Increase Profitability in Ginger Hoophouse Production in the Northeast by Decreasing Material and Labor Costs

Commodities

• Additional Plants: ginger

Practices

• Crop Production: high tunnels or hoop houses, organic fertilizers, season extension, seed saving, winter storage
• Education and Training: farmer to farmer, on-farm/ranch research
• Farm Business Management: new enterprise development
• Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities

Growing baby ginger is a wonderful way to diversify market offerings. Despite high market prices, ginger production in the Northeast still has high costs and challenges like annually purchased seed rhizomes, using purchased fertilizer and compost to hill ginger, a low seed to harvest ratio, and a small window to sell baby ginger due to its short shelf-life. This proposal focuses on increasing ginger profitability by reducing labor and material costs without sacrificing yield. We plan to address this by

1. Comparing the effect of seed rhizome size to ginger yield.
2. Comparing ginger yields and labor hours in using fresh grass clippings versus purchased fertilizer and compost in hilling ginger during the growing season.
3. Trialing methods to overwinter cured ginger and evaluating shelf life and commercial viability of cured ginger for culinary use.
4. Comparing yields between overwintered cured ginger and purchased seed rhizomes to evaluate commercial viability of overwintered cured ginger as seed rhizomes.

If the proposed research is successful, baby ginger yields would increase, labor costs would decrease, the market selling window would increase, seed rhizomes would only need to be purchased once, and there would be a new market opportunity selling ginger seed rhizomes to other growers similar to garlic.

The findings from this proposal along with previous research would be used to compile a best practices guide to growing ginger commercially in the Northeast. We propose to share this guide and our findings with other farmers via social media, regional listservs, two on-farm tours, and an off-farm workshop.

This project seeks to reduce costs associated with growing ginger to make it more profitable and sustainable for farmers.

Objectives:

1. Compare the effect of seed rhizome size to ginger yield.
2. Compare ginger yields and labor hours in using fresh grass clippings versus purchased fertilizer and compost in hilling ginger during the growing season. Perform an economic analysis to decide if it is more profitable to use compost or grass when hilling ginger.
3. Trial methods to overwinter cured ginger and evaluate shelf life and commercial viability of cured ginger for culinary use.
4. Compare ginger yields between overwintered cured ginger and purchased seed rhizomes. Evaluate commercial viability of overwintered cured ginger as seed rhizomes.