Examination of the potential of ginger (zingiber officinale) cultivation in the State of Delaware in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States
Date
2023
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a nutritious, medicinal, rhizomatous spice cultivated and consumed globally. Cultivation practices have a significant impact on the nutritional quality and post-harvest storage of ginger rhizomes. The cultivation of ginger requires 8 to 12 months for its matured, shelf-life stable rhizomes, while an alternative technique of halving the cultivation time, improves the nutritional quality of ginger rhizomes while affecting the shelf-life. Halfway cultivation technique (baby ginger) conserves production resources over traditional cultivation. ☐ Yellow ginger sprouted and grown to seedling stage for 10 weeks and then planted in various production systems. Trials were conducted from February 2022 to February 2023 in Newark and Georgetown, Delaware. One set of trials focused on controlled environment production in soilless media and hydroponic solutions in the greenhouse. A second set of trials focused on field soils in high tunnel, rain shelter, mulched open-field, and bare ground open field systems with clay loam soils and loamy sand soils, Different irrigation frequency treatments were applied: 100% (greenhouse only), 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20% minimum depletion before replenishments. Data were collected on growth, phytocompound concentrations, and yield of plant components. After harvest, storage experiments were conducted by placing the immature rhizomes in several temperatures and humidity combinations, washing levels, packing materials, with or without absorbent polymers Within the storage experiment, the longevity of storage, rhizome quality changes, and storage diseases were monitored. The effects of all treatments in trials were evaluated through statistical analysis. ☐ Results of production trials show the potential of baby ginger production in Delaware with an average potential of 40 tons ha-1 under greenhouse conditions, 30 tons ha-1 in high tunnels, and 22 tons ha-1 in open fields under high water availability. Water usage was lowest in hydroponics and highest in tunnels (76.4 and 665 liters/kg ginger respectively). Ginger greenhouse yield is optimized at EC 3 and pH 6. Phytocompound concentration was ordered as follows: immature rhizomes>matured rhizomes>leaves>pseudo-stems>roots. Shelf-life of baby ginger could be extended from 3 days to 42 days at 40C and 95% RH, with normal water wash. Dominant storage pathogens of ginger were, Rhizoctonia, Pythium, and Fusarium.
Description
Keywords
Baby ginger, Ginger, Immature ginger, Kratky hydroponics system, Phytocompounds, TPC and DPPH