Ginger · Osorno, Los Lagos Region, Chile
When to plant ginger in Osorno
Main outdoor window
25 Sep - 23 Oct
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
11 September
In Osorno, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
31 Mar - 30 Jun
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Osorno
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
17 Jul - 14 Aug
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant rhizomes
25 Sep - 23 Oct
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
31 Mar - 30 Jun
Ginger through the year
Against the frost risk in Osorno
Why these dates
Sprout the rhizome indoors eight weeks before the last frost and move outside two weeks after it. Young stem ginger can be lifted at six months; mature ginger needs the full season.
Killed at 0C and dormant below 15C. Harvest when the leaves yellow, which in a temperate climate means before the first frost rather than at true maturity.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Ginger are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Osorno.
The median frost-free season here is 266 days, against 240 to 300 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Osorno
Other vegetables to time
Growing ginger in Osorno
When should I plant ginger in Osorno?
Aim for 25 Sep - 23 Oct in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 21 Oct - 18 Nov - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will ginger be ready to harvest in Osorno?
Expect to start picking around 31 Mar - 30 Jun, based on 240 to 300 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will ginger tolerate?
Killed at 0C and dormant below 15C. Harvest when the leaves yellow, which in a temperate climate means before the first frost rather than at true maturity.