Hawaii Farmers Find a Niche Market in Exporting Ginger Seed

In 2012, researchers from the University of Hawaii received a Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE) grant to promote farming practices that would help to control bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solancearum in edible ginger (Zingiber officionale). Bacterial wilt disease is the greatest limiting factor in the production of edible ginger with crop losses upward of 60%.  A major objective for this grant was to provide growers with bacterial wilt free planting material. Through the process of tissue culture, plantlets free of bacterial wilt were multiplied. These plantlets were then grown hydroponically in pots filled with clean media atop benches in order to maintain a bacterial wilt free environment. After harvest, DNA tests were performed on batch samples to assure no contamination had occurred.  Distribution of this bacterial wilt free planting material went out to growers who agreed to follow the recommended cultural practices. This program has led to a group of new ginger growers on Hawaii Island who have identified an emerging market for bacterial wilt free ginger seed rather than ginger for direct consumption. Mainland states including Alabama, California, Minnesota, Virginia, New York, and Oregon have found a demand for edible baby ginger as their shorter growing seasons preclude them from growing fully matured ginger for seed.  Hawaii has now become a source for edible ginger seed production in the United States.