Once upon a gardening time, I thought about growing ginger here in Port Harcourt. But I didn't have much space, you know how Port Harcourt houses can be. I have seen a lot of convincing videos across social media proving that ginger can be grown in sacks and containers, so I decided to try it. I went to the nearest food market and I purchased a piece of ginger for Five Hundred Naira (#500) - Even me, myself I shock; but wetin I go do nah?
I buy am like dat. I ensured that I selected a ginger that was already sprouting with visible signs. I selected such, so that the ginger will sprout immediately I plant in the moist Rivers soil rather than getting rotten. For the soil, I wanted to prepare a perfect soil mix that could support the plant till maturity. I obtained some rich dark colour soil, I had recycled - as the growth medium, dried and fermented chicken waste - to release undigested nutrient elements present in the poop, some freshly prepared compost - to enrich the growth medium, and a perforated breathable sack - for drainage and support.
I used my spade to combine these constituents in such a way that I ended up with the perfect soil mix! Although it wasn't easy, but it was worth it. I transfered a reasonable quantity of the soil into the sack, then I allowed the soil to rest for two days - then I planted the piece of ginger directly in the soil I had prepared earlier. Three(3) days later, I saw that the ginger had sprouted above the soil-air interface.
That feeling of accomplishment was foaming in my chest but I didn't get carried away. Everyday, I monitored the ginger for any signs of new growth, indeed the growth rate was significant. Days turned to weeks, Weeks turned to months and I was quietly waiting for that special day when I'll proudly dig my gold from the sack. I watered the ginger plant daily to prevent it from using up the water it had already stored in the stems.
To even help boost the production, I added more compost to the soil and watered to leach the nutrients down to the roots.
I wanted the ginger to stay completely organic, hence the constituents I used for the soil. Another reason was that my mum was interested in using the leaves for some medicinal purposes, so I considered that. It was going to be 100% organic, I didn't even have money to buy what we call "organic fertilizer" so I was goin' to go natural all through. The fact that I cut off some of the leaves for making medicine doesn't mean that the plant died or shrank, it was carefully done and it helped the plant to localize the nutrient on the horizontal stems.
Occasionally, I added some more soil to the sack especially when I saw some of the rhizomes exposed. I planted the ginger at a shallow depth but not too shallow for rodents to destroy. My ginger grew into something enormous that if only you saw the piece of the ginger I planted at day 1, you mayn't believe it was that same piece of ginger that grew into such a huge plant.
After about 7 to 8 months, my ginger leaves were looking so pale. I knew it was time to harvest it. I harvested my organic ginger that I planted in the sack bags in the city of Pitakwa. It was a successful one because I got about ten times (10x) of that piece of ginger I had planted initially. I actually enjoyed growing ginger in sack. It made me believe that many food crops can be grown in the Southern part of Nigeria.
Cheers to Royal Green Diary! Cheers to Gardening and Community!
