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Rhizome, storage duration, leaf spot, Ginger, rain forest Increased awareness of the economic, industrial and medicinal potentials of ginger has led to the increased production of the crop in Nigeria. Nigeria is now rated the 4 largest producer of ginger in the world with an estimated output of 90,000mt in 2001 and with an average production area of 174,000 ha representing 54% of the total world production area (Egunyomi, 2008). Like any other agricultural crop, ginger production in Nigeria has many challenges the greatest of which are the storage and disease problems (Onwualu, 2008).In South Eastern Nigeria, ginger is harvested between November and January and stored from then to May of the following year before being planted again in the field. Harvested ginger rhizomes are stored in small heaps under shade for 4-6 months after harvest depending on time of harvest. Many methods have been reported in the literature for the storage of ginger rhizomes. These include leaving matured rhizomes unharvested in the ground until needed; storage of rhizomes in big baskets covered with dry grasses; storage of rhizomes in small heaps under shade and burying in pits lined with dry grasses among others (Nnodu and Okwuowulu,1988). So far, no one storage method is adjudged the best as the efficiency of each method is relative (Akamine(1962).Ginger rhizomes if stored under ambient conditions dehydrate very fast after harvest due to its high moisture content which ranges from 70-80% and low relative humidity during the dry season (Vasundhara et al., 2008 . Ginger rhizomes while in storage also, undergo some physiological breakdown and rapid loss of weight due to dehydration, sprouting and rot as a result of microbial attack (Hamzaa,2001) thereby resulting in a reduction of the food reserve of the rhizomes. Rhizome losses as high as 70% of harvest have been reported in the literature due to microbial deterioration while under storage (Hamzaa, 2001).Since the size of the planted mother rhizome sett influences the multiplication ratio, yield and inflorescence bearing ability of ginger (Okwuowulu and Odurukwe 1988), physiological changes that impact on the size and food reserve of the rhizomes are bound to influence the agronomic performance of the subsequent ginger crop grown from it. The objectives of this study therefore, are: i.To establish the effect of rhizome storage duration on the field performance of subsequent ginger crop in a tropical humid rainforest zone of south eastern Nigeria.