Dennis McNamara
| Special to MyCentralJersey.com
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The study found that 10 pounds of ginger seed could potentially yield 175 pounds of marketable product, turning a $120 investment into a $2,800 return.
Native plants of New Jersey are the main focus of our research at the Rutgers Specialty Crop Research facility in Cream Ridge, but we do have some ongoing non-native projects underway – one involves studying various conifers for the Christmas Tree trade and another is the cultivation of baby ginger.
Ginger, a wonderfully pungent and aromatic rhizome (underground stem), is a tropical herbaceous perennial that no longer exists in its wild state, making it a true cultigen – a plant that only survives through human cultivation. It was first domesticated in Southeast Asia, likely in the islands of modern-day Indonesia or Malaysia, more than 5000 years ago.
The seafaring groups cultivated ginger and introduced it throughout the Pacific Islands, reaching as far as Hawaii, long before contact with other major civilizations. Records of ginger use in India and China date back over at least 4,000 years, documented in Sanskrit and Chineses texts. Traditional Chinese Medicine used ginger as a warming, digestive, and anti-nausea remedy, and in Ayurvedic medicine in India, where it was so valued it was called vishwabheshaja – “the universal medicine.”
India became a major cultivation and export center so that by the 1st century it had reached the Mediterranean and the Roman Empire via the lucrative spice trade routes. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Arab merchants controlled the spice trade, continuing to supply ginger to Europe. It was hugely popular and expensive throughout the Middle Ages as Europeans used it for preservation, flavoring food and even for warding off disease like the plague.
By the 16th century Spanish conquistadors brought ginger rootstock to the West Indies and Mexico. By 1547, ginger was successfully cultivated in Jamaica and was exported back to Spain, making it one of the first foreign spices to be grown in the New World. Jamaica remains highly regarded for its specific type of ginger today.
Today, Zingiber officinale is cultivated globally across humid tropical regions, with India, China, Nigeria and Indonesia being major producers. Ginger’s history is a testament to its powerful flavor and therapeutic versatility, securing its place as a perennial global staple. It is consumed in numerous forms – fresh, dried, pickled, preserved, candied, and powdered – and continues to be heavily studied for its active compounds, gingerols and shogaols, which modern science has confirmed possess anti-inflammatory and anti-nausea properties. Studies of ginger as a supplement have shown it helps ease nausea in people who are pregnant, receiving chemotherapy or coming out of surgery.
For our study back here in New Jersey, we started this past Winter ordering 10 pounds of Peruvian Yellow ginger seed. In the warm Rutgers greenhouse, we set up 40 grow bags; each bag is twenty gallons, very much like containers you would grow potatoes in. As the ginger matured, they needed to be hilled up, just like you would with potatoes. Twenty of the bags were white, the other twenty black. We wished to see if the difference in bag color may have any significance to growth. Each bag was filled just above the halfway mark with a rich potting mix and, because ginger is a heavy feeder, we added a slow-release fertilizer.
The bags were placed under overhead sprayers on a timer that applied irrigation once a day, allowing the soil to dry before the next spray. Originally, we had not shaded the greenhouse but found the springtime sunlight to be too much for the sprouted ginger fronds; they were all turning yellow. Once we shaded the greenhouse we saw a rapid improvement.
A little over seven months after sowing our seed we began harvesting. We started with just four white bags and four black bags of ginger to get initial data. After pulling up the plants from the bag, cutting away the tops and washing the rhizomes, the white bags’ harvested weight of marketable ginger averaged 4.6 lbs. and the black bags averaged 4.3 lbs. The bag color was not a significant factor, but the weight yielded from just 20% of our crop was significant.
For a farmer looking to add an attractive product to their line of crops to market, baby ginger can offer a handsome profit. We started with 10 pounds of seed and our first eight bags returned over 36 pounds of marketable ginger. If subsequent harvests over the next few weeks yield the equivalent numbers, the final tally of marketable product should be close to 175 lbs. Translating into dollars and cents, the ginger seed costs $12 a pound, so, ideally, our 10 pounds of seed should yield 175 pounds of product. Farmers markets are selling baby ginger for $16 a pound. The initial $120 for 10 pounds has potential for a $2,800 return.
For our purposes we will harvest some of the ginger to be used for seed in the ongoing ginger study in 2026.
Dennis McNamara is an agriculture program associate at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Monmouth County.
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