When and How to Harvest Ginger: Baby, Mature, Storage

Harvest ginger when the plant is 8 to 10 months old, by digging up the whole plant, or lift young “baby” ginger earlier. Ginger is patient. The plant dies back with the onset of winter, and for a full crop you should expect most of a year between planting and digging. This guide covers when to go early, how to dig, what to do with the rhizomes and how to store them. It belongs to our main ginger growing guide.

When is ginger ready to harvest?

There is no single sign on the plant that says “now.” The sources work from age, and they agree closely:

• Texas A&M: the best time is when the plant is 8 to 10 months old.
• Penn State: it takes about 8 to 10 months from planting to harvesting the crop.
• University of Hawaii (CTAHR): mature ginger rhizomes can be harvested in about 9 months.

Count forward from your planting date. A rhizome planted in March is in range from roughly November to January, and a plant that went in during May reaches the same stage a couple of months later. Those month conversions are our arithmetic, not a quote from the sources. Penn State also notes that ginger goes dormant and loses all its stems with the onset of winter days, so a plant whose stems are dying back in fall or winter is telling you the same thing as the calendar.

Baby ginger versus mature ginger

Penn State says that if you start your ginger in early spring, it can be moved outdoors to harvest baby ginger or green ginger. That is the earlier option: you dig before the plant has run its full 8 to 10 months. Mature ginger is the full crop the other sources describe.

The extension sources do not describe the differences in skin, fiber, flavor or size between baby and mature ginger, or give a number of months for baby ginger, so we will not describe them here. If you want both, dig one plant early in the season and leave the rest to finish.

How to dig ginger

1. Pick your moment. Choose a plant that is 8 to 10 months old for mature ginger, or earlier for baby ginger. If you grow in pots, a bare pot in winter is the natural end of the cycle.
2. Dig up the entire plant. Texas A&M says ginger can be harvested by digging up the entire plant. Loosen the soil around the clump and lift the whole thing, or tip a potted plant out onto a tarp.
3. Remove the soil and stems. Shake off the soil and trim the stems. Our sources do not give a washing or drying step, so keep that simple.
4. Set aside seed pieces. Keep a few healthy rhizome pieces, each with growth buds, to plant next season. Healthy seed matters because infected seed pieces produce infected plants (CTAHR).

How to store fresh ginger

Texas A&M gives two clear numbers for unpeeled ginger: it keeps for up to 3 weeks in refrigeration, or up to 6 months frozen. Leave the skin on, because that is the condition those figures describe.

For rhizomes you want to hold until the next planting, Penn State suggests storing them in a brown paper bag in a cool, dry place. That is its advice for winter storage of rhizomes, and it keeps the pieces ready for planting rather than for the kitchen.

Our sources do not cover drying ginger, making powder or pickling, so we do not give methods for those here.

Planning your harvest around the weather

Put the pieces together and the plan is short. Plant in spring, which CTAHR places in March to May in Hawaii and Penn State places in early spring for container starts. Keep the plant growing through the warm months. If you live where frost arrives before the 8 to 10 months are up, bring pots inside before the first frost for larger rhizomes (Penn State), or dig the whole plant before the frost and accept that the rhizomes may be smaller.

What next

After harvest, you can start the cycle again with your best pieces; see how to grow ginger from store-bought ginger for the cutting and callusing steps. If you are also growing its relative, our turmeric harvesting guide covers digging when the leaves yellow and die back.