Our research demonstrated micropropagated ginger helped solve seed ginger sourcing issue for this “niche” market crop. Traditionally, farmers would save ginger rhizomes from the previous year’s harvest, store over winter, and then use as seeds for the upcoming growing season. This research was to determine if micropropagated ginger generations would affect ginger growth and yield. We studied nine ginger cultivars (BB, BG, BK, CW, HY, MD, PY, KY, and KM) from various tissue culture (TC) generations (TCF1, TCF2, TCF3, and TCF4). TCF1 seedlings were initially planted (March 2023), and then transplanted with TCF2, TCF3 and TCF4 from previous years’ study, into individual grow bags (May 2023) with one seedling per 10-inch grow bag (2:1 metro mix:compost). Plants were placed on a bench inside a greenhouse with a completely randomized design (CRD) with 20 cultivar/TC Generation combinations, 5 replications per cultivar/generation. We collected growth data (stem number, diameter, length, and SPAD), yield data (number of rhizome pieces per seedling, weight of individual rhizome piece/finger, weights of biological root, edible root and total rhizome weight), and PAR of individual plants. Data was then analyzed using SAS OnDemand for Academics with PROC GLM at the 0.05 level of significance. There was a significant effect as the number of TC generations increased, with stem length (TCF1 – 91.8, TCF2 – 91.0, TCF3 – 103.5, and TCF4 – 101.5 cm) and stem diameter (TCF1 – 6.2, TCF2 – 6.4, TCF3 – 8.1, and TCF4 – 8.1 mm) increasing, while number of stems (TCF1 – 19.0, TCF2 – 18.3, TCF3 – 10.4, and TCF4 – 9.9) decreased on average. TC generations had significant effect on rhizome yield. Individual pieces of ginger rhizome decreased in number (TCF1 – 37.9, TCF2 – 31.1, TCF3 – 28.9, and TCF4 – 28.0) but increased in size (weight) (TCF1 – 12.3, TCF2 – 16.8, TCF3 – 25.4, and TCF4 – 23.1 g) as number of TC generations increased. Similarly, biological root weight significantly decreased (TCF1 – 175.9, TCF2 – 195.3, TCF3 – 42.0, and TCF4 – 52.9 g). Edible root weight significantly increased (TCF1 – 443.9, TCF2 – 460.6, TCF3 – 700.6, and TCF4 – 641.0 g). There was a slight upward trend of rhizome yield as TC generations increased (TCF1 – 619.9, TCF2 – 671.3, TCF3 – 761.2, and TCF4 – 709.5 g).
