BackgroundUnder natural conditions, ginger (Zingiber officinaleRosc.) rarely blossom and has seed, which limits new variety breeding of ginger and industry development. In this study, the effects of different photoperiods and light quality on flowering induction in ginger were performed, followed by gene expression analysis of flower buds differentiation under induced treatment using RNA-seq technology.ResultsFirst, both red light and long light condition (18 h light/6 h dark) could effectively induce differentiation of flower buds in ginger. Second, a total of 3395 differentially expressed genes were identified from several different comparisons, among which nine genes, includingCDF1,COP1,GHD7,RAV2-like,CO,FT,SOC1,AP1andLFY,were identified to be associated with flowering in induced flower buds and natural leaf buds. Aside from four down-regulated genes (CDF1,COP1,GHD7andRAV2-like), other five genes were all up-regulated expression. These differentially expressed genes were mainly classified into 2604 GO categories, which were further enriched into 120 KEGG metabolic pathways. Third, expression change of flowering-related genes in ginger indicated that the induction may negatively regulated expression ofCDF1,COP1,GHD7andRAV2-like, and subsequently positively regulated expression ofCO,FT,SOC1,LFYandAP1, which finally led to ginger flowering. In addition, the RNA-seq results were verified by qRT-PCR analysis of 18 randomly selected genes, which further demonstrated the reliability of transcriptome analysis.ConclusionThis study revealed the ginger flowering mechanism induced by light treatment and provided abundant gene information, which contribute to the development of hybrid breeding of ginger.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40529-023-00388-7.