Red ginger (Alpinia purpurata) – best intercrop in plantation

Red ginger (Alpinia purpurata) belonging to the family Zingiberaceae is a popular cut flower and widely utilized in landscape horticulture because of its long attractive red flower bracts and lush green leaves. Partial shade condition is ideally suitable for red ginger and hence is best to be grown as intercrop in planation-based cropping system. The optimum temperature for growth and development of red ginger is 21 -35o C and hence humid tropics like Bay Islands are highly suitable. In partial shaded condition with light intensity of 13900 to 15700 lux resulted in round the year flower production with more number of flowers per plant. This shows that red ginger can be a potential intercrop in plantation-based cropping systems. Red ginger can be commercially propagated by division of clumps and off shoots. In coconut plantation with of spacing of 7.5 x 7.5 m, red ginger can be planted at spacing of 75 x 75 cm between two rows of coconut and by this method 5 rows of red ginger can be accommodated in between two rows of coconut. About 7100 red ginger plants can be accommodated per acre of coconut plantation. The rhizomes are planted at a depth of 7-10 cm and life irrigation to be given for rhizome sprouting. Flowers are harvested with long stalk of 50-80 cm length. The shelf life of harvested inflorescence is 2-3 weeks.

Benefit:The humid tropical climatic condition of the Island is highly suitable for cultivation of red ginger as intercrop in plantation based cropping system.

Source :Contact person with Name, Designation e-mail and phone no: Dr. V. Baskaran, Principal Scientist Email:V.Baskaran@icar.gov.in Phone: 9933292110