The main contributor to poor and uneven germination particularly in the period up to mid-August is rhizome dormancy. This dormancy was shown to be substantially diminished by mild pre-plant drying of planting material for 7 days. However, although this treatment improves germination, it does not increase yield but rather has the potential to decrease knob size, shoot growth and possibly yield. This study was undertaken to examine shoot emergence in ginger. It examined the nature of rhizome endodormancy during winter and spring and the effects of storage conditions, planting piece mass and planting piece type.