TITLE:
Organic Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) Development in a Short Temperate Growing Season: Effect of Seedling Transplant Type and Mycorrhiza Application
AUTHORS:
Lurline Marsh, Fawzy Hashem, Brett Smith
KEYWORDS:
Seedling Transplants, Mycorrhiza, Organic Agriculture, Tissue Culture, Medicinal Plants
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.12 No.3,
March
19,
2021
ABSTRACT: Global warming and consumer
demand for medicinal plants present an opportunity to introduce ginger growth
to the US Delmarva Peninsula. High tunnel and field studies were conducted to
assess the development of organic ginger (Zingiber officinalis, Rosc) seedling
transplants in mycorrhiza-amended soil. Transplant types were
tissue culture derived with less than three tillers (TCS1), three or more
tillers (TCS2), and nontissue culture derived (NTCS1). Transplants were grown
with or without mycorrhiza (2.8 g per plant) in a split plot design with soil
amendments as main plot and transplant type as subplot. Data were collected for
air temperatures, plant height, tiller number, leaf chlorophyll index (LCI),
rhizome fresh weight, plant biomass, rhizome nutrients, and levels of As and
Pb. TCS2 transplants produced significantly higher, or trended to higher
rhizome yield than transplants with less than three tillers, except for year
two field study. The maximum rhizome fresh weight per plant was 648.3 g for
TCS2 in high tunnel in year one. Generally, TCS2 had most tillers throughout
the growing season ranging from 6.9 to 25.7 tillers per plant over three
studies. Mycorrhiza had no effect on ginger height, tiller number, LCI or
rhizome yield. Sustained high temperatures above 37°C, plus high light in the
field caused dieback and stunted shoot growth in year two. There were no
consistent effects of mycorrhiza or transplant type on rhizome nutrient
content. Content of total Pb, As and other elements were at safe threshold
levels for rhizome consumption. These results suggest that gingers grown from
TCS2 transplants with at least three tillers yielded more rhizome than those
grown from S1 transplants with fewer tillers. Introduction of ginger to a short
season region such as the Delmarva may require consideration of environmental
condition such as high temperature and light to which seedling transplants may
be exposed in summer.