Ginger

Zingiber officinale is one of my absolute favorite spices. Ginger has a uniquely spicy and sweet flavor. Aromatic, pleasing, and just a beautiful plant to look at. It's also surprisingly easy to grow, and I will tell you how.

The part of the ginger plant consumed is the rhizome. A rhizome is a partially buried stem that acts like a food store for plants. The rhizome grows over the course of the year and is best harvested when the plant dies back. Ginger is related to galangal, tumeric, and cardamom. Though I haven't actually grown these spices, I imagine that the technique would be similar. If I get ahold of them then I will definitely try and pass on the knowledge.

So, how do you grow these roots? Well, it's probably easier than one would think. They're all native to Southern Asia and are used to warm, humid environments. Well, again, speaking just for ginger, I have had luck growing a tiny little rhizome (about 1 ounce) into a very large rhizome (about 1.5 pounds). I just picked it up from a local grocery store, planted it in potting soil with a tiny mix of compost and put it outside during the summer. It shot up two leaf stocks and put on size until about October, when I brought it in. Its leaves died back and I kept it in over winter. I put it back out in April (which was a mistake) and it sprouted in July. I didn't harvest it the first year, but will be harvesting this year once it dies back. My recommendation for selecting an appropriate rhizome would be to look for one that doesn't have any large cuts or blemishes. Make sure it's not dried or cooked, it should be firm to the touch, not soft or flexible. I also recommend buying organic. This is for two main reasons; organic food is awesome (yes, I will do an entry as to why it is) and because I seem to have better luck growing seeds and roots/rhizomes/etc. from organic sources.

Ginger likes full sun, so try to give it 6+ hours of direct light a day. Water it normally, it seems to be pretty water tolerant so don't really worry about overwatering. Just water it like any other garden plant. For the Willamette Valley, where I live it seems to like to sprout around the beginning of July, so I'd say plant it in June (The valley is USDA zone 8). I think if you lived in a warmer climate you could probably put it out earlier. Although the plant will grow up to about a meter under good conditions, in my 3 gallon pot it tops out around 60 cm. Both years it's sent up two leaf spikes.

It grows reasonably fast, no pests that I've noticed. But one thing I'd love to see are ginger flowers. I have yet to get my root to do this for me. I have a feeling that the climate just isn't right to get it to flower. If I ever have any breakthroughs I'll post my findings.

Review-

Ginger (Zingiber officinale):

Soil: Potting soil with some compost.

Light: Full sun (6+ hours a day); grow outdoors.

Water: Water the same you would any other temperate plant in your garden.

Planting: I'd say the beginning of June in Zone 8; it will sprout in early July.

Pests: I haven't really seen anything bother it.

Harvest: Once the leaf spikes has died back.

Next week: My opinion on the Oregon Cannabis Act

Vanilla II

There are a few reasons why vanilla is so expensive. Perhaps the absolutely largest reason is that vanilla orchids are hand pollinated. When the flowers bloom you have a 12 hour window in which you can pollinate. Take any longer than that and the bloom will wilt and die. Part of the reason for hand pollination is that the only pollinator for the flower is native to only Mexico. Even then, the bee only pollinates about 1 in 100 flowers, so to keep production up, you need to hand pollinate. Another reason is that a vine typically only produces about 100 beans per growing cycle. The fruits take about 7-8 months to fully mature plus another 7 or so months to cure the bean. These factors really drive the price up.

So, maybe it's time to grow your own? Well, perhaps so. Unlike my adventures with wasabi, vanilla has proven itself as one of the most robust and quick growing orchids I have ever had the pleasure of growing. The initial investment is high due to the demand for this plant, so expect to pay about $30-40 for it, probably plus another $10-20 for shipping. I have two plants, both Vanilla planifolia (which isn't the only type of vanilla, but is the most common variety in production), one of them being a 'variegata'. The variegata has light green to white stripes down it's leaves, as opposed to the solid green of the more commonly grown commercial variety. The variegata arrived at the beginning of summer, started off at the height of about 1.5 feet and over the course of the last 3 months has put on over 2 feet of growth! I was completely thrown by this. All of the orchids that I've ever grown grow slowly. Putting on a new leaf over the course of a month. Slow and steady. The vanilla orchid puts on nearly a centimeter a day! I'm not fertilizing it either! I am just completely amazed by it's growth.

So, lots of vegetative growth is great, but what about the flowers? Well, vanillas tend to flower in the spring, and although their native climate and habitat of Mexico is different from Oregon, it still has a seasonal variance, so I have a feeling if I can get it to flower, it'll be after the decrease in light and cooler temperatures of winter. So definitely keep your eyes open for more posts about vanilla in the future.

So here are my recommendations for growing vanilla in the home (based on personal experience and research):

Vanilla likes lots of bright indirect light and/or dappled light. I have it in a west facing window that gets between 4-7 hours of direct sun a day (depending on the time of day). If I'm home during the day I leave the blinds open for direct light and then close them to let in slits of light as the direct sunlight starts coming in the window.

For water, I follow the same watering system as I do for my other orchids. When the soil is mostly dry (use your fingers to touch and see) get it watered and soaked. Make sure that you allow the water to drain out fully. If you have a shallow tray underneath the pot, you can leave some water, but be very careful about having too much. Orchids like humidity, but if you keep their root system too wet it can lead to fungal infections. That being said, the roots of vanilla orchid grow out of the stem, they use them as holdfasts to whatever plant or structure you have set up for them. I tend to spritz them with a spray bottle a couple times a day. This helps keep them hydrated, and since this water evaporates quickly it's not water-logging them.

You'll need to give them a structure to climb. Vanilla cannot support it's own weight and grows benignly up the sides of a host tree in nature. I have bamboo poles that I have scoured with a table knife to allow the roots to more easily attach to them. They're 1cm in diameter and about 6 feet tall. Vanilla will grow to 15 feet and up if you let it, but you can come up with creative ways to grow it to mitigate it's size. Keep this in mind if you plan on growing it. My oldest is currently about 4.5 feet tall, but as the days are getting shorter it's growth is slowing.

For soil I have a mix of orchid potting bark, orchid potting soil mix, and sphagnum peat moss. I tend to be somewhat inexact while I mix, but if I were to be nailed down for a ratio I'd say 2:2:1 bark:soil:sphagnum peat. Mix them thoroughly.

Vanilla isn't too hard to care for, but it's size can make it a tad difficult. Also keep in mind that orchids can be alittle finicky when it comes to light and water.

There are several nurseries with online storefronts that sell vanilla; my personal recommendation would be to hop on Google and search for “Vanilla Planifolia”. They aren't too hard to find, but like I mentioned earlier, expect to drop about $60 when everything is said and done for a plant.

Next week: Ginger

Week after that: My opinion on Oregon's Measure 80; The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act

Vanilla I

I love pineapple, I love ginger, vanilla, chocolate, and many other tropical and subtropical plants, edible and decorative. But there is a big problem for the grow at home gardener in much of the United States, we just don't have the right climate. So is there any hope? Any chance of having fresh and local bananas in Oregon? Yes, there is, but on a very small scale. That being said, in urban gardening, you don't generally have a lot of room to begin with. Over the next few weeks, with one or two exceptions, I will be focusing on growing tropicals in temperate climates (like Oregon).

So, to start us off today, vanilla (Vanilla planifolia, V. spp.). The first tweet I ever made chronicled the origin of the word “vanilla”, something that I hope everyone will always remember (mostly because I find it amusing). It comes (through Spanish) from the Latin word “vagina”. Vagina, in Latin means “sheath”, and in this case, it's in reference to the pod being a sheath to the seeds, from which the flavor we know as vanilla comes from. Vanilla is the third most expensive spice in the world with prices generally floating around $60 per pound (~130USD/kg).

I am reminded of when I wanted to try vanilla when I was little. My mom would often use vanilla flavoring for baking in cakes, and I want to emphasize the word “flavoring”. Vanillin, the chemical that we all recognize as vanilla's flavor, is easily created in a laboratory, and often is for cost reasons. She, to this day, believes that vanillin from a bottle is what vanilla tastes like. She told me that it was awful and disgusting, that she had tried it when she was little, and that I would dislike it. She was right, it tasted awful, but not because vanilla is gross, but moreso because vanilla extract is kinda awful tasting. To get the extract you usually put the pods, after you've removed the seeds, into a strong, flavorless alcohol. The flavor is maintained, but you also get the alcohol, and depending on what kind it is and the quality, it can vary the flavor of the extract. The vanillin in a bottle is more or less the same thing: laboratory flavoring suspended in alcohol.

I tried, for the first time, true vanilla a few months ago. The seed paste has a earthy and vanilla-y flavor. It's really good, and despite it's high cost per pound, the price per bean is reasonably low since each bean only weighs a fraction of an ounce. The best price I've seen is from New Seasons Market, who generally prices at about $1.70 per bean. These are Madagascar vanilla beans. They have an excellent flavor, though I've been told that Mexican beans have the best flavor, due in part to Vanilla being native to Mexico. Beans from the homeland will generally cost you more. For native beans, I like purchasing from Penzey's Spices, which will run you about $2.60 per bean.

Commercially the biggest exporters of vanilla are Mexico, Madagascar, Indonesia, and China, however they are not the only exporters. I have heard from a friend who traveled in Mexico and South America that the plantations there have armed guards to protect the fields. It is a very valuable crop. For anyone wanting to grow it, it could potentially be a very lucrative business. But there are reasons why it's so expensive.

And they are... going to be described in my next write-up, as well as details about my own attempts at vanilla cultivation. Have a wonderful week everyone!

For a great information on vanilla, check out Wikipedia's page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla