growing site

[silverwolf2604]

I am new to the forum and will be planting ginseng....I found what I think is a suitable site on a friends land...I found companion plants of sarsparilla....fern....and bloodroot...the plot is fairly shaded with maple...some basswood...poplar...the drawback is the land is flat...you can see in heavy rain where the water pools...but the land has hundreds of little knobs about 2-3 feet high kinda grassy on the knobs....will a site like this work? any information appreciated.

[Brad]

Hi Silverwolf,

Welcome to the site.

Water pooling around ginseng is never a good thing.  Ever.

But, the higher spots sounds like they might work for you.  I would suggest you do a series of small test plots at first to test out the theory and see where ginseng will grow and where it won't before you invest in enough seed to plant the entire area.

[silverwolf2604]

I should have took a picture to post...My dad is a experienced hunter...and I described the area...i surely would not plant it in the spots where we see the water has pooled...but he said on top of those small humps it might grow...this wont be my only planting site...I plan on going where we used to hunt when I was a young boy..been doing alot of research...I have seen youtube vids of ppl finding it in many places from one guy digging up huge roots in fairly brushy places to a guy digging in a flat with fairly limited understory....my dad claims over the yrs he found it albeit in not large amounts in places you would never expect it to be...found it under every tree except spruce and balsam in our area...found it best under butternut and basswood stands....im gonna try test plots right in my yard ....one by a hemlock tree one by two white pine and one by a ash tree...the key im finding in my research is the right shade and right ph in the soil?...your thoughts?

[silverwolf2604]

i will get a picture to post here for you to view

[Brad]

I think right shade and right moisture is more important that pH as long as the pH is somewhat acidic  (4.5 to 5.5 or maybe as high as 6.0)  The other big thing is calcium.  Beyfuss recommends at least 2000 lbs/acre with magnesium in a 10:1 ratio with calcium, and Aluminum under 400ppb.

The other issue is your deer population.  If you plant where there are a lot of deer, the chances to grow a crop gets lower.

As I mentioned before, I'd not put a lot into it without test plots.  I wouldn't advise you to put many under the evergreens, as the root that comes from those areas is generally discolored and less desirable (if you can sell it at all).

[silverwolf2604]

[silverwolf2604]

here are some pictures i hope you can view them and tell me what you think

[silverwolf2604]

skip trying to view there was a error

[silverwolf2604]

here is the pictures tell me plz what you think by looking at the site

[Brad]

That's interesting.  I"ve never seen terrain like that before.  it looks to me like there might be a little too much light, but ginseng should grow there.  As I said before, the best way to find out is to put in some test patches.

[silverwolf2604]

hoping for the best...it is fairly shady....the understory is almost non existent....thank you for your input....i found bloodroot there....bloodroot is a fairly shade needing plant....am excited to try...gonna plant 100 seeds....i got over four thousand coming....any luck next june ill be posting pics of lil one dollar bills growing happily.

[Brad]

Awesome

[JWforestSeng]

Brad. this is bad news for me

I wouldn't advise you to put many under the evergreens, as the root that comes from those areas is generally discolored and less desirable (if you can sell it at all).

I also have alders mixed into my evergreen forests.  I sure hope I can find a site to try.

[Brad]

An evergreen now and then isn't a bad thing.  But down south they have red clay and red pines which stains the roots to a redish color and they are considered pickout and worth only 1/3 of going wild price.

The best way to see what you have is to try some test plots.  Also, keep in mind, this might not affect your sales of fresh roots.  You might find a buyer who doesn't really care about the color as long as the roots are essentially the same otherwise.  In the traditional eastern US markets, this is an issue though.

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