When the weather outside is frightful, the potted tropical garden in your warm sun room or window reminds you that spring is not far away. Growing gingers as houseplants provides a breath of spicy fresh scent to brighten your day. The tropical gingers produce leafy stems that rise 2 to 4 feet above the flowerpot while the smaller wild and European gingers provide 8- to 12-inch mounds of foliage. While ginger plants are relatively simple to grow and have few pests, you may wonder why the leaf tips are turning brown.
Fertilizing your ginger plant regularly is necessary to replace the soil nutrients used as the plant grows. Fertilizers often contain ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate, which are salts. If you don't water thoroughly before and after adding fertilizer, the salts in the fertilizer may turn the leaf tips brown. In addition, fertilizer salts can build up in the soil. Placing the flowerpot in the sink, flooding it with water and allowing it to drain completely helps rinse the excess salts from the soil, saving your ginger's tender roots. In addition, if your home is equipped with a water softener, the added salts may also affect your ginger plant. Watering with rainwater or distilled water helps reduce the amount of salt in your plant's soil.
Lack of Water
Failing to maintain a consistent level of moisture in the soil can turn the ginger's leaves brown. Gingers prefer a moist, well-drained soil and high humidity. When the soil is allowed to dry completely out before watering, the leaves will turn brown and die. Meanwhile, dry air can suck the life out of your ginger. Indoor plants often suffer from the effects of central heating and air conditioning, which reduce the humidity in the air. A warm or cool steam vaporizer next to the ginger plant will increase the humidity in the room.
Tropical gingers such as common ginger (Zingiber officinale) and shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) prefer temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit to thrive. Common ginger thrives in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 through 12. Shell ginger can tolerate the cooler temperatures of USDA zones 8 through 11. Keep your ginger in a warm location and avoid placing it on or near air conditioning ducts where the cold air might blow on the plant. If the temperature drops below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the plant may go dormant. Its leaves will turn brown and die back as it prepares itself for winter.
Shade-loving gingers such as common ginger, North America's evergreen wild ginger (Asarum shuttleworthii) and European ginger (Asarum europaeum) are affected by direct sunlight. These gingers cannot tolerate intense sunlight. It burns the edges of the gingers' leaves, drying them out and turning them brown. Wild ginger is hardy in USDA zones 6 through 9 while European ginger prefers the cooler climates of USDA zones 4 through 8.
- Life on the Balcony: 3 Potted Plant Problems –- How to Recognize & Fix Them
- University of California, Davis -- Afghan Agriculture: Fertilizer Products
- Missouri Botanical Garden: Zingiber Officinale
- University of Florida Nassau County Extension: Herbs and Vegetables -- Ginger
- Missouri Botanical Garden: Alpinia Zerumbet
- Missouri Botanical Garden: Asarum Shuttleworthii
- Prides Corner Farms: Asarum Europaeum
- Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Getty Images