By "Tahitian Ginger", I assume you mean "Alpinia purpurata, Tahitian". Since you said you were in Hawaii, I'm also going to assume that you purchased one of those small rhizomes in a plastic bag that you see at the airport. On Alpinias, once a leaf turns yellow the leaf is a goner. So don't try to save individual leaves ... you'll lose. You need to be concerned with the rhizome / root-system. Your wife may be right, there might be some root rot going on. But you can't know for sure without taking it out of the pot. A healthy rhizome will appear white (once the dirt is washed off) below the soil line. If it's browm/black and gushy ... then it's rotting. Nothing you can do to reverse that. Look for new "eyes" emerging from the rhizome ... if you find any, then _that's_ what you have to concentrate on. Those eyes would be the next generation from your mother plant. For a potted Alpinia, make sure the soil is fast-draining. We use ProMix for our potted gingers. Hope this helps somewhat. -Ray

I grow both of them and a few other edible gingers in zone 7b (Raleigh NC). 2 by 2 is not much space. Neither of these plants gets very big above ground but you want lots of space under ground for the roots to spread out. I plant one root cluster every 2 feet in my garden. Turmeric can handle any amount of sun (as long as its watered) but root ginger does better in the shade for me. It takes about 265 days to get optimum flavor in the roots, so I plant the roots in March (indoors for my zone) and get them to sprout and then raise them as houseplants until the daytime highs are mostly in the 80's, then plant them in the garden. I harvest whenever the night time lows are predicted to get around freezing but anytime after Halloween will work. I can get most store bought roots to sprout but Turmeric can be tricky. I have had Turmeric roots take more than year before sprouting but most of the time they sprout in about a month. You can just lay them on top of the soil and watch for green tips to form, or plant them underground. If your yard never freezes you may be able to harvest root ginger throughout the year by just breaking off bits of root and leaving the plant in the ground. Root ginger grows right at the surface (Turmeric is underground).

Hi Daisy. Just saw these comments. A Philipino friend of mine gave me a cardamon plant years ago, I did not really nuture it until last year. I transferred it from a pot to the ground, fed it regularly with blood and bone and watered it religiously. It grew to around 5ft high and branched out somewhat. We've just entered into our late spring and I was outside this evening and noticed it has flowered on two branches much like your flowers. I'm pretty sure it is a genuine cardamon, as I also purchased a cardamon plant from our Diggers Club in Australia and it is identical to the one my friend gave me. I was stunned when I saw the flowers, as I thought they grew from the bottom of the plant. I'm hoping they will produce the familiar cardamon pods. I followed some of the youtube videos - which was rather difficult as they are all spoken in Indian - but learnt they cut off the lower leaves on the stems, which I did myself, in order to let the light and sun through the branches. I am delighted and thank you for sharing.

Wow, I love cardamom. I had no idea it was in the ginger family. I'll have to try my luck. I've watched videos on YouTube on how to use fresh turmeric root. In one video a chef simply used it by grating it like ginger. I think she added it to a smoothie. I purchased some fresh tumeric tubers from a market a few weeks back and layed them atop fresh soil in a large pot. They shoot up so much growth in no time! I was shocked.