Ginseng Forum
Ginseng => Cultivated Ginseng => : darren123 May 31, 2016, 11:32:47 PM
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If all I want to do is grow the biggest ginseng plants with large berry pods how often can I use miracle grow?
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Hi Darren,
Welcome to the forum.
I use all purpose Miracle Gro on my cultivated stuff and seed producers (not on SELECT roots). I normally use the all purpose miracle grow in the larger container. I put about a scoop/gallon and water it in sparsely no more than once per week, and much less often if we have had wet weather.
I would really recommend against adding additional nitrogen, however, as that tends to enhance the possibility of disease. That being said, the Miracle Gro I use is 28-8-16, but it is going into raised beds with no soil, just peat/sand/hardwood mulch mix. The decomposing hardwood seems to help tie up extra nitrogen also.
I don’t think you will see much difference this year. Greener, maybe. Next year is when you will see benefits from this year’s growing season. To give you some idea, I have two beds of 3 year olds. One bed was to be SELECTs and the second an experiment with straight cultivated. So that second bed got the Miracle Gro the first year. Both beds looked similar the first year and even the second year. However, it became evident that I had nematodes in those beds. Therefore, I refused to sell any of the affected roots. So, I started using the plant food on the second bed also about the beginning of their second year. Now, in their third year, I have mostly 3 prong plants with full flower pods in both beds. In the first bed, however, about 20% are 4 prong plants. The plants are also taller than the ones in the second bed which did not get feeding for the first year.
I know there were a couple others here who have experience with cultivated roots. Perhaps they will chime in also.
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Can you give me the recipe for your potting mix? How much sand, mulch and potting soil %. How much of each? And can you suggest a brand and type of potting soil?