. These leaves can grow up to 4 feet tall.How long does it take to grow ginger from seed to maturity? After the leaves have become yellow and dry, the plant is ready to be harvested. At this point, the stems of the leaves will start to fall over. This is when the rhizomes have firm skin and are not likely to bruise when the ginger is harvested and washed.It takes 8-10 months for a ginger plant to grow from a rhizome to full maturity. Ginger plants do not produce seeds, so they have to be grown from part of the ginger plant; the rhizome.Pest Control for Hydroponic GingerTo tell if you have a pest problem while you are growing ginger in a hydroponic system, look for small chunks taken out of the ginger leaves. If you do see a lot of them, then you have a pest problem. Spray a gentle pesticide to get rid of them, and continue to look out for those signs.Cockroaches are definitely bugs that you should watch out for if you are growing ginger in a hydroponic system. They love moisture and will love eating your ginger.Mosquitoes are also bugs that you should watch out for if you are growing ginger in a hydroponic system. Similar to cockroaches, they love moisture and eating ginger. They are very hard to see a lot of the time, so keep a lookout for signs of mosquitos.Make sure to watch out for silverfish. They love water and will harm your growing ginger if they get into the water system that you are using to feed and water the ginger.Companies Growing Ginger in Vertical FarmsNot many companies are currently claiming to grow ginger in vertical farms, but I did find one that boasts of the practice.Eden Green Technology grows ginger in a vertical farm. They are a company dedicated to improving farming technology. The next time you seriously think about starting a vertical farm, consider growing ginger as a crop.

Phosphorus toxicity	The tips and margins of the lower leaves turn yellow to white in color, and eventually die.
Boron toxicity	The tissue turn light in color and with pure white patches on it. After death, the tissue may turn brown.
Manganese toxicity	Older elaves become yellow to white in color at the tips and along the margins.
Phosphorus toxicity	The tips and margins of the lower leaves turn yellow to white in color, and eventually die.
Boron toxicity	The tissue turn light in color and with pure white patches on it. After death, the tissue may turn brown.
Manganese toxicity	Older elaves become yellow to white in color at the tips and along the margins.