The Crop Calendar
Chapter 07
Ginger management is a sequence, not a list. This calendar assumes planting at monsoon onset (≈May in much of South Asia) — shift everything by your own onset date.
| Stage | DAP | Field operations | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-plant | −60 to 0 | Soil test · lime/solarize if needed · green manure in · seed lot purchased & stored · beds + drains formed | Seed lot moisture; drain outlets |
| Planting | 0 | Treat seed · plant 4–6 cm deep · full P + part N/K · mulch 10–15 t/ha | Wet planting days |
| Emergence | 10–25 | Gap-fill misses; keep mulch even; first light irrigation if dry spell | Uneven emergence = seed-quality alarm |
| Vegetative 1 | 30–45 | Hand-weed once; 1st N topdress + earthing-up begins | Shoot borer eggs/bores from ~45 DAP |
| Vegetative 2 | 45–60 | 2nd mulch (5–10 t/ha); 2nd N topdress; start weekly borer scouting; biocontrol releases (Trichogramma) where used | Borer leaf-flagging; early rot patches |
| Rhizome initiation | 90–120 | Final N topdress (by ~120); maintain K schedule; irrigation discipline tightens; drain channels recut | Moisture stress now costs finger number |
| Bulk filling | 120–200 | Weekly scouting; prophylactic fungicide rounds only on disease weather; keep mulch topped; stop N | Yld lesions, soft-rot smell after heavy rain |
| Green-ginger option | ~180 | Optional early lift for fresh market if prices and moisture favor | Fresh-market grades (Ch. 12) |
| Maturation | 220–270 | Stop irrigation; let tops yellow & fall; plan labor/dryer capacity | Monsoon tail — lift in a dry spell |
| Harvest | 240–270 | Lift, cure, grade (Ch. 12); select seed lot first | Skin damage; rain on lifted rhizomes |
The two hardest weeks: the first 10 days after planting (rot window) and the week after peak monsoon rain (rot window again). Schedule your presence — or your foreman's — around those two windows, not the easy ones.
Printable companion: the Weekly Field Checklist turns this calendar into a season-long tick-off sheet — set your planting date, it highlights the current week, ticks persist in your browser, and it prints as clean A4 field sheets.