[?], how to plant it

The Practical Planter

linger: Where to grow [?], how to plant it [?]nd how to cure it

his is the second in a series of rticles on spices. Other spices to be Dvered include chilli, cinnamon, 3ssia, vanilla and cardamom, iformation in this article was jpplied by the South Pacific Com lission and the British Government's ropical Products Institute, ray's Inn Road, London, WCI.

Ginger has been so popular for so long that mentions of it can be found in ancient Indian and Chinese literature. However, it wasn't until comparatively recently that the best ginger was produced. The ginger produced today in Jamaica is considered to be the finest in the world. Other varieties are grown in India, Africa and China, and ginger is now being grown in the South Pacific.

deduction of ginger in Fiji has reased in recent years. In 1966, produced 806,225 lb of ginger a * 1,523. (Jt this, 669,363, \u US; SUU lb, valued at £F4,023, went Canada; 4 8,726 lb, valued at [,v/v, went to JNew Zealand; and q? UC F5 ’ WCnt t 0 . .. m .° a according to a recent issue of the )k Islands News , “ginger ... is wn on a semi-large scale in uke for commercial purposes, and Iso seen in quantity in Mangaia”. s also grown in Rarotonga. ringer is produced from the

:iZI Tosl ™ rhizomes

j i i , . t reafy“shootlabL; n 1"f a t IS hSS; usut,y S Sct ab ftl 2 th f e t se h 'S ™ from cuttings of the rhizome

proftagTted'entirety btvegeTate

means, fertile seed is rarely produced.

The cultivated plant consequently shows little variation in botanical characters, and the various forms G f ginger which appear on the market owe their differences almost entirely to the methods of cultivation and preparation practised in the regions of P roductio n There are two main forms of ginger—the hard, peeled (usually). dried product, with a lot of fibre and pungency, and the popular preserved ginger in syrup, prepared from young, tender, succulent rhizomes, of fibre and only mildly pun- The youn 8 and tender rhizomes qfc 3,150 qo << oinapr in

°but most of this Sally

Hornes the raw materia, for pre*

served ginger in syrup—after the salt has been removed by boiling in water; it is also used directly in the manufacture of sauces and pickles.

Another version of ginger is the familiar sweetmeat, crystallised ginger, the result of taking the gmger-in-syrup process a stage further.

Most from Jamaica

Most of the world s dried ginger comes from Jamaica, India, Sierra Leon 1 f an< ? Nl ena - Preserved ginger, ? n u °- tf r ha • ’ 18 grown mainl y }? rich, moist, alluvial flats of W °' M gin F °! ‘j“ e s , u “ e t ? s f ul r cul . t i vation . of §ingcr, the essential climHtic rcouire ,men,s are a ««*. -infall and high

falMs"xg'tn..'andhf the ginger-grow

"if Ze ’resting

• Picture shows a consignment of green Fijian ginger being inspected before shipment to Vancouver.