USDA Certified Organic Ginseng Rootlets

[Michael]

I am considering producing USDA certified organic ginseng rootlets. I would sell them as year old rootlets. They would be grown in a greenhouse setting to allow for control of air flow as well as soil moisture to prevent/reduce fungal pathogen out breaks. My biggest concern is; is there a market for cultivated organic rootlets?   

Thanks,
Michael

[Brad]

Hi Michael, welcome to the site!

Personally, I think there might be, but not on a noticable scale.

There are several issues I think.  One, the value of ginseng traditionally is that it has grown in the woodlands very slowly.  Even producing raised bed roots -as I do in addition to my ther offerings- causes a decrease in market.  When you add the costs of greenhouse production and USDA organic certification, I wonder if it is a viable business model. 

When I sell my Select rootlets, they are grown in raised beds where I can better control disease and the soil conditions.  These make for bigger, healthier rootlets.  However, they will be planted into the woods or someone's flower bed in most cases, so a USDA certification might not be valuable.

I wish you the best of luck.  I've been wrong before!   

[tnginseng]

Michael,
From all that i have read about usda certification of ginseng, im not even sure where your market would be, One thing i noticed in the wording of the usda organic certification is that : fungicides/pesticides may be used on the crops up until 1 year from harvest or sale, so alot of people selling usda certified organic ginseng are actually using fungicides/pesticides on their crops for 3 or 4 years and are still able to label it as certified organic. The serious wild-simulated growers (thats where the money is right now),are for the most part buying the seed and planting it in a forest enviroment doing very little to the soil. I wish i had a better answer for you but i don't. I'm not trying to discourage you but in my opinion you should definately research this more.