Ginseng Stories

[JR PORTER]

I had a really nice guy send me a few seeds so I could try and get seng started on my farm.
I planted the seeds a couple years ago and nothing has come up yet.
I am still hoping sooo bad that something starts growing.

I’ve talked to others who say that it sometimes takes several years, I asked siri and she said 18 months. They don’t look like an adult plant when they first come up, they mostly only have a single leaf or two. BIL calls them “Lonies”.

 

[Onthedge]

Around my neck of the woods, 40 years ago you could find patches with 2 to 3 pounds of wet saign in em, any more your lucky to find half a dozen bunches together only one I've saw so far this spring.

 

[JR PORTER]

A few years ago my BIL and I decided to look alongside the RR tracks where years ago they had blasted the hillside and made a road for the tracks in the rocks, I found one growing out of one of the holes in the rock they had drilled for blasting. Thought I would never get that sucker out. Had to use my pocket knife and some small sharpened sticks to get down to it. Probably took me a half hour but it was worth it Another one that is tough is one that grows near the base of a big tree, those roots can be tough to dig by!

 

[JR PORTER]

Around my neck of the woods, 40 years ago you could find patches with 2 to 3 pounds of wet saign in em, any more your lucky to find half a dozen bunches together only one I've saw so far this spring. View attachment 112876

Saw several looking for mushrooms this spring! This is only one of several that I found! Looking forward to the fall! Might be a good year!

 

[JR PORTER]

Nice 4 prong growing about 100ft behind my house in the summer and then a picture of it in the fall.

 

[bigbonner]

Nice 4 prong growing about 100ft behind my house in the summer and then a picture of it in the fall.

I have some questions.
1 Does the stems look like mayapple stems?
2 Is the soil they grow in does it stay on the moist side or can they survive when the soil gets really dry?

I checked one of my spots a week ago and I couldn't see nothing. I need to make a trip to the other few places I put some seed and see if there is anything coming up there. If I find just one that comes up I will be happy.

 

[3PointSlayer]

I have some questions.
1 Does the stems look like mayapple stems?
2 Is the soil they grow in does it stay on the moist side or can they survive when the soil gets really dry?

I checked one of my spots a week ago and I couldn't see nothing. I need to make a trip to the other few places I put some seed and see if there is anything coming up there. If I find just one that comes up I will be happy.

Most usually on north or east side. If it’s store bought seed it probably won’t be up the year after you plant it. If you go in the woods in the summer look for areas that are darker in the afternoon

 

[3PointSlayer]

I’ve seen may apple stems that prong off but a lot just have a single stem. Any seng worth digging will have a stem that is has multiple prongs towards the top. Hope this helps

 

[bigbonner]

Most usually on north or east side. If it’s store bought seed it probably won’t be up the year after you plant it. If you go in the woods in the summer look for areas that are darker in the afternoon

I had pretty good advice and planted these on the North side and some on the Northeast side. The seeds are not store bought but acquired from a good source.
I think Fish and Wildlife should have a patch that they can gather seeds from and distribute seeds from like the tree seedling sales.
This way more Ginseng will be planted and have a better chance to multiply.

 

[JR PORTER]

#1 The stems are similar as when they die in the fall they don’t have anything sticking out of the ground, it’s not a “woody” stem. If you are digging them be careful or you can lose the location of the root.
#2 They will grow just about anywhere in the timber, the roots are pretty deep so drought doesn’t really affect them. Wherever you find bloodroot and yellow root you’ll usually find ginseng.

Look at the pictures of 2 I dug a couple years ago, see the long part of the stem on the top of the root. It gets a little longer every year when the stem falls off. It takes quite a few years to get big enough to dig.

 

[herbspeak]

I used to dig it and move it closer to my home and replant it in a place that already had ginseng growing, I moved at least 200 plus 4 and 5 prongs to my patch close to my home and a lot more 3 prongs over a 8 year period I was saving the patch to dig up and help expense an Alaska fishing trip when I hit the big 40. Well about 4 years ago the owner of the top of the mountain had the area logged and one of those loggers came onto my property and walked through the patch, I talked to him and told him this was not part of the top owners property and he shook my hand and left, 2 weeks after they where finished logging my patch was dug up out of season even the small ones.. I cannot say for sure it was that guy but that patch had been there for years and was never touched.

Yikes. Sounds too much of a coincidence; a lot of loggers are notorious for digging ginseng so I wouldn't be surprised... In any case, that's awful.

 

[herbspeak]

A few years ago my BIL and I decided to look alongside the RR tracks where years ago they had blasted the hillside and made a road for the tracks in the rocks, I found one growing out of one of the holes in the rock they had drilled for blasting. Thought I would never get that sucker out. Had to use my pocket knife and some small sharpened sticks to get down to it. Probably took me a half hour but it was worth it Another one that is tough is one that grows near the base of a big tree, those roots can be tough to dig by!

Interesting! I hadn't heard of it growing on rock like that before, can only imagine how tricky that was.