Ginger plant leaves not unfolding

Question

I have an Hawaiin ginger plant, grown from a cutting bought in Hawaii about one year ago. As you can see from the attached picture, one stalk of the plant has several leaves that are simply not unfolding like normal. What could cause this?

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Answer 1

There are a few things going on here.

I also use LED lighting, and a really powerful panel at that. Mine is equivalent to 750 watts, and will be easily overbearing to even high light plants. With this being said... Gingers of all sorts will need to acclimate to different light types. LED can be tricky to acclimate to.

With this, you will not want the plant to come within 3 feet of the panel if it is a top end panel. You can safely get within a foot with lower grade panels. Getting too close will burn plants, not with heat, but with light intensity.

The next thing that I notice is that the soil seems a bit wet. Because LED's do not emit near as much heat, you will need a fairly large amount of wind or blowing air to help evaporate the water faster. This can cause infections and symptoms like you are seeing to leave things too wet for too long.

For now, I recommend mixing some peroxide into water at 1/4 peroxide to 3/4 water. Use this to water once, and it will take care of anything bad growing in the soil.

Make sure to allow the top two inches of soil to dry out completely between waterings.

This article will give you more information: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/ginger/indoor-ginger-care.htm