MaLiorzh
Full Member
Posts: 50
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 8:08 am
Location: Brittany / Breizh / Bretagne 9a

Galangal

Has anybody tried growing galangal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galangal

I love cuisine from South East Asia and galangal is unavoidable. I can get my hands on fresh root in a local supermarket which might be a starting point for growing some. Any ideas?

pepperhead212
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2844
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:52 pm
Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b

I also cook a lot of SE Asian food, and tried growing some galagal indoors, in hydroponics. Problem is, it has a VERY long season, and even after well over 200 days, the rhizomes had not gotten very large at all. So I gave up on that, since I am in an area where it would get too cold for it to survive. Even your zone would probably be too cold for it to survive.

I do grow lemongrass, but have to dig it up in the fall, when frost hits, and I usually get a lot of it - far more from 3 plants than I can use in a year. I clean all of it, cut it to size, and Foodsaver it in small packs, then all the rest in a large Foodsaver bag. Can last for a few years in this. Kaffir lime trees are easy to grow, but have to be brought in when it gets into the 30s. Peppers, garlic, and shallots, and many of those herbs are all easy to grow. Galangal is the only item I have resigned myself to having to grow.

At least you can find it locally! An Asian market near me has it, too, fortunately.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13947
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Galangal is a perennial ginger. It needs a lot of space so you can plant it in a large pot. The rhizomes are in the center and the stalks on the outside. It has a white flower in the fall from the top of the plant.

It likes a moist loamy soil and if you have vermicast you can add a couple of handfuls. It likes a lot of organic matter, but I have problems with it in pots. If you don't have issues, you can add some compost to a sandy loam. The soil must be free of nematodes so I always start with a bagged sterilized potting soil. You only need about 3 pieces in a pot. Gingers usually are grown in hills with pieces coated with a fungicide and spaced 12 inches apart. The roots are mounded with soil as it grows to encourage vertical growth. The rhizomes spread sideways and don't go down very much in a pot so if you have a planter that is wide and about 2 ft deep it will be good. Most gingers are harvestable after they flower, but you can harvest ginger at 5 months if the pieces are large enough. It is not frost hardy so it needs to go inside for winter. Galangal is harder to harvest than Jamaican ginger because of the way it grows. If ginger hits the side of the pot, it will mould or even crack the pot and the ginger will break up into smaller fingers which makes cleaning it harder because the pieces will be small. Ginger will grow in partial shade to full sun, but the leaves will look better if it is in partial shade and protected from the wind.



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